Great South Bay Tuesday Nature Walk 06/03/2025

 Our walk today was at the Suffolk County Farm in Yaphank . The farm is run as an educational facility and is open for walks and observation. We had seventeen folks show up for our last walk of the spring 2025 season. Our fall walks will begin in September 2025. We managed to squeak out a list of 20 some species. The highlights were, Willow Flycatchers, Cedar Waxwings, and Warbling Vireos. A few raptors showed up. Red tailed Hawks and an Eagle flew over. The weather was perfect for our walk. Bob Glasser took a couple of pictures to share

Willow Flycatcher

                                                                            

                                                                    Cedar Waxwing

We hope to see you in the fall

Great South Bay Audubon Tuesday Walk 05/20/2025

 Our walk to day was at the Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area. It is a marshland that gives you opportunities to up close for good looks at waders and shorebirds. Today was not disappointing. We got good looks at a bunch of them. One of the highlights is the close looks at the Night Herons. They were very cooperative today and with the bright sunshine it was very enjoyable. The Yellow -crowned Night Herons were in close and gave good views

We had 28 species of birds, a nice walk in a nice place and everyone enjoyed it

Great South Bay Audubon Tuesday Nature Walk 05/06/2025

 Today our walk was at Belmont Lake Sate Park, this is our usual location the morning after our annual dinner. The dinner was a great success with everyone having a great time. The presentation by Shai Mitra  about his trip to Antarctica was well received.

We had 17 folks show up for our walk despite the threatening weather conditions. The rain did hold off long enough for us to finish our walk in a slightly shortened time frame. We saw over 25 species of birds including Great Crested Flycatchers, Red Eyed Vireos, Yellow Warblers and a couple of Veerys. A sighting of note was an Eastern Box Turtle

Great South Bay Audubon Tuesday Nature Walk 04/01/2025

 Our walk today was the second of the spring 2025 season. Twelve hardy birders braved the chilly winds to go see some birds. We had 23 species of birds this am. Highlights were 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Tree Swallows, Eastern Phoebes, and lots of Ospreys flying around. Red tailed Hawks were being chased by Crows and a Northern Flicker was on a dead snag. The tree swallows were looking to pair up.

 

On the way out we saw a pair of Common Ravens fly overhead

Great South Bay Audubon Nature Walk 05/21/2024

 Great South Bay Audubon 05/21/2024

Our walk today was at the Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area. The MNSA is run by the Town of Hempstead. It is a wetland area on the south shore of Nassau County. Thera are boardwalks throught the marshland. We had 16 people show up and the weather was perfect.

We had really good looks at some of the spring visitors and a few of the regular water birds that are seen there. We saw over 24 species of birds with good looks at most of them. One bird we can count on to see there regularly is the Yellow-crowned Night Herom.

They have put up Purple Martin Houses and have been successful in attracting them.

We had good looks at a very elusive bird, the Clapper Rail  It is a unique facility that allows up close looks at wetland birds and is always worth a visit.

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