On Jamaica Bay's East Pond, there was a Buff-breasted Sandpiper on the sand spit north of the Raunt late this morning - for a little while until a Peregrine caused everything to shuffle. Also present were at least 6 Western Sandpipers and 2 Pectoral Sandpipers. Overall numbers of shorebirds look good, but large numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers mostly account for that, with variety not what you'd want in early September.
Among non-shorebirds, two Caspian Terns made sporadic appearances. And 2 many Peregrines - who really seem to be getting brazen. One of them attacked a Semi Sandpiper maybe 20 feet from where I was standing (at the south end). I think it made contact, as the Semi seemed to stumble. But it escaped. Right after that, although I didn't see any sandpipers still close by, it again approached within 20 feet of me. It made for nice head on pictures. Steve Walter Bayside, 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/ --
