Because recent sea-watching along the south shore of Long Island has not been very productive, I was heartened to see a fairly distant Cory's Shearwater from the Shinnecock Inlet overlook at about 7 p.m. this evening. What may have been the same bird appeared about 8 minutes later, considerably closer.
Shorebird movement seems to be on the increase, with at least 80 Short-billed Dowitchers and 40 Semipalmated Sandpipers joining Willets and Least Sandpipers on the bay shore near Tiana Beach along Dune Road.. Before arriving at Dune Road, I stopped at Gabreskie Airport, where 3 Grasshopper Sparrows (adult and juvenile) were on the fence, but no Vesper Sparrows were to be seen. In Stony Brook, two young Yellow-crowned Night Herons in a nest directly over a small street appear ready to leave the nest very soon. Doug Futuyma Stony Brook -- 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/ --