Although I have not had a lot of opportunities to bird this year, I have been under the impression both from my own casual observations and following the listserves that this has been an outstanding migration season. Ne-c'est pas?
--Fred-- Fred Baumgarten Westchester, NY/Sharon, CT and points in between [email protected] On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 12:40 PM, Shaibal Mitra <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi Andy and all, > > > > I would guess that your impressions this spring have been shaped by a > couple of important factors. Where you live on eastern Long Island is an > area where passage migrants are usually scarce under any but the most > extraordinarily fortuitous circumstances, but where modest breeding > populations of many Neotropical migrants live. Thus, the usual experience > of a migration watcher in your area is a fairly steady procession of > arrivals of breeders that is only weakly correlated with the details of > daily weather, plus a small number of widely spaced encounters with modest > numbers of passage migrants. > > > > Forest Park is utterly different, of course. For a variety of geographical > reasons, it hosts huge but highly variable numbers of passage migrants, but > relatively few breeders. Thus, it is possible to have great days there > (like your first visit) and dismal days there (like your second). The > “quality” of migration there, at least in its broad outlines, is strongly > influenced by weather but perversely inscrutable in its details. It is > probably the resulting pattern of aperiodic reinforcement that makes so > many New York City birders seem a little odd to us Long Islanders. They > generally know when it is going to be a good day versus a poor day, but > they are almost never able to distinguish the extraordinary ones from the > merely excellent ones in advance. And similarly, although it is usually > possible to guess when a day will be poor, it is exceedingly difficult to > know in advance whether it will nevertheless yield a small set of rich > surprises or be absolutely punk. > > > > Perhaps this is the foremost thing that makes bird migration so appealing: > its astonishing predictability at one scale (e.g., the remarkable > uniformity in arrival dates for many species from year to year), in > combination with its utter cussedness and intractability in terms of > foretelling exactly where and when large, easily observed concentrations of > migrants might be observed. The fact that a birder could go to one of the > best migration traps in the state on a date within the period of heavy > overall migration during one of the best springs in memory and see almost > no migrants at all, although understandably frustrating, is also inspiring > in the sense that it hints at the mysterious forces motivating all the > birds that were there just before that day, and those that will be there > again on a few more good days this spring. > > > > The overall factors influencing the timing and spacing of migration had > been explained fairly well by the late 50s and early 60s. Curiously, it is > my impression that only very minor improvements to those old rules of thumb > have been achieved since, even though the challenge has continued to grip > practically everybody’s attention, and despite the diverse and increasingly > sophisticated technologies that have been brought to bear on the problem. > > > > Shai Mitra > > Bay Shore > ------------------------------ > *From:* [email protected] [ > [email protected]] on behalf of [email protected] [ > [email protected]] > *Sent:* Monday, May 26, 2014 12:21 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [nysbirds-l] Birding at Forest Park, Queens County, LI, NY > > Traditionally Forest Park has been one of the better places to see > migratory birds in May. I did see quite a few two weeks ago, > including quite a few warblers,when I visited the fresh water ponds, > where the birds visit and one can usually see them up close and get nice > pictures. > > I thought I would take the opportunity of the long weekend to drive in > from Westhampton LI, on Sunday since I figured the car traffic would be > low, with fewer cars in the middle of the holiday weekend, (It usually > takes 1 1/2 hours or more to drive in and more to return East.) > > I was right about the traffic,I made great time to get there and return. > However the birds were very sparse. I saw only one warbler (Water thrush) > and did not get a decent look either. Only bird worth mentioning was a > immature Red Tail Hawk, who spent hours there, even taking a bath before > going back to roust up in the trees. > > This concerns me because I understood that the migration was later this > year because of the cold spring, and we could expect greater migration > later. But, > based on my observations so far, the bird migration is way off in numbers > this year. > > I would appreciate some comments on this (and maybe suggestions). > > Andy Murphy > > > > > ------------------------------ > CSI Represents NY in Nationwide State Rankings. 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