And I thought fall migration was slowly ending! Besides the headline-grabbing winter finches and other boreal birds (3 shrikes reported on LI so far, both crossbills, redpolls, siskins, and Purple Finches), passerines had long ago seemed to have moved south. Yet today they tried to fight back, in the form of Blue-headed Vireo and Orange-crowned Warbler! Blue-headed is a typical late-autumn migrant, but Orange-crowned shows up on the east coast sort of erratically and can only be found by whacking every stick pile and being lucky. The OCWA was a state-first for me, my first in a month.
Other goodies at the barrier beach today:first-of-season Long-tailed Duck, FOS Common Eider, Last-of-season (!) Royal Tern, and Field and White-crowned Sparrows.
Other goodies at the barrier beach today:first-of-season Long-tailed Duck, FOS Common Eider, Last-of-season (!) Royal Tern, and Field and White-crowned Sparrows.
