Tuesday October 31, 2017 GSBAS Nature walk at Blydenburgh County Park

What a nice fall day. It was clear, crisp and bright all morning for our walk at Blydenburgh County Park. There  were lots of ducks on the pond, mainly American Wigeon, Gadwall and Mallards. Not to be out done there were also a lot of Mute Swans. On the far side of the pond there were a number of Double Crested Cormorants

On our walk through the woods we encountered first a a small feeding flock of Chickadees, Titmice and Golden Crowned Kinglets. Later in the campground we hit a very active spot. We saw Cedar Waxwings, White-breasted Nuthatches, Red-bellied woodpeckers and Northern Flickers, plus a large group of House Finches. As a highlight we saw a Black-throated Green Warbler, usually long gone by now. All told we had 23 species for the morning, plus a very nice walk in the woods.

Great South Bay Audubon Tuesday walk 10/10/2017

Today's walk was at Robert Moses SP, with the intention of spending time at the hawk watch platform. The weather was spectacular, maybe a little hot, but a gorgeous day. The wind was mild out of the west northwest. Conditions should have been good but the hawks apparently didn't think so. We only saw a Peregrine , a Cooper's Hawk and a Merlin in our time on the platform.

Our quest along the boardwalk to the light house did get us a couple of nice birds. We saw a Brown Thrasher, a Cedar Waxwing, multiple Swamp Sparrows and a lot of Northern Mockingbirds. The Yellow-rumped Warblers are also starting to show now as well. One mockingbird posed for us to see it in it's splendor

Tuesday October 3, 2017 Nature Walk

 Today's birding was a little slow. We had 23 species of birds, moat of the usual suspects. A lot of  the birds were heard only. We had a good looks at Great Blue Heron and an Eastern Phoebe.

The walks are called nature walks for a reason. As we look for birds we also observe other facets of nature including plants animals, and insects. At the end of the walk we stumbled across what looked like a Praying Mantis. In looking it up in my insect book it looks like a Chinese Mantid. Both are introduced species. The Praying Mantis was accidentally introduced in 1899 on nursery stock from Europe. The Chinese Mantid was intentionally introduced in 1896