The town of Southampton has just opened ( is in the process of building ) a new area just to the west of the bay side parking area at Pike's beach. It consists of a trail to a bird watching platform with benchs, access to the mud flats, and a new parking lot off Dune Road Holding about a dozen cars. The town plans to close the parking area off Cove Rd.(,next to the mayors house), as being a violation of code, and the locals are sending around a petition asking the town to finish the work there soon, and set up some rules so that people will not use this parking lot to park for camping or swimming at Pikes beach and avoid a parking fee in that lot. The community of Westhampton Dunes seems to be very helpful to bird watchers. Andy Murphy In a message dated 7/27/2009 10:48:03 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
Pike's Beach and Cupsogue are the best shorebird locations on the East End by far. Mecox Bay is their only competitor but there are issues about parking, water level and ease of getting to the flats. At Pike's Beach, it is possible to walk east or west at any tide (although a rising tide is the best) and see shore birds and other water birds, often in large numbers. Cupsogue itself is a little trickier; it has extensive flats at low tide and. like Mecox, attracts many terns and lots of shorebirds, but it requires wading across inlets and mud flats to get to the best areas. Eileen Schwinn scheduled visits to Pike's Beach for both days this weekend. Saturday's walk was a program of ELIAS or Eastern Long Island Audubon and attracted a good 30 participants in warm, sunny weather. Sunday's walk, organized by (of all places) the Parrish Art Museum, had a much smaller crowd and had to be squeezed in between early thunderstorms and late arriving dense fog. Both walks were marked by good numbers of Short-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Sanderlings, Willets and Laughing Gulls, plus smaller numbers of Least Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones, all apparently feeding on horseshoe crab eggs. Although the numbers of horseshoe crabs coming to this beach to mate and nest has been severely diminished by a thriving (and partly illegal) market for these ancient creatures, there are now apparently fair numbers of late arrivals. Harvesting horseshoe crabs after June 1st is not legal in New York and both the legal and illegal harvest pretty much comes to a halt; as a result, the inexorable workings of evolution (even on such ancient creatures!) seems to be encouraging late nesting! Besides the above listed birds, there was one Red Knot on Saturday feeding on the horseshoe crab eggs. Also seen in the area were Little Blue Heron and a pair of Royal Terns (on Saturday) and a single Forster's Tern (today). In the category of local breeders, there were numbers of Piping Plover (both days), a single Am. Oystercatcher (on Saturday) and Herring, Great Black-backed and Ring-billed Gulls (not a local breeder) as well as Least and Common Terns. Now that I have rescued my Peruvian Amazonian boots (useful for marsh and mud sloshing), I think I need to try the Cupsogue flats! Eric Salzman -- PO Box 775 (14 Randall Lane) East Quogue, NY 11942 phone: 631 653-5236 email: <[email protected]> website: <http://ericsalzman.com> PLEASE NOTE: NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: <[email protected]> & NEW WEBSITE <www.ericsalzman.com> -- PO Box 775 (14 Randall Lane) East Quogue, NY 11942 phone: 631 653-5236 email: <[email protected]> website: <http://ericsalzman.com> PLEASE NOTE: NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: <[email protected]> & NEW WEBSITE <www.ericsalzman.com> **************An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221823322x1201398723/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd=Jul yExcfooterNO62) -- 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/ --
