why??

http://www.wimp.com/weirdbird/

Mecox, Wednesday

Seen on the flats at Mecox this afternoon trying to blend in with the gulls. Two Royal terns, a Caspian tern and the flock of Black Skimmers were also present.

Today, September 27 i took a trip to cavits cove in montauk. I spotted many gulls but could not specify the exact species. A few birds i could spot were a horned grebe which is a duck-like bird. It consists of a reddish neck an black cheek. The bill is short and very thin. Another bird i spotted and could identify was a Black & White Warbler. This is one of the many species of warber, the only difference is this one is very small. The colors consist of black and white striped plumage and a striped crown. this bird was spotted right outside my house which makes me think it is a very common bird to be seen in the northeast region of long island. As well as spotting these birds i happend to spot a house wren. This bird can mainly be found in places were people are, such as small towns, garages, nestboxes and even your house. This bird is very small and compact and has a very short wingspan. this birds primary food is insects that it comes across while patrolling the ground. Its nape to rump is a dark brown and from its auricular down through the throat and to the bottom of its belly is a light auburn color.

Use to understand vocabulary: http://greennature.com/gallery/bird-pictures/bird-anatomy.gif

Birdwatching September 25th

Today we went to Sag-Main and Mecox bay. There were some very interesting and rare birds scattered in the masses at both beaches. My personal favorite siting of the day was probably the Skimmers and the Caspian Terns. We also saw a Belted King Fisher sitting on a power line across from where we were observing at Sag-Main. The rarest find of the day was a Prothonotary Warbler. There were a large amount of guls and

Second Weekend

This weekend I was on the hunt... not really, of course. On my rounds this weekend I went to a farm next to a sod farm, which was covered with what seemed like thousands of Starlings (It was like something out of the horror story "The birds". They were pitch black with tiny little specks of white. Mixed in with them were what I personally think we American Crows (all black birds that looked exactly like crows and were a little larger than the starlings). On main road in Jamesport, there is a large pong with a pair of swans residing in it, AND a very large blue/gray bird with long legs that was just wandering around in the grass on the edge of the pond... I think its a great blue herring. As usual I was serenaded by a screech owl... its finally nice to know what is making that noise, as well as what I still believe to be a Whippoorwill. And on the North Sound ferry this evening, I noticed three different Gull's. One was all white with some sharp gray on its wings, another was white with brown on its back and wings, and the third was white with a really dark gray color on its wings... all had dark coloration on their tails. I didn't see the hawks though, which was rather odd, but what ever, they prob made like birds and flew away

First weekend

My first weekend of bird watching was, for lack of a better word, boring. For some odd reason, it seems that my area is experiencing a great absence of birds. Anyhow, I did take note on a few unmistakable birds, which no matter what the condition, seem to take refuge around my house. The first of which, a set of around three eagles, I see almost every day. They have white bellies so they are rather difficult to spot when just scouting the sky, but their sound is unmistakable… it strikes fear into the hearts of my bantams hens. The second bird I noticed rummaging through a pile of leaves in a windbreak I identified as a robin (red/orange breasts, yellow beak, dark grey back and wings). Sunday afternoon our riding ring was ‘mobbed’ by a set of 5 sparrows who, I suppose, were feasting on any possible seeds or bugs that we being churned up with the soil. They were small and dusty tan coloured, with lighter coloured under bellies and only about 3-4 inches long. The last bird I took note on was a male cardinal. Just perched on our fence, minding its own business like birds usually do. I can’t wait our feathered friends of the sky migrate so I can see something different ☺

Sunday Birding (me, myself and a birdguide)

Today I went to Wiborg Beach, which is near my house at around 3:15 to 5:20.
I walked along the dunes, then in the middle of the beach, then near the water. Over the course of two hours, I saw 3 different birds that I tried to carefully classify.
My research led me to believe I saw piping plovers, sanderlings, and caspian gulls. If my assumptions are correct, I am quite proud of the progress I am making. I am excited for my first group birding excursion, because reading the other blog entries is making me jealous as to how many birds everyone is getting to see!

Sept. 25 field trip

PROTHONOTARY WARBLER citing at mecox bay! For all us novice ornithologist, seeing the prothonotary warbler excited us, but didn't have quite the ornigasmic effect it did for the BIRD DOCTOR. Doc ecstatically responded to the citing of the bird, only having seen it one or two other times on the eastern end of long island throughout all his birding career. Prothonotary Warblers are brilliant little yellow birds with grayish wings. Their common inhabitants usually starts around 200 miles down south from long-island. A loud, ringing "tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet" all on one pitch alerted doc to the extraordinary bird in the area. Unfortunately they are becoming more and scarce as their wetland and swamp habitat are being diminished (cornell birds). It was quite the compelling bird and added a zingy punch to our trip.

We watched 104 skimmers some of which were sleeping (looking completely dead)

Around 9 confused blue jays try to find there path south

A badass male belted kingfisher in the distance (males lack a rufous band)

an incredible about of black bellied plovers (100+)

great egrets (but turns out their not so great to watch)

snowy egrets (smaller than the great ones but way cooler with their yellow feet)

Since I missed the bird watching trip this morning, as soon as I got home this afternoon I went out around the field to see what I birds I could spot. Besides the obvious amount of canada geese that practically never leave the vineyard, I saw an American Robin run across the field before taking off and flying away. It was somewhat easy to identify the harsh and slightly obnoxious call of multiple Blue Jays. There were also two Red-tailed hawks circling and flying around near the back of the field.

Ornithological experience

On our trip to sagg pond and mecox bay, curtesy of the good Doctor, i was able to recognize a variety of birds, including several Rynchops nigers and many different kids of plovers. As we arrived in the Sagg Main Beach parking area my heart skipped a bit. My toes tickled with ornithological excitement at the prospect of viewing potentially rare birds. We were greeted by two species of Gull, one a ring billed gull, identified by the black ring on its bill. and proceeded to the sand spits for optimal bird appreciation. after identifying 3 species of plover and a few different gulls out of the near million clustering on the spits and due to the heat we packed up in style and went to mecox bay, where we really got some goodies. At Mecox, we saw a few snowy egrets, and the blazing beaked caspian tern! The greatest spots of the day were a small, but lively belted kingfisher and an extremely rare Prothonotary Warber!

Good morning

Out of the many birds that I saw, and heard, through out the weekend the most impressive bird I was a large Great Egret hanging around 3 mile harbor salt marsh. The Great Egret was catching small killifish in the marsh and proceeded to stand at the end of a dock for a few hours before flying off.

Mecox and Sagg Main Birding Trip.

I had very high expectations for this birding trip, and I was not disappointed. We ventured to Sagg Main beach and Mecox bay to look for shore birds, and they were plentiful. We spotted semipalmated plovers, piping plovers, golden plovers, killdeer, some terns, ring billed gulls, caspian gulls, laughing gulls, cormorants, skimmers, great egrets, snowy egrets (with their yellow feet), and blue herons. Seriously, it was a lot of birds. We were also visited by an osprey and a northern harrier hawk. Sharp-eyed Gabby spotted a belted kingfisher across the bay, and it had a super cool head. I really liked the semi-confused flock of migrating blue jays that were floating around, but I was most impressed with Doc's reaction to the prothonotary warbler. It was a pretty cool bird, and I was feel privileged having seen it.

Saturday, September 24 --Sagg; Mecox

Visited Sagg Pond and Mecox today. At Sagg there was an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER, associating several other Black-bellied Plovers. Als, present, many Killdeer, a Black Skimmer, 4 Greater Yellowlegs, many Sanderlings, FORSTER'S TERNS, a Royal Tern, a Green Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron (4), Black-crowned Night-Heron, and some Laughing Gulls along with Herring, Great Black-backed and Ring-billed Gulls. There was a female Belted Kingfisher seen from Bridge Lane.

At Mecox the number of Skimmers remains high (I counted 114), but not as high as Hugh's earlier count of 145.

The 2 MARBLED GODWITS remain. I don't recall ever seeing Godwit's quite so close. Very nice.

2 Short-billed Dowitchers; 4 or 5 American Golden Plovers; numbers of Forster's Terns, along with some Common Terns, 2 ROYAL TERNS, 2 CASPIAN TERNS. Also present: Sanderlings, Semi-Palmated Sandpipers, Semi-Palmated Plovers, and the expected gulls.

Marbled Godwit, Mecox

Wednesday, September 21

There were two Marbled Godwits on the shrinking flats at Mecox at noon today. A Caspian tern was also present..

September, 20th 2011

Although there are slim pickings in my neighborhood after soccer practice, I was able to catch sight of a few noticeable air-based life forms. In the time that I was watching, I was able to catch sight of a few birds. the recognizable cry of what I think was A Herring Gull alerted me of its presence. Also I saw a blue jay which was easily recognizable by its plumage.

Montauk Wheatear yes

Just being back from a week in Brooklyn, I'm probably the last East End birder to see the Northern Wheatear but see it I did (whew!) today, Tuesday, at 2:15.

It was on the fence that runs east-west, just north of the TR park cabins, and on the piles of wood chips at the west edge of the pasture that is north of the cabins.

Also seen, ominously cruising the pasture, were a Merlin and a Kestral...

Bob Wilson

Plovers at MECOX

Since I would rather not be trite and repeat everything Noah said about about field trip today, I will share something else that I found particularly interesting from today.

We saw three different plover's today: the black bellied, the american Golden Plover and the Semipalmated Plover. At First it seemed an impenetrable precess to differentiate the more common black bellied plovers from its less common cousin, the golden plover. However as I become more familiar using the bird watching equipment and field guild, I came to a understanding.

Both Mature Black bellied and Golden plover's have black bellies, which tends to make identifying them as a novice ornithologist quite difficult.

Some Tips that helped me:

American Golden-plovers tend to be the smaller species of plovers. They lack white rumps and while in flight you can see their black armpits. Juvenile golden-plovers have a distinct dark cap and debatably more golden. In Bleeding plumage their black belly extends farther to the tail.

9-18-11

I was brokenhearted to be unable to attend my first official birdwatching experience this weekend (I missed you too, Noah), but solitary and guide-less I made do with the internet and the avian populations inhabiting the tree farms surrounding my house. American robins, both male and female, were plentiful, and I was pleased to be able to recognize their call. Large and intimidating American crows were also present, perched high up in trees with grating voices and judgmental eyes. My favorite spotting was was a downy woodpecker on the side of a pine tree. This weekend was a nice start, and I hope to be able to join a proper trip soon.

Hook Pond/ Main Beach

I didn't have much time to bird, but my sister and I took a quick trip to Hook Pond and Main Beach this afternoon. We walked up the dunes to view the ocean and beneath us were about 100 lounging gulls. Among the gulls were four large terns -- Caspian Terns. There were also 5 Laughing Gulls and a few Ring Billed Gulls among 90 to 100 Herring Gulls. It was a great chance to compare gull sizes, and to look at large terns next to the gulls.

Birding at Mecox

Despite Julia Lewis not showing up to our bird expedition, our trip to Mecox was an all around successful trip. By picking up fellow birder Sam Kramer we were able to move on from our loss and have a great morning of bird watching. Unfortunately when we got to Mecox we discovered that the combination of dog walkers and parents with naked kids had chased quite a few of the birds from shore. However there were still enough birds hanging out on a near shoal to make for a successful trip. In total we saw around 20 different species of birds. Out of all the birds we saw here are a few that really stood out:

-Osprey

-American Golden Plover

-Black Skimmer

-Royal Tern

-Sanderling

-Tree Swallow

9/18/11

I saw a two barn swallows fly around the winery this afternoon. I also spotted a few Tufted Titmice along with a very fat Dark-eyed Junco. There were other birds flying around but I wasn't able to identify them because I don't have my field guide yet.

I heard and was able to identify the calls of a bluejay and a northern cardinal after listening to the calls on the Cornell site. I also saw many many tufted titmice a few black capped chickadees and a bird that i could not identify. It was hard for me to get good pictures of the bird because i do not have a good camera. regardless of camera quality i did get some photos, but blogger will not let me upload them.

I have a picture of an interesting black bird from Nicaragua that I took right outside the house I stayed in, however, it can not be put up because Blogger is giving me issues.

I went outside yesterday and took a walk at around 7 PM. I heard a lot of different birds, but didn't really see any. I will try to identify the sounds later (still waiting for my bird guide).

A Quick Trip to Montauk

Before I met the Ornithology class for a field trip to Mecox Bay, I ran out to Montauk to get a look at the NORTHERN WHEATEAR. When I arrived, Ken Fuestel and Mike Higgiston were watching the bird and I walked right up and was treated to a full-field view in Ken's spotting scope. I proceeded to watch the Wheatear for about an hour. It spent most of the first half hour on the ground, often standing atop the numerous piles of cow dung. It then flew about 50 meters giving excellent views of its "white arse." As I was leaving Bobby Rosetti and Dave Klauber arrived, and I was able to repay my debt by having the bird in my scope when they arrived. I should point out that this is only the third Northern Wheatear that I have seen on Long Island in 44 years of birding.

I went to the pasture south of the road where I searched in vain for a Yellow-headed Blackbird in a flock of about 150+ Common Grackles.

Despite the 15 mph east winds, the field trip to Mecox was a great success birdwise, but was a disappointment in that only two students showed up. We were also joined by Sam Kramer. The low attendance was also unfortunate because we saw several species that we will probably not see again during the course because they will have migrated south. I will let the students report on the birds seen at Mecox.

THE NORTHERN WHEATEAR

It was really exciting and fun to find a Northern Wheatear this morning at Theodore Roosevelt County Park. It wasn't my first Northern Wheatear, but it was the most exciting. It's the first one I've seen in the United States, and I found it myself (that always makes a bird extra-special!)

Here are some Wheatear photos (not my photos): http://www.galleryofbirds.com/Europe/Northern%20Wheatear.htm

but go down to the sixth picture to get an idea of what the bird in Montauk looks like. It was probably a female or a first-year male bird.

Later in the day we also saw a Green Heron, a couple of Blue-headed Vireos, a Prairie Warbler, 3 Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Holy Crow! NORTHERN WHEATEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Ross Birders,

Karen Rubinstein just found a NORTHERN WHEATEAR (a European Thrush) at Theodore Roosevelt Co Park in Montauk. The bird has been on the hillside to the west of the pond that is north of the horse barn at Deep Hollow Ranch (to the east). If you are in Montauk, you should go look for this bird.

Hello all.  Spent some time at Montauk Pt. yesterday morning.  A few Common Loons passed heading west.  A large flock of terns and gulls were well off the point feeding at the tidal rips.  The movement of song birds was fairly slow.  Notwithstanding, I observed a Merlin, a  Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 4 Scarlet Tanagers, a Baltimore Oriole, a Northern Waterthrush. A number of warblers arrived off the ocean but disappeared into the shrubbery too quickly for identification.

It was a beautiful morning.  I am sure this morning will be as well.

Stony Hill Trail

I took a brief walk along the Stony Hill Trail this morning in search of warblers and other migrants. Along with large numbers of American Robins and Blue Jays and other resident birds, we found 2 American Redstarts a Northern Parula, and an Eastern Phoebe. Had hoped for more after the northwest winds last night.

Thursday Evening @ Mecox

After school on Thursday (15 Sep) I snuck down to the Mecox cut for about 15 minutes of birding on my way home from a food run to King Kullen. The flats have shrunk considerably, but there was still a good variety of birds present.

The highlight for me were the 145 Black Skimmers, almost all of which were birds born this past summer. In addition I also saw 1 Royal Tern, 4 Black Terns, and about 15-20 Forster's Terns.

Five Blue-winged Teal in eclipse plumage were the first migratory ducks I have seen at Mecox this season.

There was still a good variety of shorebirds on the flat, but the howling wind prevented me from identifying anything unusual.

A New Blog

Welcome to the Ross Ornithology Blog.

This blog is for posting sightings and commentary about birds on the East End of Long Island, as well as for posting comments about our course work in the Ross School Ornithology class.

We are currently in the middle of the southbound (fall) migration. It is a very exciting time to go birdwatching because of the high diversity of species that may be encountered on a birding trip.

Some great places to go birding are any of the bays along the south shore of the South Fork, especially Mecox Bay (my personal favorite of those listed), Shinnecock, Georgica Pond, and Sagaponack Pond. The inlets/cuts of each of these can be very productive. Currently Sagaponack Pond is full of water, and so the opportunity for seeing birds is limited. At Shinnecock, all of Dune Road can be excellent for birding, especially at low tide.

My favorite spot for birding on Long Island is Montauk Point and vicinity. Good spots to check are the Point itself, Camp Hero State Park, the trails at the entrance to the Camp Hero community, the Seal Haulout Trail and Oyster Pond, Teddy Roosevelt County Park, the Deep Hollow Ranch and East Lake Drive including the inlet.