An Epic Day of Roadkill Watching in Western New York

A Long Drive to Dip a Gray Kingbird

A few weeks ago, a Loggerhead Shrike was found in Western New York.  I want to see a Loggerhead Shrike in New York State but Western New York is a long way from the City, about 5 hours drive each way.  So I dithered and procrastinated and in the end I didn't go (which turned out to be just as well as the day I could have gone was the day after the last sighting of the bird).  Then, a week later, someone found a Gray Kingbird in Western New York ... oh come on!  This bird too seemed to be sticking around and every day last week I saw reports of the bird being seen.  I wanted to go, but I also didn't want to do a 10-hour drive on my own, so I hinted on-line and Corey Finger, blogger, union organizer, left wing agitator, and notorious enabler of birding misadventures, suggested he might like to come along.  So 'what the hell' I thought, let's do it, and extending invitations to two young birders (Adrian Burke and Tom Socci) who'd been helpful to me recently in regards to Seaside Sparrows, I planned to leave early on Saturday and do the long drive to the Kingbird.

Gray Kingbird, Photo: Nathan Goldberg (used with permission)

Saturday morning at 4:45am I got a text from Corey Finger, he was downstairs, ready to go.  Went down, grabbed a Latte, picked up the Land Rover and then picked up Adrian (Tom couldn't make it) and we were off.  Out across the George Washington Bridge, an hour or so across New Jersey, take a right in Pennsylvania and drive North for an hour or so, then take a left at Binghamton in New York (stopping for McDonalds and gas) and head off into the wilds of Western New York.  Just 5 hours after leaving, and having been pulled over for speeding only once, we arrived at Conesus Inlet ready to bird.  Did I mention that Western New York is a long way away?  We were sooooo ready to get out of the car by the time we got there ...

Truth is though, we'd arrived in an apprehensive state of mind.  We weren't the only New York City birders heading up to chase the Kingbird that day.  Sean Sime and his Brooklyn crew had gone up early and reported that the bird had not been seen that morning so far.  As we arrived we picked up another voicemail from Sean saying that his team had to leave, but that they hadn't seen the bird.  Still, I wasn't too stressed, the Kingbird had been seen the day before only in the afternoon, and there was obviously a lot of habitat for the bird to wander around in.  We grabbed scopes and set out to find us a Gray Kingbird.

Lots of snags and lots of bugs, but no Gray Kingbird ...

Three and a half hours later ... no Gray Kingbird.  We scoped every snag we could see, tried all the likely areas, and just couldn't come up with the bird.  I guess the change of weather (it wasn't raining at Conesus after 6 days of rain) gave the bird the chance to move on, or even head back to Florida where it belongs.   We had officially dipped ...

Ironically, while we couldn't find our target bird, and had just experienced an epic long-distance dip, it actually retuned out to be an excellent day as a general natural history experience.  There were a lot of herps, and it was very cool to see some after the long New York Winter.  We saw Leopard Frogs, Bull Frogs, Green Frogs, a Wood Frog, American Toads, Eastern Garter Snakes and lots of Northern Water Snakes.   There were bumblebees and dragonflies and even a few Spring flowers and butterflies.  There were also a few returning migrant birds and I added 5 year birds during our time in Livingston County - Cliff Swallow (224), Eastern Kingbird (225), Marsh Wren (226), Common Yellowthroat (227) and Lesser Yellowlegs (228).  The most interesting bird however was a Great Horned Owl that Adrian spotted in trees in the marsh ... not so often you get to see a big owl in the day time.

Northern Water Snake - fat and happy eating frogs ... don't pick these
up, they're very bitey ...

So back to New York.  Another five hour drive with Corey doing his best to distract us with gratuitous eBird checklists in every county, often featuring nothing more that American Crow, Common Grackle, and Red-tailed Hawk ..... but now many eBird reviewers knew of our passing.  We did however amass an impressive (and somewhat macabre) list of roadkill for the day ... yes we list roadkill, we're birders, we list everything.   Among the species highlights on the days roadkill list were Black Bear, Beaver, Coyote, Porcupine, Woodchuck (plus a probable Fox Squirrel - a rare mammal in New York) along with the ubiquitous White-tailed Deer, Gray Squirrel, Virginia Opossums, Raccoons, and Striped Skunks (Smelled only).  Hey, it's a natural history experience of a sort, and it was a very long drive.

Until next time Western New York ....

The Week of Rain

Peak Migration around New York City - Week 2

Wednesday, May 4 - Central Park

It rained all day Monday and Tuesday and persistent North winds kept migration on hold.  I wasn't expecting much more in terms of migration on Wednesday but at least the weather forecast had a gap in the rain early in the morning, so I went into the Park at 6:30am.  It was raining .....

At first the birds were also really quiet, but it did pick up a little and briefly stop raining, before I had to leave at 8:30am to head to work.  I had a few warblers - Worm-eating, Blue-winged, Prairie, Cape May - and of course checked every Black-throated Green Warbler VERY CAREFULLY.  Best bird of the day was a Yellow-throated Vireo (219) one of a few species that had been present but eluded me all week in the Park.  Still waiting for the big wave of migrants .... any day now ....

Thursday, May 5 - Central Park

The Upper Lobe, Central Park

No rain in the forecast for the first time in a week!  Thrilled to not be wet for once while grabbing another couple of hours in the Park before work.  Sure, it was still a drab cloudy day, with temperatures 20-degrres below normal, but it wasn't actually raining for a few hours.  There was a lot more bird song early in the morning but, apart from an obvious increase in Gray Catbirds, there wasn't much difference in terms of new migrant arrivals.  I did see 14 species of warbler and spent a little 'give back' time helping some beginner birders get their lifer Blue-winged and Prairie Warblers.  I also picked up a few new year birds including a somewhat cold and sad looking Ruby-throated Hummingbird (220) a single Least Flycatcher (221) and a very random Bank Swallow (222) drifting North across the Great Lawn. Things are slowly happening but still waiting for the big push ..... any day now ....


Friday, May 6 - Clinton Cove Park

Just as I got home on Thursday night I saw a tweet from Adrian Burke reporting 3 Seaside Sparrows in a small park on 55th Street and the Hudson River (OK, that was unexpected ... there's not a lot of saltmarsh habitat in Hell's Kitchen!).  That's only 13 blocks from my apartment so I really should have walked up there right away, but at the time I was just too tired to go out again.  Of course on Friday morning when I woke up .... the rain had resumed ... and not just drizzle ... solid, heavy, business-shoe-ruining rain.  I lay in bed for a while debating whether to get up early and go chase these birds, and in the end I did go out slosh my way up to the park.  The habitat did not look terribly promising, this is a new park, essentially just an adjunct to the riverside running and biking trails that separate the West Side Highway from the Hudson River.  There was a small lawn, a handful of ornamental trees, and a border planted with small scrubby rose-looking plants.  The border was obviously the place to look and right there, feeding feet from the highway, were some American Robins, a Gray Catbird, a couple of Chipping Sparrows, and three very soggy and very out of place looking Seaside Sparrows (223).  A year bird, but also a new bird for me for New York County (essentially Manhattan).  Glad I got up, even if I did ruin a perfectly good pair of business shoes in the process.

Seaside Sparrow - Photo: Tom Socci (used with permission)

Saturday, May 7 - Livingston County in Western New York
(Gets it's own blog post)

Sunday, May 8 - Central Park

This was going to be the day!  The winds finally turned South on Saturday afternoon and the rain was finally forecast to stop.  Surely the migration would explode North on Saturday night and Central Park would be hopping with birds on Sunday morning?  Right?  Well ... yes....

Up at 5:30 and in the Park a little after 6am.  Good news was that it wasn't raining, but the Park didn't really seem all that birdy and early encounters with birders like Doug Kurtz suggested that perhaps we hadn't had a big migration event.  I did start picking up a few year birds though with Scarlet Tanager (229) and Lincoln's Sparrow (230) joining the list near Strawberry Fields.  Moving on to The Upper Lobe I added Swainson's Thrush (231) and Great Crested Flycatcher (232), plus a Spotted Sandpiper (233) at  Turtle Pond, but none of the species were new arrivals.  Had there been migration overnight?

The answer to this question came at about 7:15am when the skies opened unleashing a couple of hours of torrential rain, and all hell broke loose with thousands of migrant birds swarming North through the park.  IT WAS ON!

Over the next few hours I got completely soaked (I bird in the rain) but I also saw 22 species of warbler, adding Canada Warbler (234), Blackburnian Warbler (235), Magnolia Warbler (236), Wilson's Warbler (237) and Red-eyed Vireo (238) to the year list.  At one point, in torrential rain, I engaged a flock of about 50 warblers near Turtle Pond that contained 14 species ...  and dozens of other warblers passed overhead without landing and getting identified ... this is what makes Central Park so awesome in migration.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron at The Point

Given the obvious migration it was only a matter of time before someone found some other goodies.  I told Adrian Burke what there would be a Chuck-Will's-Widow somewhere in the Park that day (I'd glimpsed a bird earlier that I thought might be a nightjar but couldn't re-find it) but other goodies showed up first.  In fact Herons took a front seat for a while when Bob DeCandido and Deb Allen found an American Bittern and a Yellow-crowned Night Heron  (239) at the Point.  Both great birds for Central Park and both probably a little stunned to find themselves with an audience.

American Bittern (3 shots)

I was also lucky enough to bump into a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (240) before I had to leave, but eventually I had to go.  Overall, I had 82 species of bird in the tiny area that is The Ramble ... and of course, someone found the Chuck-Will's-Widow just after I left.

Hermit Warbler in Central Park

Peak Migration around New York City - Week 1 (continued)

Sunday, May 1 - Central Park

The weather forecast for Sunday was not encouraging, in fact it called for rain starting around 7am and continuing all throughout the day.  I'd originally planned to go out to the beaches but I eventually thought better of it and decided to grab a quick hour in Central Park before the rain came.

The rain started pretty much on schedule but it was light and tolerable.  In fact the rain probably helped keep the number of people down and while I birded from 6:30am to almost 11am, I saw very few other birders - unusual on a weekend in May.  There were also quite a few birds around, mostly Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers but I also saw two Worm-eating Warblers (215), my first American Redstart (216) of the season, and a total of 13 species of warbler overall.  While there didn't seem to have been all that much migration overnight, there clearly had been some movement as I also saw several Veery (217).   And then something special happened ...

i'm told I don't do enough scenery or context shots, so here are a couple
from the Ramble, and Turtle Pond in the rain ...

By 9:30am the rain was getting heavier so I went to the boathouse to rent coffee and buy something to eat.  I tried to bird back through The Ramble after that but I was getting wet - once again wearing shorts and sandals - and getting cold too.  By 10am I gave up and headed out via the West 77th Street entrance, planning to head back to the apartment and warm up.

As I was leaving the Park I noticed Karen Fung and Alexis Lamek (who until then I'd never met so knew only as the French guy who looks like Érik Ripert) intently staring at a bird.  As I came over Alexis asked me what I thought of the warbler, which promptly sang a song that sounded to me like a Black-throated Green Warbler song.  I looked up, saw black and white bird with a yellow head, heard the song and confidently identified it as Black-throated Green.

"But it has a black back" said Alexis

"Black-Throated Green doesn't?" I said, fumbling for my Sibley app on the iPhone.  Oops!

The long and the short of it is that, while we were expecting to see a Black-throated Green Warbler, the plumage was all wrong.  It had a black back, a plain white belly with little streaking, no yellow on the vent, a black nape that narrowed to form a line on the back of the head, and an otherwise clean yellow head.  The plumage was HERMIT WARBLER, pretty much solid on all the expected field marks.

The problem though was the voice, which didn't fit our expectations for Hermit Warbler songs. To be fair, the bird was high in trees, there were many warblers singing, and it was raining quite hard (i.e., not ideal listening conditions).  On top of that, none of us also had much experience with Hermit Warblers, at least on breeding territory.  However, the song I was hearing sounded like a series of slightly buzzy single notes - like the 'zee zee zee" at the start of Black-throated Green Warbler song and sometimes something that sounded like full Black-throated Green (add an additional phrase to the end).  While we were mostly getting just song fragments rather than the whole song, all of us had the impression of Black-throated Green song while watching the bird.  Most of the Hermit Warbler calls on the Sibley app. (which we played after losing sight of the bird to compare songs) start with a series of paired notes before a slurred second phrase, and I'm pretty sure I heard single rather than paired notes.  If I had a do-over I might have tried a recording, although I doubt I'd have got very much given the range and the rain.

Given our concern over the song not being right, I floated the idea, which seemed to make sense at the time (but seems stupid now) that perhaps it was a hybrid of some sort, but realizing that whatever it was, we had something good, we got the word out on Twitter and the State-wide Listserve.  And the bird promptly vanished ...

Luckily for us though Karen had managed to grab a couple of distant photos despite the rain, and they helped a lot in terms of settling our view on the ID.   In fact Karen gets a huge credit for somehow managing photos of a small fast moving warbler high in a tree ... in the rain ... with her back-up camera, with the two of us pressuring her to get a photo (by comparison, I'm a wimp - I didn't want to get my camera wet so I left it at home).

Heroic photo effort (given the conditions): Karen Fung (used with permission)

While the song was unfamiliar, I gather that there is a lot of variation in Hermit Warbler song and that they vary by area, and in the presence of similar species (e.g., Townsend's Warblers).  So not so impossible that a Hermit in the East might sound somewhat atypical.

So, while there will be some ID debate (especially given the confusion we spread with our initial struggle with plumage versus song), I'm pretty sure the bird we saw was a Hermit Warbler.  And, as I sit here on Monday I'm savoring a second amazing warbler in Central park in one week, and a second New York State life bird for me!  I also learned a humbling lesson about not making assumptions and studying birds.  I dismissed this bird based on song, and if Alexis hadn't been so persistent, would not have focused on it.  Alexis gets huge credit for finding the bird and sticking with it, bringing skeptical birders along to the right ID (which I suspect he came to a lot earlier on in the process).  A great lesson for me.

Update (5/2/16):  

Unfortunately the bird was not re-found, meaning it was seen only by the three of us (and a handful of birders who passed through and saw the bird before we ID'd it).  There has of course been some local debate, especially given our comments on atypical song and on the presence of a darker auricular in one of the photos.  Karen was smart enough to post this bird on some national ID sites though and get the opinions of national/Western birders with more experience of the species.  Consensus seems to be that the plumage is good for a pure Hermit Warbler and most seem unconcerned about the atypical song (variation in Hermit Warbler songs seems to be widely experienced and expected).

Swainson's Warbler in Central Park

Peak Migration around New York City - Week 1

Monday, April 25 - Central Park

So peak migration!  The best three weeks of the year in terms of birding in New York, and so I changed my patterns to grab little slots of time in Central Park before and after work.  Year birding gets me motivated so I'm going to add the New York State year bird numbers to the new birds I add in these posts ....

On Monday I met up with Chris Cooper and spent a very pleasant couple of hours before work in the Park.  I have a Spring rule to ration my birding time - I either bird for two hours, or until I have 5 year birds.  On Monday, the two came roughly at the same time, starting with House Wren (198) and Blue-winged Warbler (199) at Strawberry Fields.  Then we moved on to the Ramble proper where literally hundreds of Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers swarmed every tree around the Upper Lobe.  The 'Rumps' were so thick that we both gave up looking for movement and turned to just trying to bird by ear, straining for chip notes, or snippets of song suggesting other species.  Black-throated Green Warbler (200) managed to have itself be heard about the 'Rumps' as did a single Prairie Warbler (201), but it was Chris who heard and tracked down the season's first Black-Throated Blue Warbler (202).  A very birdy morning and a great start to the week.

Black-Throated Blue Warbler and Wood Thrush

Thursday, April 28 - Central Park

I was running a little late on Thursday, so skipped Strawberry Fields and went straight to the Ramble.  There weren't a lot of birders around, the weather was overcast and cold, and compared to Monday, there didn't seem to be a lot of birds.  I did check out the Ramble pretty thoroughly though, visiting each of the hotspots (and in Central Park every clearing, water feature or group of trees has a name) hoping for my five year birds.

While it was quiet, there were a few year birds to be had ... a Warbling Vireo (203) at the Maintenance Meadow and an Ovenbird (204) in Muggers Woods both joined the year list.  I also bumped into some photographers at The Oven who had a female Cape May Warbler (205) and picked up a Nashville Warbler (206) nearby.  That was four year birds so, in the hope of finding another, I headed over towards Bow Bridge, a good spot for an early Yellow Warbler maybe?  What I found there though was a group of about 25 birders with big goofy smiles on their faces, all chattering away.  At first I just drifted over to the edge of the group, trying to work out what they were looking at, but couldn't see any obvious target bird there, so I walked over the Chris Cooper and asked what was up.  The answer was quite a shock!

It turns out that the group had all just finished watching a SWAINSON'S WARBLER (207) over at Strawberry Fields.  The first Swanson's in the Park since 1990 and the first in the City (or New York State for that matter I think) since 2005.  This was a very rare bird .... and I hadn't heard about it.  Argh!

So, off to Strawberry Fields as fast as my dignity would allow .... I can move surprisingly quickly when I need to.  Rushing up to the 'Imagine Mosaic', a tribute to John Lennon, close to where he was shot and killed, I looked around for a group of birders and quickly found a bunch laying on the floor and crawling around the edge of some thorn bushes attempting to look underneath them.  As I walked up to them, I could tell I was in the right place and the warbler sang from the center of the bushes.  It was in there, just not visible from anywhere other than on the floor so, despite being dressed for work, on the floor I went and found myself staring at the target bird not eight feet in front of me.  Awesome bird!  What a start to the Spring.

Birders peering into a bush .... 'nothing to see here' .... Photo: Cindy Hwang Schulz (used with permission)
and the bird itself, captured in the open by expert Central Park photographer Deb Allen

And another shot from Brooklyn Bird Club President, Rob Bate ....

After the Brooklyn Painted Bunting, of course this bird also made it quickly to the mainstream press, and yes the word "chirp" was used again.  Here's the New York Post article and I'm sure there will be others.

Friday, April 29 - Central Park

Walked through the Park on the way home from work and added Yellow Warbler (208) and Rose-breasted Grosbeak (209) to the year list.

Saturday, April 30 - Central Park

I spent all morning in the Park and worked really hard to get my 5 year-birds.  The first two were easy with Chestnut-sided Warbler (210) and Indigo Bunting (211) quickly joining the list.  I then joined up with Chris Cooper and rushed up to the North End of the Park following reports of Hooded Warbler and Orange-crowned Warbler.  We cheated and took a cab North but still managed to miss the Orange-crowned, although our luck was better with Hooded Warbler (212) and we got great looks at two of them.  Definitely one of my favorite warblers.  After a bonus Chimney Swift (213), I then spent the next three hours looking for year-bird number five, finally bumping into a Baltimore Oriole (214)  back in the Ramble in the early afternoon.  I worked hard for the fifth year bird!  Today felt like a bit of a slog at times, but we did get a bunch of good birds.  And on into May ... the best month of the year!

Hooded Warbler

Sunday, May 1 - Central Park

This day turned out to be interesting enough for its own blog post.

Spring Sparrows Out East

A few early Spring migrants in The Hamptons

Saturday, April 23 - 'Hamptons' Coastal Spots

Had the whole weekend Out East but was obliged to spend Friday mostly on work and house related things.  The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies, warm Spring temperatures and no wind - perfect birding weather.  I ended up crashing early on Friday night with a plan to get up early and spend the whole day birding.  So imagine my disappointment when Saturday morning dawned foggy, rainy, and cold.  Oh well ...

Still, a plan was a plan so I set off, a little later than anticipated, to cover a series of coastal spots in East Hampton and Southampton townships.  To keep it interesting, I gave myself a goal of finding ten (10) New York State year birds for the weekend, and headed out excited to see some migrants.

First stop was Georgica Cove, one of the priciest pieces of real estate in the county with mansions surrounding the pond on most sides, but also a decent birding spot with one remaining access spot where you can get views of the pond.  Today Georgica gave me some signs of Spring and some year birds to start the day off right with a Green Heron (1), and a good mix of swallows present, including Tree and Barn Swallows (2) and Purple Martin (3).

Next stop Mecox Inlet, where single Forsters and Caspian Terns (4) were mixed in with a more typical Winter bird selection.   Then I crossed over into Southampton and headed over to Dune Road to bird the salt mashes there.

Little Blue Heron

Dune Road was cold and I was of course under-dressed but I persevered and slowly started adding a good selection of things.  I stopped at Ponquogue, Triton Lane, Tiana Beach, and Dolphin Lane, and found a good few new Spring arrivals.  There were dozens of Great Egrets, mostly migrants, in the marshes along with a few Snow Egrets and a single Little Blue Heron, a good bird Out East.  I also added newly returned Eastern Willets (5), and a Northern Rough-winged Swallow (6) among the many Barn and Tree Swallows.  My main focus though was a search for Clapper Rail and the two local Ammodramus sparrows and while I failed to find the rail or a Seaside Sparrow, I did get to spend some quality time with a group of five, super cute, Saltmarsh Sparrows (7).

Saltmarsh Sparrow, rarely seen in the open like this.

On to the Quogue Wildlife Refuge where a Hooded Warbler had been reported the week before.  The East End of Long Island is really not a good place to see Spring warblers, they all seem to turn left at the Hudson or pass right over us.  I still need Hooded Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler and both Waterthrushes for my Suffolk county Life List, so this seemed like a good shot to at lest clean up one of these embarrassing county list gaps.  Alas, it was not to be, and after an hour at the refuge, shivering in cold, wet weather, I gave up and left the warblers for another day (in all probability for another year).

If warblers wouldn't cooperate, then back to sparrows and off to Gabreski Airport to look for the local breeding Vesper Sparrows (8) which quickly surrendered.  I also bumped into a Grasshopper Sparrow (9) there which was unexpected and I initially though was a notable sighting, but apparently others have seen them there recently and it looks like they are in fact breeding at this site.  Nice bird to see, and good to see another colony of this scarce grassland breeder Out East.

Vesper Sparrow in its natural habitat - fences

By now cold and, somehow thinking I had 10 year birds (when I really only had 9) I headed back to East Hampton and birded some of the local spots near my house in Northeast Harbor.  Least Terns had not returned to the local colony yet, although Piping Plovers have been hack for some time.  The woods around the house were also really quiet, just not a lot of migrants returned so far.

Sunday, April 24 - East Hampton / New York City

Saturday afternoon brought word that Gail Benson and Tom Burke has found a Wilson's Plover at Ponquogue - I'd been there ta the high tide, they at the low tide.  There was no point chasing that bird in the morning so, while I waited for the tide to drop I checked several local woodland and marshland spots.  Acabonac Harbor did have a mix of shorebirds and added Ruddy Turnstone (10) to the year list.  Sammy's Beach also gave me year bird when two, beautifully lit Glossy Ibis (11) flew in and started feeding behind a Great Egret.  Otherwise, the selection of birds was very much the same as the day before.  Also, a run along Dune Road looking for Plovers later that day, drew a blank.

Greater Yellowlegs at Napeague Marsh

So , leaving the cold Winter weather of the East End behind I headed back to the City ... where it was Spring!  The two hour drive felt like it had transported my forward a month in time.  A 20-degree temperature difference was great, but also Spring was just so much further along in the City.  Most of the trees in the City were in bud, and many were leafed out already, while the oaks Out East haven't even started to bud yet.  It really was a beautiful Spring afternoon in Manhattan, so I decided to do some more birding and went to Central Park.

Even though it was late in the day, and things were generally quite quiet, I was hoping for some more year birds and some warblers in particular, and I got what I wanted, adding Black-and-White Warbler (12), Northern Parula (13), Louisiana Waterthrush (14), Northern Waterthrush (15), and Wood Thrush (16) to the year list.

Louisiana Waterthrush (above) and Northern Waterthrush 

Some tough birding over the weekend - it really was too early for shorts and sandals - but overall quite a nice haul of year birds.  Looking forward to the next weekend, and the peak of migration.

Photospot: Pine Warbler on Long Island

A quick stop today to get the Yellow-throated Warbler at Connetquot State Park in Suffolk County.  The Yellow-throated was a Suffolk County bird for me - why have I never made time to see the ones present over the last few years?  Not sure .... but this bird showed well several times singing high in a tree.  Alas I didn't get any useable photos but I did spend some quality time with this Pine Warbler.  A common breeding bird on Long Island, they even been in my yard in East Hampton, but they are quite spiffy un-close ....

Pine Warbler (4 shots)

Not so Upland Sandpiper

A Strange Visitor to the Barrier Beaches ....

So earlier this week, I happened upon a Facebook message chain where a very frustrated Tim Healy was lamenting dipping an Upland Sandpiper.  Guessing that the bird might be local on Long Island I chipped in and found out that the bird was frequenting the median strip of the Ocean Parkway near Oak Beach in Suffolk County.  Needless to say, this is not exactly ideal Upland Sandpiper habitat!  The strip at this spot is no more that 50 feet wide, and the bird was feeding within feet of cars and trucks cruising by at 50-60 miles per hour.  This did not sound like a bird that might be around for long ....

Upland Sandpiper - Oak Beach (Photo: Taylor John Sturm, used with permission)

Upland Sandpipers are a declining species in New York, and in the Eastern US in general.  They are, of course, a grassland species, and most of our grasslands have been turned into housing, or handed over to intensive agriculture over the past 50 years.  The species had thus grown increasingly scarce and, although once a regular breeding bird on Long Island, I haven't seen one here in perhaps 20 years.

I really did not expect to see this bird.  One by one all the local Long Island birders reported seeing it but I really didn't think it would stick around all weekend (and thought, and yes, hoped) that it would resume it's journey North before too long.  I had work commitments all week and social commitments all weekend, so the earliest time that I could possibly get to Oak Beach was Sunday afternoon, and in my opinion there was no way that bird would stick around (and not be hit by a car) that long.  But on Sunday morning, the list serve reports told me that bird was still being seen, so I persuaded Kelvin to take a more 'scenic route' back to the City ... and ... I got to see the bird ....

iPhone record shot .... don't judge me ....

Hope this bird makes it (and doesn't end up as road-kill).  I love this species ... pocket curlews .... but unfortunately a good percentage of the world's curlews have gone extinct already (and even the Eurasian Curlew, so common in my Welsh childhood, I heard this week is now endangered).  Upland Sandpiper even has an evocative Latin name - Bartramia longicauda - named after John Bartram, a pioneering colonial era naturalist, best known as a botanist, but one of the first Europeans to see many of the species of the Eastern US.   I wish this one good luck on his/her journey North though .... hope it finds a good place for the Summer.