Salutations: Happy Chinese Valentine’s Day! Yesterday, I spent a good 5+ hours on the East Pond, making my way up north from the southend. My goal was to get to “Calidrid Crossing” to cut back the trail. I did accomplish that and cleared out most of the Poison Ivy until my blade lost its edge. Another visit should give me a chance to make it cleaner. Nevertheless, it is passable!
The water remains high in several areas on the pond; especially, up North. However, more flats have opened up on the southend and if we continue to get dry weather and good drainage, it should look quite good in a week or two. Here is a link showing photos of how high the water is in some areas up North. https://twitter.com/birdingdude/status/1298075730040029185?s=21 Ideally, we want dryer flats and then some rain. The result would be little pools formed which is a magnet for hungry peeps. I think we will get there. As far as my survey: there were well over 1,000 shorebirds on the pond, dominated by Semipalmated Sandpipers who outnumbered the Least Sandpipers. Both species were quite vocal and active; engaging in a lot of bumping and what I like to call “flexing.” The highlights included double digit numbers of Western Sandpipers and 1 Adult White-rumped Sandpiper beginning it’s pre-basic moult. I have reached out to NPS to work out setting up the boot washing station. If you visit please exercise caution navigating the pond, respecting the habitat and the birds. Cheers, -------- "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." ~ Frederick Douglass 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu The Art of War > (\__/) > (= '.'=) > (") _ (") > Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device! Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
