On May 18 Hays met Lottie Prushinski and her grand kids: Evan Bender, Glen Prushinski and Ryan Prushinski to go to Great Gull Island for the weekend.  While carrying gear from the boat to the headquarters building Hays and Evan found a nest with an egg in it near the dock at about 4:30 in the afternoon. Evan showed his cousins the nest about five minutes later and there were two eggs in it. This nest should hatch June 8 and is probably one of, if not the first nest that will hatch on Great Gull Island this year.

Lottie brought all the food for meals and cooked up a storm. On Saturday before checking the island for eggs Lottie and the boys worked on repairing the fencing around the big gun emplacement at the eastern end of the island.  After lunch Evan dissected some owl pellets found the preceding weekend on the floor of one of the blinds.  He mentioned that he found two vole skulls in most of the pellets.  A Snowy Owls often winters on Great Gull Island and devours the voles. Glen watched for birds at a look out outside the headquarters building after lunch.  We all checked the island for nests later in the afternoon and in the two days found about 62 nests.

On Sunday Lottie and the boys finished repairing the fencing around the big gun and Captain Bob Wadsworth picked us up to return to the mainland at about 12:30.

Bird watching on Great Gull Island

A small group of us went out to Great Gull Island (GGI), Suffolk County, off  Orient Point on Fri, May 4 to start getting the field station there set up for the tern nesting season (Helen Hays, Matthew Male, Melissa McClure, John Walsh, and Joe DiCostanzo).

A large migration fallout was in evidence on the island with one of the most memorable migrations ever seen on the island in decades of field work there. We arrived in the late morning on Fri, May 4 and after off-loading gear quickly found there were many migrants on the island. We recorded 53 species that day and 53 species again on Sat, May 5. By Sun, May 6, when I left the island, most of the migrants were gone, but we had totaled 76 species, including 17 warblers, in a bit over 48 hours on the tiny island. Highlights included Warbling Vireo; Cape May and Kentucky warblers, and Orchard Oriole. Full list follows.

Canada Goose (5/6 – pair)
Gadwall (5/4 – pair, unusual on GGI)
American Black Duck (5/5 – 1; 5/6 – 2; unusual on GGI)
Mallard (5/5 – 1; unusual on GGI)
Black Scoter (5/4 – 1 male offshore)
Red-breasted Merganser (5/6 – 1 female)
Common Loon (5-10 birds offshore, some calling all 3 days)
Northern Gannet (5/4 -1)
Double-crested Cormorant (migrants flocks and individuals all 3 days)
Great Blue Heron (5/4 – 2 flying over)
Great Egret (5/4 & 5/5 – flyovers)
Snowy Egret (5/5 – 1 with Great Egrets)
Osprey (5/4 & 5/5 – single flyovers)
Northern Harrier (5/4 – 1)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (5/4 – 2; 5/6 – 1)
American Kestrel (5/4 & 5/5 – 1)
Merlin (5/4 – 2; 5/6 – 1)
Peregrine Falcon (5/4 – 1)
American Oystercatcher (5/5 – 1)
Greater Yellowlegs (5/4 – single calling birds flying over)
Spotted Sandpiper (5/4 – 4; 5/6 – 2; breeds on GGI)
Purple Sandpiper (5/5 – 3; on rocks on eastern end)
Bonaparte’s Gull (5/5 – 1; with roosting terns)
Herring Gull (all 3 days)
Great Black-backed Gull (all 3 days)
Roseate Tern (all 3 days; island nester)
Common Tern (all 3 days; island nester)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (5/4 – 10 to 15 birds; 5/5 – 5 to 10 birds)
Belted Kingfisher (5/5 – 1)
Eastern Wood-Pewee (5/5 – 1)
Least Flycatcher (5/4 – 2)
Great Crested Flycatcher (one all 3 days)
Eastern Kingbird (5/5 & 5/6 – 1)
White-eyed Vireo (5/4 & 5/5 – 1)
Blue-headed Vireo (5/4 & 5/5 – 4)
Warbling Vireo (5/4 – 2)
Barn Swallow (all 3 days; breeds on GGI)
Carolina Wren (all 3 days; breeds on GGI)
House Wren (5/6 – 1 singing)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (5/4 – 3; 5/6 – 1)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (all 3 days – 10-15 birds; fewer on 5/6)
Hermit Thrush (5/4 – 1)
Wood Thrush (5/4 – 1)
Gray Catbird (all 3 days; breeds on GGI; only 1 bird first day, many arrived 5/5)
European Starling (all 3 days; breeds on GGI)
Blue-winged Warbler (5/5 – 3 to 4 birds)
Nashville Warbler (5/4 & 5/5 – 2)
Northern Parula (5/4 & 5/5 – 2 to 3)
Yellow Warbler (all 3 days; large numbers first 2 days, only 1 last morning)
Chestnut-sided Warbler (5/4 & 5/5 – 1)
Magnolia Warbler (5/4 & 5/5 – 2 to 3)
Cape May Warbler (5/5 – 1 female)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (5/5 – 1 male)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (5/4 & 5/5 – 10)
Black-throated Green Warbler (5/4 – 1)
Prairie Warbler (5/4 & 5/5 – 1, male)
Palm Warbler (5/5 – 2)
Black-and-white Warbler (5/4 & 5/5 – 10)
American Redstart (5/5 – 1, male)
Ovenbird (5/5 – 1)
Kentucky Warbler (5/5 – 1, male)
Common Yellowthroat (5/4 & 5/5 – 2)
Scarlet Tanager (all 3 days; at least 2 males and 1 female)
Eastern Towhee (5/6 – 3)
Chipping Sparrow (5/5 – 3)
Savannah Sparrow (5/4 & 5/5 – 2 to 4 birds)
Song Sparrow (all 3 days; breeds on GGI)
White-throated Sparrow (all 3 days; but only 1 first day; numbers arrived 5/5)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (5/4 – 1, male)
Indigo Bunting (all 3 days; at least 10 – 12 on 5/4; numbers dwindling after)
Red-winged Blackbird (all 3 days; breeds on GGI)
Common Grackle (5/6 – 3)
Orchard Oriole (5/4 – 1, male; 5/5 – pair)
Baltimore Oriole (5/4 – 4; 5/5 – 15+)
House Finch (all 3 days; breeds on GGI)
American Goldfinch (all 3 days – 2 to 3 birds)

What has happened on the last three work weekends

We moved things to Great Gull Island from Connecticut April 26 and on April 4 brought gear from New York to the island.  The weekend of April 4 we had a south wind. dense fog and a large fall out of birds, identifying  76 species, see Joe’s list.  Having received funding dedicated to building two blinds, Bob Kane framed the blinds April 26 and completed them April 11 with help from those pictured below.  He put them in place using the tractor and we plan to build more as funding comes in this fall.

By May 4 there were 5,000 terns in (none in the last time we were on the island April 30) By May 11 there were scrapes and the birds were settling all over the island.  It is possible we will find eggs May 18.  On May 11 we finished fencing one of the gun emplacements so terns wouldn’t fall off when check during the season went through.

Recent news about bill color pattern of the Terns

These pictures sent by Stephen Newton and taken of Roseate Terns in the Rockabill colony show bill color changes during the breeding season in Ireland that are similar to color changes of Roseate Terns in the Great Gull Island colony.

Date: Most breeders in Irish colonies like this May and 1st half of June.

                                                                                                                                              

Photo : Olly Slessor

Date: June 23, 

Typical breeders in Ireland with small chicks

Photo:  Julie Baer

Date: July 29, 

Maximal extent of red on the bill in Ireland seen last 10 days of July (when shot taken) and early August.

 

  Photo Anthony Mc Geehan