Wade/Wuffles,
I looked up Bird Island, NY and it shows up in the Niagara River by 'the Falls'. 'Bird Island' must be a local name for some feature in Northport Harbor? Is it a sandbar/shoal that comes out a low tide where the birds hang out? I know that we have a tidal range of around 8' in Lloyd Harbor with an island or two that appear only between mid and low tides. I guess I need to check a nautical chart of Northport Harbor.
D'oh! I just checked a nautical chart and sure enough, when I zoomed in to Northport Harbor Bird Island shows up:
NOAA So there are actually 2 Bird Islands in NY State one in the east and the other is way west. It just goes to show that for nautical matters you really need a chart - not a map from google maps. I have never seen this feature because I have only been to the mouth of Northport Harbor in my Lightning and have never gone that far up (south). It does look pretty shallow. I would be dragging some center board in my Lightning in there. Fortunately it can be raised bit by bit as each scrape indicates that the depth is decreasing.
Yet another LI location for the SoundBounder to check out.