Species 115-118: Summer in Swing Part 1 - Port Washington

It's been a busy month in our lives. We moved this past June 1st, picking up our stuff from the 3rd flight walk-up in Astoria and moving it all to a house in Port Washington. It's great having some land to plant and some space to spread out. So far we haven't unpacked all that much, but I've gotten to plant a small garden and a flower bed. I'm also experimenting with the Topsy-Turvy tomato grower - basically a tomato plan suspended upside-down in a fancy bag of dirt. It's nice living the suburban life, especially now that there's plenty of daylight to be had at this change of the seasons to summer.

With the craziness of the move and packing, it was hard to get out during the May peak of migration. I'm sure there are a bunch of species I'll have missed for the year thanks to the transition (I'm still kicking myself for not finding the Prothonotary Warbler in Northport around Easter). This past weekend I finally got back out into the world to look for birds, and the first place I went was the very odd Sands Point Preserve right here in my new home of Port Washington. The preserve is along the north and east shore of the "neck" that contains Port Washington, and it has got a variety of purposes. It seems the major attraction are the two castles - literally, castles - that were once homes for the rich and famous. All the land around there, the forests and the crumbling sea wall one might call a beach, show evidence of a more bourgeoisie past. Thanks to time and disrepair though, a lot of the beach is reverting to very tidal shoreline and the forests are in varying stages of succession - everything from Japanese Knotweed to full grown maples.

The variety of habitats makes it a nice place for birds to stop over during migration (which I missed) or just for breeding. I got to see a bit of the latter, and it contributed nicely to my year list. The best sighting were Bank Swallows which seem to nest in abundance in the North Shore's steep and mostly stable beach cliffs. I saw many dozen active nest holes (see picture at left) on my walk at the shoreline. The swallows were all over the grounds of the preserve, swooping and twisting in the air, always leaving me with a sense of expectation they might land, but almost always at the last minute twisting away in an acrobatic effort for another insect on the wing.



Here's the list for that day:

Row #	Species	Count	Location	S/P	Date
115	Yellow Warbler	2	Sands Point Preserve	US-NY	12-Jun-10
116	Bank Swallow	10	Sands Point Preserve	US-NY	12-Jun-10
117	Cedar Waxwing	3	Sands Point Preserve	US-NY	12-Jun-10
118	Wood Thrush	2	Sands Point Preserve	US-NY	12-Jun-10

Species 118 - Wood Thrush - best ID'd by their trilly, lyrical call, but the ones I heard weren't much in the mood for singing.

Species 115 on the other hand - Yellow Warblers couldn't shut up!