Last night at ~ 8PM I took my wife RuthAnn and our best friend Mary Brogan, to JFK for their flight to Paris, and a month long "Bucket List" immersion ! I spent the night at my daughters in RVC, and then started my "Complete Month of May Birdathon" at Hempstead Lake State Park at 8AM, in the company of many of the HLSP regulars, including members of the South Shore Audubon, on their regular Thursday field trip It was a fairly quiet day for birds, but this didn't stop this fairly quiet (not) group of birders from picking up a number of "first of the season birds", while having a most enjoyable outing ! While doing the circuit, the group was in state of flux, splitting up, coming together, with the sizes of these splits constantly changing - I found these dynamics delightful, ie, I had the pleasure of catching up with old friends Doris & Joe Grupp, who I hadn't seen or spoken to, in quite awhile.FOS birds for me were: Great-crested Flycatcher; E.Kingbird; Warbling Vireo.
A segment of the above group then went to the Oceanside Marine Nature Preserve. FOS birds here for me were: Tri-colored Heron; Green Heron; Peregrine Falcon; Forster's Tern; Roseate Tern. Just before leaving OMNP, a post came through re: a Prothonotary Warbler sighting at The Muttontown Preserve in E.Norwich., which a # of us decided to chase - it had not been re-found by the time I left. Heading home to Riverhead, the thought of a possible "lingering" Prothonotary at Cranberry Bog County Park enticed me into thinking positively. While that dream didn't materialize, I did get a single Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk and E.Phoebe at that location. The day ended up at the North Fork Preserve, Jamesport, when I met Tom Moran there at ~ 4PM. At that hour it was fairly quiet, but we did get a FOS House Wren. Today was a nice start to what I'm hoping is a month to remember ! Cheers, Bob -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
