First, Skinner Lane is completely inaccessible at this time. There is no word on any of the birds that were seen there. Hopefully the water will begin to recede since we had no rain overnight. Over at Turtle Bay Road off of Co Rt 12, shorebirds continued in somewhat lower numbers but with excellent finds. As I was searching for yesterdays Red-necked Phalarope (not found) I spotted a male BLUE GROSBEAK fly past the opening to a small dirt road. Ken McDermott had found a pair here a couple of weeks ago, but we could not repeat them until now. I found the bird as well as a female and two young. The young begged and were fed by the male as I watched. As I walked the dirt road trying to get pics of the Grosbeaks, a WILLET flew in and landed not far from me. This is a first county record for Orange. I called Rob Stone who spread the word and then came over. As we watched the Willet, Rob spotted a RED KNOT!! The second first county record for the day. Many White-rumped Sandpipers continue as well as American Golden Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Pectoral Sandpiper, Least and Semipalmated Sandpiper, both yellowlegs and of course Killdeer. I believe this brings the number of shorebirds seen to 26 species. Other birds of note were a Northern Harrier and a hatch year Red-shouldered Hawk. Several people, including Ken McDermott were able to come and see the birds. Great Birding! John Haas
Photos at http://bashakillbirder.wordpress.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/ --
