Today, between ~ 2 & 4 PM, I followed up on two recent posts in the Riverhead area. Arriving at the sod field located at the intersection of Sound Ave & Osborne Ave, Baiting Hollow, I found 59 Golden Plovers, 77 Killdeers, a ton of E.Starlings and 1 A.Robin. The two tractor /mowers busily cutting the grass were instrumental in my being able to easily rule out any Black-bellies in the flushed plover flights.
The sod field behind the fire fighters training site, on the n/s Northville Turnpike, at the intersection of Route 105, Riverhead was also rewarding. All of the following birds were found in the dirt area, as Doug reported this AM. I counted 2 Buff-breasted Sandpipers*, 35 Killdeers, 6 Semi-palmated Plovers and 2, possibly 3, Black-bellied Plovers. *I believe I did see the other 3 Buffies seen by Doug, however, this time a tractor/ mower had a negative affect ! Just as I moved the scope on to a new group of birds, the T/M working the grass area right behind them, caused the birds to flush. Among them were 5 similar, smaller birds (which I thought might be the buffies) but could not catch up with them. During a subsequent scan, I had close views (~50') of 2 Buff-breasted Sandpipers. Cheers, Bob -- 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/ --
