North Fork

The ELIAS (Eastern LI Audubon) walk to the North Fork Preserve this morning was marred and cut short by rain showers but, even so, there were good birds to be seen (and heard). This Sound Avenue preserve in Northville may well be the best place on Eastern Long Island to see and hear nesting Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and they were indeed present and singing (they are one of the most melodious of our songsters). Two other birds, once common here, now uncommon at best, were heard to best advantage here: the equally melodious Wood Thrush and Field Sparrow. Other birds noted included three flycatchers -- Willow, Great Crested and Eastern Phoebe -- as well as tons of Yellowthroats and Yellow Warblers. This beautiful preserve holds an unusually rich wooded area filled with vernal ponds as well as overgrown meadows, also dotted with wet areas, and other habitats for common and uncommon species.

There was a board meeting this afternoon at the South Fork Natural History Museum (SOFO) and on the drive out and back I saw a young Buteo at a roadside rain puddle between East Quogue and Hampton Bays (I couldn't stop but I'm pretty sure it was a young Red-tail) and a pair of Osprey constructing a nest on Scuttleholde Road telephone pole between Bridgehampton and Water Mill. At SOFO itself and in the Vineyard Field in back there is a Purple Martin colony, many nesting Tree Swallows, singing Orchard Oriole, Field Sparrow and other birds of interest. I'm doing a walk around that field a little later on as a joint effort between SOFO and ELIAS.

Eric Salzman