A quick visit to Jones Beach West End today yielded the best diversity of shorebirds I've seen yet this spring:
120 Black-bellied Plovers (max yesterday 90 at Cupsogue) 1 Semipalmated Plover (max yesterday 4 at Cupsogue) 70 Red Knots--most in full breeding plumage 5 Ruddy Turnstones (max yesterday 9 on Dune Rd.) 90 Short-billed Dowitchers, including one hendersoni (three along Dune Rd. yesterday plus singles at Shinnecock and Cupsogue; and two at Goethals Bridge Pond on Saturday) 600 Dunlin (max yesterday 350 at Cupsogue) 15 Sanderlings (half in partial breeding plumage) 60 Least Sandpipers (max yesterday 60 at Cupsogue) 15 Semipalmated Sandpipers (my first of season) There were at least 170 Common Terns at West End today (following 100 east of Triton Lane yesterday and my first seven of the season at Fire Island on Friday). These were with about 30 Forster's Terns and a pair of Gull-bills (my first was there on Friday evening), and we saw our first Least Tern at Jamaica Bay on Saturday. There was a first summer Lesser Black-backed Gull in the rain pool in front of Field 2, Jones Beach West End, today. A striking aspect of the flights this weekend were the many blackbirds and swallows involved in westward migration. I thought the blackbirds were interesting because we don't often think about blackbird migration continuing this late in the season, but many Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and Brown-headed Cowbirds were clearly migrating at places like Robert Moses SP, near the western tip of Fire Island, and we even saw a meadowlark (presumably Eastern) there yesterday (Eastern Meadowlarks were conspicuous on territory later yesterday at the Grumman grasslands). Barns Swallows were moving westward at Fire Island on Friday morning and again yesterday morning, when 71+ were joined by small numbers of Tree, Bank (2), Rough-winged (1), Purple Martin (2), and Chimney Swift (14). The swallow flight was stronger if anything along Dune Rd. in the afternoon, when we counted 176 migrating westward, along 2 more Banks and a my first Cliff Swallow of the season. Two other species that you might not expect would fly westward along the Long Island coast during spring, but which nevertheless consistently do this, were 4 Eastern Kingbirds and a Red-headed Woodpecker at RMSP yesterday (photo of the RHWO at: ). Although this sort of reorientation behavior is typical of night-migrating Neotropical migrants such as warblers, tanagers, and orioles, of which there were a few along the beaches both Friday morning and yesterday, I'm trying to get used to seeing more Orchard Orioles than Baltimores almost everywhere on LI these days: between the two of us, Pat and I connected with Orchards at Staten Island, Babylon, Edgewood, Fire Island, Calverton, and Eastport this weekend. Warbler highlights from the weekend included a Western Palm Warbler at Clove Lakes Park, Staten Island, on Friday morning (quite rare in southeastern NY during spring); Hooded and Cerulean there on Saturday morning; and a Worm-eating at Hunters Garden, central Suffolk County, yesterday. Somewhat early for central-eastern LI was a Red-eyed Vireo in Manorville yesterday, and very early in my experience was an Eastern Wood-Pewee at Clove Lakes on Saturday. Shai Mitra Bay Shore Think green before you print this email. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
