Summery Summary

Hi all, Brendan F from New York speaking:

This summer season has been quite good for the two lists I've been favoring recently: ABA life list and New York State list.

Back in May I found Tennessee and Golden-winged Warblers to add to both lists just north of metropolitan NYC. Then in June, I saw my first Acadian Flycatcher in NYC's Jamaica bay (after hearing my first a month earlier). A visit out east on Long Island produced my life Grasshopper Sparrow, Cory's Shearwater and heard-only Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will's-widow.

Right after that it was breaktime, and I was off to Arizona. 2 weeks of VENT's Camp Chiricahua was absolutely spectacular, albeit rainy (!). I acquired 91 lifers (including a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher seen while changing planes in Houston, TX). There were too many excellent experiences to wrap into one little blog post, but they included almost a dozen species of hummingbird, 8 species of owls, a fine sampling of venomous critters, and a loud Flame-colored Tanager.

Back to NY! Two weeks later a Red-necked Stint was found at Jamaica Bay while I was out of town. Naturally I was at the site the next morning and was rewarded with not only the stint, but an adult Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (only the state's 3rd record or so!). Finally, last weekend I got to see a Lark Bunting at a local barrier beach. I currently stand at 297 species for NY, including the heard-only caprimulgids, and 467 for ABA.

Cheers!