Orchard Beach, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx Thursday August 24, 2017 The puddles in the parking lot at Orchard Beach in Pelham Bay Park were good again today.
Since first being reported by Richard Aracil last Saturday (Aug. 19th), one or two Western Sandpipers have been appearing off and on. I found one of these at around 4:30pm, sent texts to several Bronx birders and tweeted the bird (#birdbx, @DAllenNYC). A fellow backing up his car flushed the sandpiper flock, but I was able to refind the bird by the time Jack Rothman arrived. Actually, it appeared to be a different Western Sandpiper from the one I'd seen earlier. Jack spotted the bird right away, and we got nice looks until another civilian flushed the flock by striding right up to the puddle from the opposite side. Meanwhile, Bob DeCandido, scanning the skies at the Lagoon noted an Osprey or two and a Forster's Tern, etc. Other birds: Mixed peep flock of about 100 birds with around 10 Least Sandpipers and around 90 Semipalmated Sandpipers Lesser Yellowlegs - 4 (seen together by Jack & I on the way out) Short-billed Dowitcher - 4 Gulls: Laughing, Herring, Ring-billed, and Great Black-backed American Crow - 5 including juveniles with a lot of brown in the plumage Barn Swallow - at least 4 getting drinks from the puddles -- The Pectoral Sandpiper was last reported on August 19th (Andrew Baksh), and a White-rumped Sandpiper was reported on August 18th (Carole Griffiths). I believe the most recent Baird's Sandpiper was the one Richard Aracil found on August 15th, that I saw and photographed on the 16th. Viewing is best at high tide and for a couple of hours before and after. Deb Allen Bronx, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
