Eastern Long Island RBA
April 12, 2008
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:39:49 -0400
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From: Hugh McGuinness <hdmcguinness@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: [BIRDEAST] East End Birds, 12 April 2008
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m3CEeSSG009966
RBA
New York
Eastern Long Island
12 April 2008
NYEE0804.12
***East End Birds, 12 April 2008
***Covering the towns of Southampton, East Hampton, Shelter Island, Southold
& Riverhead on the eastern end of Long Island, New York.
***This report is distributed by e-mail only. If you would like to receive
East End Birds, contact hmcguinness@ross.org
***Visit East End Birds on line at www.hmcguinness.com.
***Volume 10, Number 8
HIGHLIGHTS
Rough-legged Hawk, BLACK-NECKED STILT, Black-headed Gull, Iceland Gull,
Short-eared Owl, Saw Whet Owl, Red Crossbill
Birds moving through the area in the last 2 weeks include TURKEY VULTURE,
GREAT & SNOWY EGRETS, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, EASTERN PHOEBE, FISH CROW, the
first RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, many GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, BROWN CREEPER,
PINE WARBLER, BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS
At the Epcal (former Grumman) facility there were 3 SHORT-EARED OWLS on Mar
28 (BA). Four were seen again on Mar 30 (CSt). At least three were still
present on Apr 8 & 10. Perhaps they'll stay to nest. Other birds seen
regularly at this site include AMERICAN KESTREL (several pairs) and EASTERN
MEADOWLARK. (More about the future plans for this site can be found below.)
A TURKEY VULTURE was in Jamesport on Apr 6 (BGdt).
In Northville, the gull-fest continues at Iron Pier Beach. On Mar 28 there
was a first-year ICELAND GULL and an adult BLACK-HEADED GULL (JSp). The
ICELAND GULL was seen again on Mar 31 and Apr 1 (MLL) and again on Apr 2, 3
& 9. The BLACK-HEADED GULL was seen again on April 3. A LESSER BLACK-BACKED
GULL was at Iron Pier on Apr 5 (MLL). A ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was spotted along
Penny's Rd on Mar 31 (JBSr). A TURKEY VULTURE was seen in Northville on Apr
1 (MLL)
Three TURKEY VULTURES were at Marratooka Lake in Mattituck on Mar 29 (JBJr,
JBSr). A SNOWY EGRET, the first of the season (but not for the year) was
spotted in West Creek in New Suffolk on Apr 5 (PG). Eleven PURPLE SANDPIPERS
were at Breakwater Beach in Mattituck on Apr 8 (JBJr).
On Bridge Lane in Cutchogue there was a dark morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK on Mar
29 (JBSr). Along Oregnon Rd there were 15 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS in the
brush pile just west of Cox Rd on Mar 29 (JBJr, JBSr). A TURKEY VULTURE was
teetering over Cutchogue on Apr 9 (PG).
The year's first GLOSSY IBIS were a flock of 12 flying north over Goose
Creek in Southold on Apr 11 (JBSr)
A PURPLE MARTIN was at Orient on Apr 7 (BG).
The first TREE SWALLOW of which I have heard was at Mashomack on Shelter
Island on Mar 29 (NH). Four TURKEY VULTURES were over the island on Mar 30
(NH).
On April 7 a BLACK-NECKED STILT was photographed in Moriches Bay along Dune
Rd in Westhampton Dunes at Gunning Pt (KGr). This location is the sand
peninsula about 1 mile east of Little Pikes. There are at least two paved
roads out onto the point, one of which may be private. I have had no further
reports.
A SHORT-EARED OWL was seen along Dune Rd in Quogue on Apr 8 (OB).
At the small pond just west of Water Mill Hamlet there were 15 GREAT EGRETS
on Mar 28 (VB).
At Sagaponack there were 14 PIPING PLOVERS and a 1st-year LESSER
BLACK-BACKED GULL on Apr 1 (HM).
A SAW WHET OWL was a fresh road kill at the junction of Montauk Highway and
Stephen Hands Path in East Hampton on Apr 5 (AJC, PJD). This is the second
road kill from this intersection this winter. Along Rt 114 in East Hampton
there was PEREGRINE FALCON on Mar 30 at the airport road (HM) and 10 RED
CROSSBILLS on Apr 1 at Deer Haven Ct (HM). Another RED CROSSBILL was along
Edward's Hole Rd on Apr 3 (HM).
A TURKEY VULTURE was over northwest woods on Mar 30 (JTo). Two PURPLE
FINCHES were at a Springs feeder on Apr 1 (CC).
The adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was still present at Lazy Point in
Napeague on Apr 5. Three TURKEY VULTURES were soaring over the stretch on
Apr 5 (BH).
In Montauk, there was TURKEY VULTURE along East Lake Drive on Mar 29 and 30
(VB). Three TURKEY VULTURES were over Big Reed Pond on Apr 3 (VB), while one
was at Teddy Roosevelt on Apr 4 (BH). Two WILSON'S SNIPE, 1 SNOW GOOSE and
10 GREEN-WINGED TEAL were at Deep Hollow and a YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER was
at nearby Third House (at Teddy Roosevelt Co Pk) on Mar 30 (VB). Two
RED-TAILED HAWKS were espied mating on top of the Montauk Radar on Mar 30,
but local authorities deemed that they did not qualify for the mile-high
club. An immature male KING EIDER was off Montauk Village on Mar 30 (PGa,
CL). Two PURPLE SANDPIPERS were on the rocks at the seal haulout northwest
of the Point on Apr 9 (VB).
A group of 40 flying GREAT BLUE HERONS at Smith Point Park on Apr 5 appeared
to be a migrating group (JH). A LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was spotted on Apr
6 (JGl).
At Terrell River Co Park in east Moriches there was a LITTLE BLUE HERON on
Apr 6 (CSt, SS).
BIRDING TRIP SUNDAY
Steve Biasetti is leading a Dune Road Wildlife Tour ("Shore & Wading Birds
of Shinnecock Bay") this Sunday, April 13th, for Group For The East End. The
trip will run from 8 to 10:30 a.m. and will meet at the usual spot -- the
parking lot on the west side of Shinnecock Inlet (the Hampton Bays side).
All are welcome and the event is free.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE GRUMMAN GRASSLANDS
In 1998, the Navy turned over the Enterprise Park at Calverton (EPCAL) to
the Town of Riverhead, when the Grumman operations located on the site shut
down. Today this 2900 acre parcel is facing a number of extremely large
development proposals, including a group of eight major themed resorts, a
90-acre fake lake, ATV parks, and industrial development outside the
industrial core. The resorts alone could bring at least 1.5 million people
to the site each year. The environmental and community impacts caused by
development of this magnitude would surely affect the entire region.
A few of the environmental impacts include: water pollution from increased
sewage and proximity to the sole source aquifer, intense development in the
protected Pine Barrens, decreases in air quality due to on-site energy use
and increased traffic, increased demand on Long Island's limited water
supply, destruction of rare grassland habitat relied on by
endangered/threatened species, threats to freshwater wetlands, and negative
impacts on the Peconic estuary and LI Sound watersheds.
Some of the quality of life impacts are: increased noise, destruction of
rural character, increased traffic on currently congested roads, disruption
of services at Calverton National Cemetery, widening of community roads or
creation of new roads, and increased demand on community services (i.e.
ambulance, police, fire).
Currently, the town of Riverhead, which is supporting these projects, is
leading the environmental review, which seems a bit like having the fox
guard the hen house. A new comprehensive environmental review should be
completed by an impartial agency with a regional perspective, such as the
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
You can take action in the following ways:
1. Support a thorough baseline inventory of the entire site to be completed
by the New York Natural Heritage Program, this step will make it clear which
areas of the site are not appropriate for development.
2. Contact the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and ask them to
request lead agency status in the environmental review for all EPCAL
development. (Pete Grannis, Commissioner NYS DEC, 625 Broadway Albany, NY
12233; 518-402-8545).
3. Contact the Riverhead Town Board members and let them know your concerns
with these proposed developments.
4. Long Islanders should contact state, and federal representatives to let
them know that these expansive projects are of great concern to you. (To
find your representatives enter your address at
http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/.)
5. Have your organization join the Coalition for Open Space at EPCAL.
Contact Jennifer Skilbred (Group for the East End)
jskilbred@EastEndEnvironment.org, or Trish Pelkowski (The Nature
Conservancy) ppelkowski@tnc.org
DID YOUR SHOPPING LIST KILL A SONGBIRD?
[The following is reprinted from the Mar 30th edition of the New York
Times.]
THOUGH a consumer may not be able to tell the difference, a striking red and
blue Thomas the Tank Engine made in Wisconsin is not the same as one
manufactured in China — the paint on the Chinese twin may contain dangerous
levels of lead. In the same way, a plump red tomato from Florida is often
not the same as one grown in Mexico. The imported fruits and vegetables
found in our shopping carts in winter and early spring are grown with types
and amounts of pesticides that would often be illegal in the United States.
In this case, the victims are North American songbirds. Bobolinks, called
skunk blackbirds in some places, were once a common sight in the Eastern
United States. In mating season, the male in his handsome tuxedo-like suit
sings deliriously as he whirrs madly over the hayfields. Bobolink numbers
have plummeted almost 50 percent in the last four decades, according to the
North American Breeding Bird Survey.
The birds are being poisoned on their wintering grounds by highly toxic
pesticides. Rosalind Renfrew, a biologist at the Vermont Center for
Ecostudies, captured bobolinks feeding in rice fields in Bolivia and took
samples of their blood to test for pesticide exposure. She found that about
half of the birds had drastically reduced levels of cholinesterase, an
enzyme that affects brain and nerve cells — a sign of exposure to toxic
chemicals.
Since the 1980s, pesticide use has increased fivefold in Latin America as
countries have expanded their production of nontraditional crops to fuel the
demand for fresh produce during winter in North America and Europe. Rice
farmers in the region use monocrotophos, methamidophos and carbofuran, all
agricultural chemicals that are rated Class I toxins by the World Health
Organization, are highly toxic to birds, and are either restricted or banned
in the United States. In countries like Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador,
researchers have found that farmers spray their crops heavily and repeatedly
with a chemical cocktail of dangerous pesticides.
In the mid-1990s, American biologists used satellite tracking to follow
Swainson's hawks to their wintering grounds in Argentina, where thousands of
them were found dead from monocrotophos poisoning. Migratory songbirds like
bobolinks, barn swallows and Eastern kingbirds are suffering mysterious
population declines, and pesticides may well be to blame. A single
application of a highly toxic pesticide to a field can kill seven to 25
songbirds per acre. About half the birds that researchers capture after such
spraying are found to suffer from severely depressed neurological function.
Migratory birds, modern-day canaries in the coal mine, reveal an
environmental problem hidden to consumers. Testing by the United States Food
and Drug Administration shows that fruits and vegetables imported from Latin
America are three times as likely to violate Environmental Protection Agency
standards for pesticide residues as the same foods grown in the United
States. Some but not all pesticide residues can be removed by washing or
peeling produce, but tests by the Centers for Disease Control show that most
Americans carry traces of pesticides in their blood. American consumers can
discourage this poisoning by avoiding foods that are bad for the
environment, bad for farmers in Latin America and, in the worst cases, bad
for their own families.
What should you put on your bird-friendly grocery list? Organic coffee, for
one thing. Most mass-produced coffee is grown in open fields heavily treated
with fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. In contrast,
traditional small coffee farmers grow their beans under a canopy of tropical
trees, which provide shade and essential nitrogen, and fertilize their soil
naturally with leaf litter. Their organic, fair-trade coffee is now
available in many coffee shops and supermarkets, and it is recommended by
the Audubon Society, the American Bird Conservancy and the Smithsonian
Migratory Bird Center.
Organic bananas should also be on your list. Bananas are typically grown
with one of the highest pesticide loads of any tropical crop. Although
bananas present little risk of pesticide ingestion to the consumer, the
environment where they are grown is heavily contaminated.
When it comes to nontraditional Latin American crops like melons, green
beans, tomatoes, bell peppers and strawberries, it can be difficult to find
any that are organically grown. We should buy these foods only if they are
not imported from Latin America.
Now that spring is here, we take it for granted that the birds' cheerful
songs will fill the air when our apple trees blossom. But each year, as we
continue to demand out-of-season fruits and vegetables, we ensure that fewer
and fewer songbirds will return.
Bridget Stutchbury, a professor of biology at York University in Toronto, is
the author of "Silence of the Songbirds."
This week I received reports from Bob Adamo, Willy & Gerry Becker (W&GBk),
Orhan Birol, John Brush, Jr (JBJr), John Brush, Sr (JBSr), Vicki Bustamante,
Anthony J Collerton (AJC), Carol Crasson, Philip Dempsey (PJD), Mackie
Finnerty, Peregrina Garcia (PGa), Bob Gerdts (BGdt), Paul Gillen, Bob
Gloria, John Gluth (JGl), Karen Graulich, Nick Hamblet, Joel Horman, Bruce
Horwith, Mary Laura Lamont, Chris Lyons, Hugh McGuinness (HDM), Karen &
Barbara Rubinstein (K&BRu), Bob Savage, John Sep (JSp), Bill & Eileen Singer
(B&ESi), Walt Skretch, Carl Starace (CSt), Sally Swain, John Todaro (JTo),
Good Birding to All!
Hugh McGuinness
The Ross School
18 Goodfriend Park
East Hampton, NY 11937
631 697 2099 (cell)
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