Went down to Ponquogue with Eileen Schwinn this morning to look for sparrows. The grassy and shrubby areas around the road from Dune Road to what's left of the old Ponquogue Bridge (just east of the new bridge) has always been our best hunting grounds for sparrows in fall migration in the Shinnecock area and this morning was no exception. We found Dark-eyed Juncos, White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows, Song, Field and, best of all, at least one LINCOLN SPARROW -- the last-named a slightly more petite version of the Song Sparrow with a small bill, a very even row of strong breast streaks on a buffy ground (cleanly cut off and white below), a distinctive gray supercilium and a buffy malar on both sides. The Juncos, White-crowned and Lincoln's Sparrows were all firsts of the season for me. Lincoln's Sparrow is a bird that I've seen out here only once or twice before; the only dated record that I could find was also in mid-October in the same area.
What we did not find was the possible Clay-colored Sparrow that Eileen saw here yesterday. We did find other birds besides sparrows, notably Northern Harrier, Northern Flicker, Northern Mockingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Golden-crowned Kinglets (on the ground in the sand!), a White-breasted Nuthatch (on a telephone pole!), the expected collection of Yellow-rumped Warblers and one Palm Warbler. There were a few small ducks in a pond just to the east of the road but I never did get a fix on them (they were probably teal but which kind I'm not sure).
Eric Salzman
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