By Mike Busch

The Long Island Wildlife Photography group had another stellar week of images with a wide variety of Shorebirds, Raptors, Ducks, Warblers, Seals, Turtles and even a Muskrat!

I am really impressed with the quality of the photos, with more and more standout images with excellent focus, detail, lighting,  and composition.

You will also notice several standout Swan images with newly hatched Cygnets as well as some Osprey and American Oystercatchers mating.  This made me curious about the different breeding dates for New York birds.

I found some information on the N.Y State Dec Website with a great table that lists the breeding season date for most NY Birds including egg dates, number of broods, incubation period, nesting period, and fledgling dates.

Click here for the table. 

Also this week we had the first Whale sighting off the South shore with a few fisherman spotting a tail slapping Humpback off Fire Island Inlet, click here for the video and story. 

If you want a great chance to see this for yourself, our friends from Gotham Whale are starting their Whale watches with American Princess Cruises on weekends starting May 5th.  We did several group outings with them last year with tremendous success.  They have arranged a Groupon for big discount (about 30%) that can be used through June.  Click here for the details.

This week’s cover shot goes to William Walsh with a great shot of a pair of Tree Swallows.  If you have time, please check out all 5 pages below!

Vicki Jauron | Great Egret

Jill Weigold Wendling | Bald Eagle

Jimmy Johnny | Belted Kingfisher

John Martello | Swan Family

Lance Howard | Great Egret

Nancy Viscardi-Ricigliano | Black Crowned Night Heron

Robert Kaplan | Cormorant

Robert Kaplan | House Finch

Sherri Mark Dove | Wood Duck

Steven Williams | Red-Winged Blackbird