[nysbirds-l] Go east young man, go east !
This afternoon I found myself birding on Dune Rd., from the Post La. Bridge to Shinnicock Inlet, for the 4th day in a row ! Today's jaunt was very quiet, although I did get 4 Boat-tailed Grackles ! Using this outing's low production as a challenge, when I reached Montauk Highway on my way home, instead of turning left, I turned right (easterly) and headed to Southampton, to ride the "other" Dune Rd., aka Meadow La. This is the western end of Meadow La.- running from Halsey Neck La. to the e/s of Shinnicock Inlet. While driving the 1,or,2 miles to the inlet you pass many large, gorgeous homes (ie, small castles) mostly on the ocean side, with most of the bay side filled up by marshes ! Through the years this location has provided many good birds, ranging from the Curlew Sandpiper, found by Julius & Cecilia Hastings, members of Moriches Bay Audubon Society, before it was called ELIAS, to the Short-eared Owl that we spooked during a "Big Day" in May, led by Steve Biasetti, a few years back ! Today's providence came on the wings of my FOS Osprey, sitting on the only Osprey nest along this great blue way ! Another highlight was the female N.Harrier that was hunting while flying in a westerly direction ! Cheers, Bob P.S...After not using the "term" FOS for quite awhile, I now found myself using it 2 days running. I had been using it for many, many "seasons", until a very knowledgeable and respected birder asked me about my use of it. He then asked me if I had ever thought of another interpretation, which stopped me cold ! My look of shock gave him a good laugh, and I can't remember using it until yesterday ! His words of wisdom brought forth the possibility of FOS standing for "Full of ! I just love the birds and people I have met during these 53 years of birding ! -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
[nysbirds-l] Go east young man, go east !
This afternoon I found myself birding on Dune Rd., from the Post La. Bridge to Shinnicock Inlet, for the 4th day in a row ! Today's jaunt was very quiet, although I did get 4 Boat-tailed Grackles ! Using this outing's low production as a challenge, when I reached Montauk Highway on my way home, instead of turning left, I turned right (easterly) and headed to Southampton, to ride the "other" Dune Rd., aka Meadow La. This is the western end of Meadow La.- running from Halsey Neck La. to the e/s of Shinnicock Inlet. While driving the 1,or,2 miles to the inlet you pass many large, gorgeous homes (ie, small castles) mostly on the ocean side, with most of the bay side filled up by marshes ! Through the years this location has provided many good birds, ranging from the Curlew Sandpiper, found by Julius & Cecilia Hastings, members of Moriches Bay Audubon Society, before it was called ELIAS, to the Short-eared Owl that we spooked during a "Big Day" in May, led by Steve Biasetti, a few years back ! Today's providence came on the wings of my FOS Osprey, sitting on the only Osprey nest along this great blue way ! Another highlight was the female N.Harrier that was hunting while flying in a westerly direction ! Cheers, Bob P.S...After not using the "term" FOS for quite awhile, I now found myself using it 2 days running. I had been using it for many, many "seasons", until a very knowledgeable and respected birder asked me about my use of it. He then asked me if I had ever thought of another interpretation, which stopped me cold ! My look of shock gave him a good laugh, and I can't remember using it until yesterday ! His words of wisdom brought forth the possibility of FOS standing for "Full of ! I just love the birds and people I have met during these 53 years of birding ! -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
[nysbirds-l] Go east, young man, go east !
Having not seen a Buff-breasted Sandpiper this season on the sod fields, I decided to try yesteryear's best bet for finding migrating,fall "grass-pipers"...before the advent of sod farms ! If you were looking for Black-bellied or A.Golden Plovers, Whimbrel and Pectoral or Buff-breasted Sandpipers you visited the Sagaponack potato fields. Granted, the birds were harder to find as they moved along the ~ 6-8" rows that remained after the potatoes were dug...but they were there, for the finding ! Likewise, if you were after Hudsonian or Marbled Godwits, White-rumped, Baird's, Western and Stilt Sandpipers, you visited both Mecox Bay and Sagg Pond. Today, I did all 3 locations with nice results, albeit, I'm still without a BBSA ! I started at a closed Mecox Bay, finding: 1 Black-bellied, 2 A.Golden, 1 Piping & 5 Semipalmated Plovers; 2 Greater & 2 Lesser Yellowlegs; 1 Willet; 5 Sanderling; 3 Semipalmated & 1 Least Sandpipers; a few of the 3 common gull species; 61 Foster's & 2 Black Terns - one of which, had some kind of huge growth/object attached to one of its toes, although the bird can still fly. While enroute to Sagg Pond, I next approached Mecox from its eastern side, with the only new species being a very entertaining Belted Kingfisher. Similar to Mecox, Sagg has not been opened to the ocean recently, however, the beach and limited sandbars held a good variety of birds: 2 A.Golden, 2 Piping and 3 Semipalmated Plovers; 7 Killdeers; 8 Sanderling; 1 Pectoral Sandpiper; 2 Laughing, ~ 10 Ring-billed, ~ 35 Herring, 4 Lesser Black-backed,* ~ 40 Great Black-backed Gulls; 2 Royal & 1 Foster's Tern and another B.Kingfisher. * 3 adults, still in full breeding plumage, the 4th, a 2nd winter bird. On the whole, I enjoyed the day's outing, but it came at a price. As I was driving around Sagaponack, on familiar lanes with the names of Daniels, Hedges and Parsonage, I found only one potato field in the condition described above. Rather, most of the potato fields that haven't been turned into massive homes, have been switched into corn ! While this conversion might equate into more geese to peruse later in the year, it certainly short-circuits the shorebird season. The last notable bird of the day (seen as I headed home) was a Cooper's Hawk, in flight, over Bridgehampton. Cheers, Bob -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
[nysbirds-l] Go east, young man, go east !
Having not seen a Buff-breasted Sandpiper this season on the sod fields, I decided to try yesteryear's best bet for finding migrating,fall "grass-pipers"...before the advent of sod farms ! If you were looking for Black-bellied or A.Golden Plovers, Whimbrel and Pectoral or Buff-breasted Sandpipers you visited the Sagaponack potato fields. Granted, the birds were harder to find as they moved along the ~ 6-8" rows that remained after the potatoes were dug...but they were there, for the finding ! Likewise, if you were after Hudsonian or Marbled Godwits, White-rumped, Baird's, Western and Stilt Sandpipers, you visited both Mecox Bay and Sagg Pond. Today, I did all 3 locations with nice results, albeit, I'm still without a BBSA ! I started at a closed Mecox Bay, finding: 1 Black-bellied, 2 A.Golden, 1 Piping & 5 Semipalmated Plovers; 2 Greater & 2 Lesser Yellowlegs; 1 Willet; 5 Sanderling; 3 Semipalmated & 1 Least Sandpipers; a few of the 3 common gull species; 61 Foster's & 2 Black Terns - one of which, had some kind of huge growth/object attached to one of its toes, although the bird can still fly. While enroute to Sagg Pond, I next approached Mecox from its eastern side, with the only new species being a very entertaining Belted Kingfisher. Similar to Mecox, Sagg has not been opened to the ocean recently, however, the beach and limited sandbars held a good variety of birds: 2 A.Golden, 2 Piping and 3 Semipalmated Plovers; 7 Killdeers; 8 Sanderling; 1 Pectoral Sandpiper; 2 Laughing, ~ 10 Ring-billed, ~ 35 Herring, 4 Lesser Black-backed,* ~ 40 Great Black-backed Gulls; 2 Royal & 1 Foster's Tern and another B.Kingfisher. * 3 adults, still in full breeding plumage, the 4th, a 2nd winter bird. On the whole, I enjoyed the day's outing, but it came at a price. As I was driving around Sagaponack, on familiar lanes with the names of Daniels, Hedges and Parsonage, I found only one potato field in the condition described above. Rather, most of the potato fields that haven't been turned into massive homes, have been switched into corn ! While this conversion might equate into more geese to peruse later in the year, it certainly short-circuits the shorebird season. The last notable bird of the day (seen as I headed home) was a Cooper's Hawk, in flight, over Bridgehampton. Cheers, Bob -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
