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If you have a suggestion for a bird walk, please contact
Eileen Schwinn at beachmed@optonline.net.
If you have a suggestion for a program please contact
Suzi Stewart at suzizny@aol.com
© 2020 Eastern Long Island Audubon Society
Join us on the first Monday of the month for our public program!
Eastern Long Island Audubon Society is a Chapter of the National Audubon Society serving the communiites from Patchogue to Montauk along the South Shore of Long Island, including western Riverhead, Brookhaven, Southampton and East Hampton.
Join ELIAS for our second
ZOOM Meeting on April 5th
at 7:00 pm
Spring Birding on Long Island:
Migration and More…
with Shai Mitra
Long Island is an exceptional place to observe birds, owing to its diversity of habitats and geographic position. It is also a challenging environment for birders to navigate, for these same reasons, and because it is so densely urbanized. This talk will focus on strategies for making the most of one’s time afield, with an emphasis on springtime, April through June. Seaducks, shorebirds, and forest-breeding songbirds migrate through our area much more rapidly in spring than in fall, with tighter date windows and much less regular patterns of occurrence—especially for songbirds on eastern Long Island. Meanwhile, many species’ local breeding activities reach their peaks in late May and early June, even before the latest boreal migrants have passed through, while pelagic birds from the far ends of the planet are reaching our waters at the same time! Clearly, Memorial Day is the very worst time to “hang up one’s binoculars” as many a warbler-watching friend of mine has threatened to do! The long days of June are too few for all of the many projects we’ll discuss. We will fine-tune our field approach by assessing similarities and differences between the North and South Shores, and between western and eastern Long Island. Birders can deepen their appreciation of birds and their insights into the natural world by learning to predict and observe seasonal movements at unexpected times and in unexpected places—including right in one’s own neighborhood.
Shai Mitra has studied birds in the northeastern United States and around the world for more than 40 years. He received a BA in Biology from Cornell Univesity in 1989 and a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago in 1996. From 1996-2000 he operated a major bird-banding station at the Fire Island Lighthouse, on the South Shore of Long Island. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Biology at the College of Staten Island, with research interests in the areas of avian ecology, evolution, and conservation. Shai is Editor of The Kingbird, the quarterly publication of the New York State Ornithological Association; co-compiler of bird records for the New York City and Long Island region; Chair of the Rhode Island Avian Records Committee; and co-compiler of the Southern Nassau County and Napatree, Rhode Island, Christmas Bird Counts.
To join the April 5th Zoom meeting you must register in advance:
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
