This evening I went for a kayak trip and found a Least Tern colony in Flanders Bay on a spit of land that is inaccessible via foot. There looked to be about 25 pairs of birds occupying the bit of land. I had noticed a plover yesterday nearby so it is possible that there are plovers breeding on-site, but I didn't get out on foot to check. I assume that the Nature Conservancy or the State knows about the site since there was some fencing - but clearly hasn't been attended to this year so if anyone knows more about this feel free to contact me, I certainly wouldn't mind doing some "counting" of the birds given my proximity to the site and past experience as a plover/tern monitor.
There were several short-billed dowitchers, semi-palmated sanderlings and willets. Some of these birds, interestingly enough, were feeding on horseshoe crab eggs that had just been laid as I watched the pair of crabs separate and go back into the water as the birds fed where they had been. Photos can be seen here: http://birdsoflongisland.blogspot.com/2011/06/least-tern-colony.html For those of you interested in herpetology I photographed a Diamond-backed Terrapin heading back into the water, presumably after laying eggs. For photos of that, check out my other blog here: http://wildlongisland.blogspot.com/2011/06/diamond-backed-terrapin.html -- - Luke Ormand, Flanders www.birdsoflongisland.blogspot.com www.wildlongisland.blogspot.com -- 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/ --
