I made the trek out to Democrat Point at the western end of Robert Moses State Park late this morning, possibly my last dedicated (non-sod farm) shorebird outing of the year. My stay was abbreviated due to swarms of mosquitoes that beset me after I made the turn onto the Fire Island inlet side of the point and left the immediate beachfront to access the central lagoon. I wasn't able to get any relief and concentrate on birds again until I got back to the on-shore breezes on the ocean side. I saw 12 species of shorebirds, highlighted by 3 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS seen together for several minutes in the vicinity of a large tidal pool. They were last seen flying west out over the ocean, gaining altitude as they went. The other 11 species found were as follows:
Black-bellied Plover - 19 Semipalmated Plover - 20-25 Piping Plover - 1 (juvenile) American Oystercatcher - 5 Greater Yellowlegs - 1 Willet - 1 (Western) Ruddy Turnstone - 1 (juvenile) Sanderling - X Semipalmated Sandpiper - X Pectoral Sandpiper - 1 (flyby) Short-billed Dowitcher - 2 Also saw 1 ROYAL TERN (flyby). Very low numbers of Common Terns seen, all flying east out over the ocean. Brief visits later to Captree Island marsh and Heckscher S.P. turned up an immature Little Blue Heron at the former, and 1 of each Yellowleg species in the still substantial rain pools in Field 7 at the latter. -- 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/ --
