Along with the much celebrated Ruffs at Timber Point, and early arrivals of Spotted Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, and Red Knot on Long Island, we've had some interesting observations of Willets over the past two days.
The breeding-plumaged Eastern Willet at Timber Point, Suffolk County, yesterday was a very early arrival for this Neotropical migrant. My earliest previous record for LI was on 17 April 2010, with others on most dates after that, through general arrival in late April. This morning, Pat and I found three Western Willets at the Levy Preserve in Nassau County. This taxon winters in the southeastern US, occasionally as far north as LI, and these three winter-plumaged birds probably spent the winter locally. In any case, today's date appears to be my latest "winter" record for a Western Willet on LI (other wintering birds have been noted as late as 10 Apr 2005, whereas we don't generally see the arrival of transients until late May or June). Some documentary photos of these Willets can be seen near the end of this album: https://picasaweb.google.com/109808209543611018404/LongIslandMiscellany2013 Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ Washington Monthly<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/americas_bestbangforthebuck_co039461.php> magazine ranks the College of Staten Island as one of "America's Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges" -- 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/ --
