I'll start with today from the East Pond at Jamaica Bay. The good numbers of shorebirds continued today although I could see that the peep numbers seemed less than Saturday. The diversity of shorebirds has built quite nicely and it was neat to see so many birders enjoying the pond on Saturday and again today.
In total, I recorded 18 species of shorebirds on the pond. The highlights were the continuing American Avocet, Red Knots, Stilt Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpipers and Western Sandpipers. The complete shorebird list include the following: AMERICAN AVOCET American Oystercatcher Black-bellied Plover Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper Solitary Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Ruddy Turnstone Red Knot Stilt Sandpiper Least Sandpiper White-rumped Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Western Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher Both the adult and juvenile Gull-billed Terns continued as well as Blue-winged Teals, Green-winged Teals and a few Northern Shovelers to round out the non shorebird highlights from the East Pond. ******************* On Sunday, I birded both the rising and falling tides at the Cupsogue flats basically spending most of the day out there. I was surprised at the low numbers of shorebirds. Nevertheless, it was a good day to be on the flats and I spent most of my time going over the various age classes of Common Terns. In total, I recorded 16 species of shorebirds which included the following: American Oystercatcher Black-bellied Plover Semipalmated Plover Piping Plover Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs Willet (Eastern) Willet (Western) Lesser Yellowlegs Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling Dunlin Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher I could not find any White-rumped Sandpiper which were present the previous Sunday. An indication they probably pulled out along with others including Piping Plovers whose numbers dropped from 21 the previous Sunday to 1 bird yesterday. Interestingly, a flagged Ruddy Turnstone that I documented the previous Sunday (August 9th) was still there yesterday, so while some birds pulled out others stayed. The Royal Tern numbers were lower than last week with only 4 birds seen along with a juvenile Black Tern--finally getting one on the flats after going nil all season. A sea watch did not produce much, not even shorebirds on the move. Perhaps, we will see the numbers build up out there with favorable winds. Good Summer Birding! -- 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> *The Art of War* <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- 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/ --
