By Mike Busch

It finally felt like Fall for the first time this week, which should move some of the stragglers out of our area and bring in some of our winter visitors.  The late arrival of the cold has stretched the fall migration out a little longer than usual and you will see below a nice variety of shorebirds and warblers still hanging around.

The Long Island Wildlife Photography Group gets bigger and better every week.  With over 12,000 members I could put one of these together one of these every day.  This week they came back with another amazing collection and variety of local wildlife images.  Some notable finds include Pectoral Sandpiper, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Black Throated Green Warbler, Golden Crowned Kinglet, Yellow-Billed Cuckoo, Eastern Phoebe,  Cape May Warbler and the first Northern Shovelers back for the Winter.

The Bald Eagle action has been great as some of the younger Eagles born over the last several years try to find their way and stake out territory mixed in with the adults.  It is going to get very interesting as their comeback continues.  It’s not hard to imagine the nesting population doubling or tripling over the next few years.  Check out a great video from Natalie Ann of a migrating Juvenile Bald Eagle squatting in another pair’s nest when they were out on page 5.

This week’s cover shot goes to Brian Doherty with a great shot of a pair of Belted Kingfishers together.  Check out all 5 pages and feel free to share.

Barbara Lash | Juvenile Bald Eagles

Kimberly Lechner | Groundhog

Kimberly Lechner Sanchez | Pectoral Sandpiper

Lisa Nadler-Reischer | Juvenile Skimmer

Paul Peluso | Humpback Whale

William Walsh | Black Capped Chickadee

Barbara Lash | Yellow Rumped Warbler

Brian Doherty | Least Sandpiper

Cat Yellen-Rebennack | Monarch Butterflies

Lauren Bianco | Leucistic Robin

More Images on Pages 2,3,4 and 5