Great South Bay Audubon Nature Walk 04/30/2024

 Our walk this Tuesday 04/30/2024 was at the Sisters of St. Joseph Campus in Brentwood. Fifteen folks showed participated as we walked the grounds of the facility. The campus is very environment friendly. They have waste water reclamation and solar arrays. The farm on the property is all organic, and they have planted native trees through out the property. We had 24 species of birds, we saw Goldfinches, woodpeckers, and some yellow rumped warblers. 

The highlight was as we were finishing the walk, we heard a group of crows squawking and flying into a stand of pine trees. They were mobbing an unseen threat. Eventually a great horned owl flew out of the pines and away from the crows flying right in front of the group. A great finish to a nice spring walk

Great South Bay Audubon Nature Walk 04/23/2024

 Our walk was at Norman Levy Preserve in Merrick NY. We started off with perfect weather for a spring walk. Bright sunshine and little or no wind and cool temperatures. While we were doing our introductory circle we were visited by a couple of the resident Monk Parakeets

There are nests in and around the park vicinity, they are active and raucous and have adapted to their non native surroundings.

The general birding was non remarkable as we tallied 24 species, a high light for many was some lingering Green Winged Teal. On our way back to the parking lot we encountered another non native species that is in the park. Italian Wall Lizards

Great South Bay Audubon Nature Walk 04/16/04

 What a great morning for a walk. Twenty four people shoed up for our walk this morning at Robert Moses State Park. Mild temps and bright sunshine and moderate winds mad for a really enjoyable walk. We walked to the lighthouse and back to the parking lot. We saw 25 species of birds. there were a lot of Northern Mockingbirds.

On the way back to the parking lot we saw a lot of American Lady Butterflies on the pathway

It was a good morning, and a good walk with some good sightings

Great South Bay Audubon Nature Walk 04/09/2024

 Today our walk was at Jones Beach West End. Twelve people showed up on a spectacular spring day. Our walk started with a Tree Swallow landing close by and showing off it's colors

 

The real star was the number of Kinglets, both Ruby Crowned and Golden Crowned, they were every where.

We had a total of 34 species for our morning. There was a very cooperative Peregrine Falcon that gave everyone good looks.  There were some lingering water fowl, loons, ducks and a pair of Oystercatchers.

 All in all a good morning of birding on a good morning

Great South Bay Audubon Nature Walk 04/02/2024

 Our walk today was impacted by the forecasted rain. The weather in the am was a very light rain. Jack and I, Ken, showed up just in case some folks had nothing better to do and wanted to try to sneak some birding in. Some folks did show up and we then decided to try to squeeze in some birding

We did some BBC, Birding By Car, through the Hecksher SP  parking lots for and hour. We did get to see some of the regulars that frequent the puddles in the parking lots. We managed to see 21 of the local birds. Making the best of a dreary morning

Great South Bay Audubon Nature walk 04/26/2024

 This was our first walk of the spring season 2024. Fourteen hardy folks showed up to brave the elements and kickoff our spring season. The temperature was slightly cold, in the low forties, but with a northerly wind it felt much colder

As we started heading to the boardwalk a Bald eagle flew overhead  for our first bird of the day. Not a bad start. There was a scattering of sea ducks on the sound. Another highlight was a pair of Purple Sandpipers on the rock jetty. 

Our species total was 31, not bad for a cold spring start to our season

Great South Bay Nature Walk 10/24/2013

 Our walk today was at Jones Beach West End. WE had good attendance, twenty people shoed up on a fine, cool crisp fall morning.

We started by scoping the sand bar for shorebirds. We saw Oystercatchers, Sanderlings, Black-bellied Plovers and some Dunlin. In the bay were some Black Scoter, a couple of Common Loons and Double Crested Cormorants.

One of the highlights was a Dickcissel in the grass near the parking lot. On the walk down to the fisherman's lot we encountered bunches of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Golden Crowned Kinglets and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Add a couple of Hermit Thrushes and Chipping Sparrows and it added up o a good morning walk