On Monday Sue and I started our morning at Robert Moses State Park which, except for a few warblers was quiet. We proceeded west down Ocean Parkway and made a stop at Gilgo Beach, where for the last few years Forster's Terns have been using the floating docks down at the west end of the marina as an early fall roost (we observed thirty-five birds on the docks). As we were leaving we noticed a bird sitting on the wire near the first home at the east end of the Gilgo Beach parking area - Western Kingbird. The bird, an individual in worn plumage, quickly flew toward the parkway and we could not relocate it. We then proceeded to West End, where the previously reported Marbled Godwit was sleeping on the sandbar. At the swale an immature American Golden Plover was picking through the mud. Other shorebirds present in the swale and on the beach included White-rumped, Semi, and Western Sandpipers.
Sue and I spent five days on Monhegan Island, Maine, a well known migrant trap twelve miles east of Port Clyde, ME. Although we encountered no cold fronts and birding was slow, we still managed Lark (3) and Clay-colored Sparrows (3), Dickcissel (10), Philadelphia Vireo (2), Orange-crowned Warbler (1), Western Kingbird (1) and Lapland Longspur (2). A few nice looks at Great Shearwater were obtained on the ferry ride home. Photos of some Monhegan Island birds, as well as juvenile White-rumped Sandpiper and the Gilgo Western Kingbird (poor photo) can be found at my flickr website at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kfeustel/ Ken & Sue Feustel -- 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/ --
