I spent the middle of the day at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge today, with the unquestionable highlight being 12 ADULT Gull-billed Terns at the Raunt on the East Pond. This was my high count at any one time, and there could well have been a couple of others, since they weren't all staying perched for long. This is by far my all-time personal high count for the Refuge (and New York City for that matter).
Shorebird numbers are steadily increasing, although the bulk of the Short-billed Dowitchers were actually on the lowered West Pond today. All told between the two Ponds I counted ~730 Short-billed Dowitchers, over 500 of which were on the West Pond. The only other birds of note were 6 Stilt Sandpipers on the East Pond (3 at the very north end, 3 well south of the cove on the west side). Good Birding -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Temporary archive: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
