Times Beach 6:05 PM Not much activity. Initially the only bird seen was a lone Caspian Tern. I waited a couple minutes, saw one Ring-billed Gull and started heading back to the car. I decided to take another quick look, and found a Great Egret and Great Blue Heron. About 75 yards from the car I saw a Gray Catbird, American Robin, and a male American Kestrel up in a snag enjoying a dragonfly.
Lake Erie in Woodlawn, NY (between Woodlawn Beach State Park and the wind turbines) 6:30 The first bird seen was a Semipalmated Plover; a minute or two later, I saw a second Semipalmated Plover. I was hoping for some sandpipers of some sort, but didn't see much beyond the ever present Ring-billed Gulls (of which there were 21) and one juvenile Herring Gull. The gulls were clustered at the mouth of a creek (possibly Smoke Creek, but I don't have complete faith in the map I am looking at). Then, I noticed an odd cluster of smaller birds just to the front and left of the gulls. I thought that there were five birds (turns out there were six), and my first impulse was they must be some smaller gull species (Bonaparte's Gulls, or better yet, Little Gulls). The sun was kind of low, and almost directly behind the birds in question, but upon seeing those long, upturned bills, there was no questioning that I stumbled upon five (actually six) American Avocet (a life bird for me)! My next thought was "Where's my %$&^#*@ phone!" (in the car). Three tweens were palying on the beach, and I asked them to please keep an eye on the groups of smaller birds by the gulls, headed back to the car, got the phone, called Jim Horn and HM Bateman, left a message for Alec Humann, and headed back to the beach, and saw not one stinking bird! In my absence, three older kids walked down the beach, scattering the aforementioned birds. That got me to thinking "The sun was in your eyes, they probably weren't Avocets at all. Why don't you keep your phone on you. Why didn't you have someone else come along in the first place?" I called HM back, and told her that the birds flew the coop. She said that she and Jim were in the car, and might as well head down and at least catch the Semipalmated Sandpipers, if nothing else. While waiting for HM and Jim, I spotted 11 Sanderlings and one Turkey Vulture. Jim and HM arrived at approximately 7:10 pm, and just as they walked on to the beach, the Avocets returned. All of us got pretty good views, and if you couldn't tell, I was pretty excited. Feel free to get in touch off list should you need additional information on the location. Joseph Fell Buffalo -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
