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A yellow-rumped warbler enjoys the view during a rest on the North Fork after its migration. (Photo credit: Angela Colangelo)

Ahem — coming down with something?

North Fork birders are setting their day job emails to auto-reply, wiping off their binoculars and scope lenses and heading off in search of seasonal sparrows, buntings and warblers. May is peak songbird migration season, and on the North Fork, we are spoiled when it comes to birding thanks to local re-wilding and land conservation efforts. The peak lasts only a couple of weeks, so if you’re looking to dive into birding and finally see what a yellow-bellied sapsucker looks like—it’s adorable—get outside at these top birding spots, all conveniently located on the East End.

Inlet Pond County Park
65275 Route 48, Greenport

New to birding? A perk of this spot is the North Fork Audubon Society and the Roy Latham Nature Center. The society maintains the “Red House,” gardens and the trails where you can spot butterflies in the butterfly garden; red-winged blackbirds, great crested flycatchers, scarlet tanagers and cedar waxwings along the trails; and egrets and herons along the water’s edge. If you don’t recognize any of those bird names, great! They host educational events throughout the year that benefit even seasoned birders with those migration and habitat tips that could be the difference between “Oh wow!” when that special bird everyone is talking about is spotted and “Oh man!” when it’s missed.

Paul Stoutenburgh Preserve
63445 Main Road, Southold

The wealth of habitat diversity in this 52-acre package makes this preserve special to birders. Hit up the grassy spots that provide hideouts for Northern bobwhite, a voracious tick-eating quail. Yellow-rumped warblers and yellow-billed cuckoo—which you’ll hear before you see—have been spotted there in the spring. To find the cuckoo, look for spots that might harbor caterpillars, the cuckoo’s food of choice. Look high up in the trees but close to the trunks to see the great horned owls and screech owls spotted in the wooded areas of the preserve.

North Fork Preserve
4555-4599 Sound Ave., Riverhead

Warblers, warblers, warblers!

A quick peek at ebird.org for last May has us jazzed to head there to get frustrated looking for and trying to identify those quick-moving busy little birds among the new spring leaves. It’s worth it because they’re the cutest. The list includes Wilson’s, Magnolia and even a Nashville.

The Ruth Oliva Preserve at Dam Pond
11855 Route 48, East Marion

Part of an 118-acre collection of conserved land, Dam Pond’s shoreline is a great area to watch osprey hunt, nest and do other osprey things. Many different swallows have been spotted here including barn, tree and bank, as well as North America’s largest, the purple martin, whose population has been steeply declining the last few decades. Swallows are equipped to do everything on the fly so if you see a bird darting here and there, chances are it’s a swallow.

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