The Birds of Block Island - With Scott Comings

BirdNote^®

Scott Comings - Birds of Block Island

By Dominic Black, from an interview with Scott Comings

This is BirdNote, and I'm Dominic Black. 

When I asked Scott Comings about the birds of Block Island, he laughed:

"You know it's fun to talk about stuff you love so this is right up my alley…"

Block Islands ten miles off the coast of Rhode Island. Scott spent a lot of time there when he was growing up. And — he says — it's a magical place. 

"Towards the end of May is still the end of the songbird migration and the birds are in their alternate plumage…their fancy plumage and that's always really fun to see…" 

"And then going into June and July that's prime nesting season and we try to keep track of barn owl nests and norther harrier nests and piping plovers and other shorebirds."

Scott's doing this work day in, day out as Associate State Director with the Rhode Island chapter of the Nature Conservancy. So I ask him if there's a bird that still gets him really excited when he sees it…

"Well the one that's always great to see is the Blackburnian Warbler. To me I just love that bird, and to see it in the sun is really neat…I still take a lot of pleasure in seeing things like the Northern Harrier, Block Island's the last place that bird nests in the state. Pretty much any bird I see I really, really enjoy. You know my favorite probably changes every day."

For BirdNote, I'm Dominic Black.

###

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Blackburnian Warbler 197088 recorded by Bob McGuire. Northern Harrier [XC107004] recorded by Martin St-Michael : http://www.xeno-canto.org/107004
Surf sounds: Surf Small Detailed SFX #21; Surf Moderate SFX #23; and Surf Distant SFX #27 from 
Nature Essentials recorded by Gordon Hempton of QuietPlanet.com 
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Dominic Black
© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org  May 2015  Narrator: Dominic Black

ID#