Here are a few notes from last weekend on birds not mentioned or emphasized in previous reports.
At Jones Beach, Nassau Co., on Friday afternoon, the inclement weather discouraged human activity enough to allow birds to use the Short Beach island and Field 2 parking areas without much disturbance. At the former, the many shorebirds included nine Western (and zero Eastern) Willets—my largest tally of inornatus yet this year. Also present there were three adult Gull-billed Terns, resting and eating crabs, and at least seven brand-new Least Tern juvs. The flock of American Oystercatchers had already grown to 90 birds—all adults or older immatures (= zero juvs). A breeding-plumaged Black Tern foraged over the bay. On the ocean side, a surprisingly large group of ragged brown gulls (few adults and no juvs) were enjoying a peaceful afternoon on Field 2, at low tide no less. Among these were two Lesser-black-backed Gulls, a yearling and a two year-old, continuing the trend of summer prevalence that I emphasized back in June: http://picasaweb.google.com/tixbirdz/LongIslandMiscellany2010# A smaller gull flock at Captree SP, a few miles east along the beach in Suffolk Co., featured several brand-new Herring Gulls—undoubtedly from the small colonies on the nearby bay islands but reminders of the great colony at Captree itself, which was very famous in an earlier era. At Jamaica Bay on Saturday, it’s worth noting that the previously reported juv Least Bittern was undoubtedly a local product, a hint as to how many interesting things probably went undetected on and around the bloated and fetid East Pond earlier this summer. Juv Forster’s Terns can be studied to great advantage there, along with their still-attentive parents, offering terrific opportunities to learn vocalizations, plumage features, and habits distinguishing this species from the very similar Common Tern. The only Common Tern I noticed on the East Pond on Saturday was a fly-over adult that happened to call. Five of us (Pat, Joan, Gerta, Andrew) ran out to Cupsogue later on Saturday, where we didn’t add much to the many notable observations recorded by Seth Ausubel et al. earlier in the day. This was my first visit out there in two weeks, and the most immediately obvious changes involved the fledging of many juv Common Terns (80+) and the abrupt and nearly complete withdrawal of Eastern Willets. It was heartening to see that the local terns managed to bring off so many young despite relentless pressure from campers and their dogs. In contrast to the gangs of 90+ adult Willets present just two weeks ago, we found just two adults today, along with the only full-grown juv I’ve seen yet this season. While searching unsuccessfully for Seth et al.’s Brown Pelican, we turned up three juv Oystercatchers, and Royal Terns are finally starting to build up in numbers: we saw seven at Pikes Beach plus two more at Cupsogue. Last summer, our marsh-nesting birds suffered almost complete nesting failure, due to flood tides. Throughout our visit, actively migrating shorebirds were conspicuous—mostly SB Dows and Semi Sands, but also a Whimbrel and several other species. Some of the over-summering shorebirds were still present also, including both winter-plumaged (= first summer?) Dunlin, but we did not see Schnauzer the tumor-afflicted Knot. The most interesting shorebird we saw was a tiny-billed Western Sandpiper (photos at site cited above), which will be sure to trouble our sleep when we’re gleaning through October’s lingering peeps. 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/ --
