People, Before someone gets hurt, please note that the routes marked on this map are entirely incorrect. The areas indicated as the flats are not in fact the flats that can be reached on foot; the crossing point is marked in the wrong place and goes in the wrong direction; the "trail through marsh" marked in blue is not a route I have ever seen a human traverse; etc., etc.
I'm going to make one more point here, before I completely lose patience with this thread. Google maps are not the solution to this problem! If you are not comfortable birding this area without your every step being pre-plotted via gps, go to the parking lot and tag along with someone who knows what they are doing. Again, Google maps are not the solution to this problem! I will re-quote what I posted the other day: The flats around Moriches Inlet do not have a unique pair of coordinates. In fact, the good spots to check in this area don't even really have a finite set of coordinates. They change from minute to minute, day to day, and year to year, and they are densely interspersed with places you probably don't want to be. What you want are directions to Pikes Beach and Cupsogue County Park (these are at the west end of Dune Rd, just east of Moriches Inlet, Suffolk County, Long Island), and then some good judgment in exploration of the tidal marshes and flats to the north of these well marked localities. The Red-necked Stint has been seen in many places in the five acre area directly north of the main parking lot at Cupsogue. The portions of this area that exposed at low tide but devoid of marsh vegetation are what people are referring to as "the flats." Experience has shown that birds originally found in this area have often moved over to another patch of habitat a bit to the east, directly north of Pikes Beach (and vice versa); examples include a Red-necked Stint in July 2000 and a Curlew Sandpiper in June 2012, as well as innumerable less rare but individually distinctive shorebirds. Binary coordinates are not what you need--remember, there is an ecologically critical third dimension involved here, the vertical one, which allows for substrates to be variably immersed and exposed, according to tides and weather. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ From: bounce-99253974-11143...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-99253974-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Angus Wilson [oceanwander...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, July 05, 2013 2:28 PM To: NYSBIRDS-L Cc: Arie Gilbert Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Red-necked Stint questions Hi Arie, I don't think your Google map annotations are plotted quite right and I am not savvy enough to modify them. The dredge island that some folk camp on and is used as a landmark for birders is to the RIGHT of the shallows you've circled. The flats suitable for birding are SE of this other island. To put it another way, they just left (west) of the words "Incorporated Village...". The channel you have marked is far too deep to cross. One has to proceed further up the narrow spit of sand from where your brown and blue lines intersect and then cross very carefully on a NE vector from there. On the falling tide the channel can be waist deep or greater with some current so caution is advised. The 4WD road (red) and beach path (brown) are correct. Cheers, Angus Wilson -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- ________________________________ Washington Monthly<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/americas_bestbangforthebuck_co039461.php> magazine ranks the College of Staten Island as one of "America's Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges" -- 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/ --
