The Lapwings could well be in the area tomorrow (they are generally diurnal migrants) and I encourage searchers to check open grassy areas starting of course with the horse pastures in Deep Hollow or if necessary areas of disturbed soil, anywhere they might clean invertebrates. Twice the birds were spooked into flight by deer.
Congratulations to Jorn Ake for an amazing find and to Peter Polshek for getting the rest of us on the birds before it became too dark to see. An extremely rare vagrant to the northeast from Europe, Lapwing has occurred in New York State on at least 5 previous occasions. The last twitchable bird being the one that lingered around through the Mecox Dairy area (Watermill, Suffolk Co.) in 1995 (Jan-Mar). Focusing on the South Fork, another was collected by Beebe at Mecox Bay in late 1905 and a few readers will even remember the bird from Deep Hollow in early December 1966! In the past few days, 4 different Lapwings were reported, with 2 together on Nantucket, Nantucket (still present this morning) and one seen and photographed on 3 Nov in Maine. Closer to home, workers involved in the Hurricane Sandy cleanup photographed a Lapwing in an area of Jones Beach (? I think)that is not accessible to the public. Please post immediately to this list if you have any positive (or negative) news tomorrow. Many area birders will face the vexing challenge of 'Virginia's Warbler' vs 'Lapwing'. Maybe some will score twice. -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- 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/ --
