Sunday afternoon (12:30-4:00) I birded Pike's Beach and Cupsogue County Park, starting about 50 minutes after low tide.
At Pike's there were 39 ROYAL TERNS roosting on the western sandbar, a mix of adults and juveniles. One or two of the adults seemed to still be in young-feeding mode (hormones yet to diminish?). These birds would fly over and around the roosting flock a bit, carrying food (appeared to be snapper bluefish) and calling all the while. They would eventually settle among the other birds, but they would not eat the fish immediately. I saw both juvenile and adult birds approach, the former assuming begging posture. But the bird(s) in question would ignore the juveniles and move away from other adults, either on foot or flying short distances. It/they seemed to be looking for a specific recipient which never appeared. Only after this went on for a while would the adult eat the fish itself. Also present were 14 Red Knots, and a Ruddy Turnstone was seen picking at the underside of some old driftwood (bulkhead material), feeding on barnacles perhaps. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a turnstone reaching up to obtain food before. But then I once saw one in the parking lot of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel rest area eating french fries spilled on the pavement, so why not? At Cupsogue the previously reported trio of MARBLED GODWITS were still present, feeding at the extreme northeast edge of the flats. Also present was a single Pectoral Sandpiper and, of the two willets I studied well enough to ID to subspecies, one was a molting adult "Western". Many Common Terns were roosting on the flats, but, despite much careful scoping, no extraordinary species were detected among them. At the head of the flats, one adult and one juvenile Clapper Rail were seen. -- 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/ --
