This evening after witnessing 4 sea turtles being released by the Riverhead Foundation at Ponquogue, I visited the bayside of Tiana Beach (Dune Road, Hampton Bays, bayside) - a bit east of the parking lot (take the boardwalk as far as you can east) where a large collection of shorebirds could be seen from the road.
While the shorebirds mostly consisted of gulls (and, for that matter, laughing gulls [adult and juvenile]) there were some Black Skimmers (which are uncommon this far east), semi-palmated plovers, lots of Terns (common, and Royal along with some others probably), and sandpipers. The Terns were quite active feeding and chasing one another for fish - while the gulls mostly loafed. There were some small dark shorebirds that I couldn't readily ID. It appears that this area is a new hotspot for shorebirds as I've seen a nice collection when driving by - regardless of tide. Eric Salzman has noted the same (his e-mail this morning states: "there were hundreds of terns, mostly Commons with some Royals mixed -- plus shorebirds). This area is definitely worth a good look and is a million times easier to access than the flats of Cupsogue. Morning and evening are probably best for a variety of reasons. A photo of some of the birds in flight can be seen here (the dark bird I couldn't ID is near the middle) http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/largephoto.cgi?ref=209012&w=i - Luke Ormand -- 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
