It was great to get back to Mecox Inlet, my first visit of the summer. The sand flats by the bay are fenced off, which appears to be making the Least Terns and Piping Plovers very happy, but which makes scanning for terns and shorebirds a mostly scoping experience.
Friday morning, 7/19, notable birds included one Red Knot, a Black Tern, 2 Royal Terns, and 6 Piping Plovers. There were also 10 Great Egrets close to shore, a high number in my sporadic visits there every summer, and about 26 Black Skimmers. This morning, 7/20, there were no egrets during my 1-hour visit, but several scans by scope revealed a SANDWICH TERN with the Common Terns, plus 3 Royal Terns and 3 Piping Plovers. There were few shorebirds both mornings, mostly Semipalmated Sandpipers, a couple of Short-billed Dowitchers, and one Greater Yellowlegs. There may have been a bit more variety further out on the sand flats, beyond scoping range. Yesterday afternoon I managed to get entry into Shinnecock County Park East, which is the small park across the inlet from what we usually think of as "Shinnecock" and usually only open to campers and Suffolk County resident green ide holders, and found a flock of 8 Common Eiders. I'm not sure how usual or unusual that is for this time of year. *Donna L. Schulman* * Forest Hills, NY + North Brunswick, NJ [email protected] Queensgirl Blog <http://queensgirl30.wordpress.com/>* *New York Birders Conference <http://www.nybirdersconference.org/>* * <http://www.flickr.com/photos/queensgirl>* -- 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/ --
