A juvenile Baird's Sandpiper (presumably the same bird reported here Wed. & Thur.) made a brief appearance (< 2 minutes) in the puddles of parking field #7 at Heckscher State Park morning, just before 11:00. When I first arrived the only shorebird in sight was a lone Least Sandpiper. Ken Thompson arrived shortly thereafter and after chatting a bit we separately resumed our "auto tours" of the lot, creeping along the borders of the puddles and grassy areas. Not spotting anything, I was soon on my way out the exit road, but pulled over to wait for Ken when I saw him talking with another vehicular birder, which turned out to be Sue Fuestel. He relayed Sue's second hand report of a Wilson's Phalarope found there earlier by Brent Bomkamp! After shaking my head at my bad luck at missing not 1, but 2 good birds, I was about to drive off to work when I spotted a small flock of "peeps" fly in and land near a puddle. Ken and I delayed our departures to investigate. The first birds spotted were all Semipalmated Sandpipers. But I soon spotted the Baird's, off by itself in an even closer puddle (~25 ft. away). A few photos were obtained before all the shorebirds flew off the the southeast. A brief search didn't turn up any of the birds again. Heckscher should be a good spot to search for shorebirds, gulls, and terns post-hurricane. Hope everyone gets through the storm unscathed and sees some good birds afterward.John Gluth
-- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
