A tour of sod fields in Eastport and Riverhead early this afternoon lacked the quantity of "grasspipers" reported within the past week, but quality was still high.
In Eastport, on the field bordered by Eastport Manor and Head of the Neck roads, I found the following birds: 1 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER among 8 Black-bellied Plovers, 1 Semipalmated Plover, and 27 Killdeer. The Route 51 fields nearby were birdless, the western field recently harvested and reduced to roughly broken earth. In Riverhead, it took some time but I was eventually able to find the previously reported 6 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS on the fallow Doctor's Path fields, south of the eponymous apartment complex. When they were visible at all it was mostly in flight. The Buffies and the few other shorebirds present (1 Black-bellied Plover, 6-7 Killdeer, 3 Least Sandpipers) were skittish, probably due to the presence of a hunting Red-tailed Hawk, seen soaring and perched on an the wheel of an irrigation rig. When flushed the birds would fly out of sight into the distance or behind various landscape elements. Of the three views I had of the Buffies earthbound, the longest and closest looks (1-2 minutes, ~100 ft.) were at the extreme southern end of the fields, where they intermingled with Starlings. A heads=up to anyone heading out to the Riverhead area: the field on the west side of Route 105 and north of Northville Turnpike--where a 99-strong flock of American Golden Plovers was found two weeks ago--has been manicured and reseeded and held no birds today. -- 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/ --
