Patricia Lindsay and I spent today between Moriches and Shinnecock Inlets, Suffolk County.
While I worked the Cupsogue flats on the morning's rising tide, Pat did a seawatch, then counted shorebirds at Pikes Beach. She found the seawatching slow during the morning, and it was brutally slow ever after today, but she did record an early Cory's Shearwater, 3 Common Eiders, 10 Gannets milling, and 7 Common Loons migrating. My highlights on the flats were large numbers of shorebirds (see below), an early "Western" Willet and 2 Black Terns in breeding plumage. The highlight of Pat's visit to Pikes Beach was a Western Sandpiper in full breeding plumage. Although we often see bright, long-billed Semipalmated Sandpipers in spring--including a few birds that are very suggestive of Western--this bird stood out as an absolutely typical, full breeding-plumaged Western Sandpiper. I don't believe that either of us had ever seen such a bird in May on Long Island before today. I returned with her after I finished on the flats and we spent a couple of hours searching between 11:00 and 13:00, but we couldn't find it again. Eileen Schwinn and Eric Salzman saw the bird earlier with Pat. Shorebird numbers were excellent. The following totals are derived from simultaneous counts at Cupsogue and Pikes: Black-bellied Plover--91 Ruddy Turnstone--700 Red Knot--282 Sanderling--at least 3,000 Dunlin--120 Semipalmated Sandpiper--at least 4,000 White-rumped Sandpiper--4 Short-billed Dowitcher--30 We drove Dune Rd. and looked at the ocean from Shinnecock Inlet during the mid afternoon, but we didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I went back out on the flats on the falling tide and found a different mix of shorebirds as well as a couple of additional highlights, such as a second summer type Forster's Tern (my first this year east of Moriches Inlet), and a Roseate Tern. Shai Mitra Bay Shore Think green before you print this email. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
