On Sunday, after seeing Angus Wilson's posts, in addition to a phone call from John Sep, I again ventured out to the intersection of Sound & Osborne Aves, Riverhead, in pursuit of the elusive (for some people) Baird's Sandpiper. Upon arrival at mid-afternoon, I found Jody Levin & Hank Bohne scanning the sod field (Osborne side)and finding killdeer, pectoral & least sandpipers, but no baird's. Shortly afterward, a group of 3, followed by a single birder, joined the hunt, with no success (at least up until Jody, Hank & I left). They headed straight for the sod field just e/o the Roanoke Vineyards and found some of the Golden Plovers reported by Angus Wilson, while I elected to first check the Sound Ave side of the O/S Aves field, before catching up with them further east. When I finally arrived, they gave me the bad news...the goldens had left. We did get to see one bird of note awhile later, in a newly dug field at the intersection of Reeves Ave & Doctor's Path. The bird was a Pectoral Sandpiper...but the darkest example of this specie we had ever seen ! It had the sharply demarcated, streaked, breast feathers, but they appeared to be almost black. The back also seemed darker than on the pec's we're used to seeing. *Shorebirds *An Identification Guide, Peter Hayman, John Marchant and Tony Prater, seems to make it a non-breeding adult.
Home again, and after dinner, I sat down to write this and found Andrew Baksh's post...which I appreciate ! Cheers, Bob P.S...I just might have to "bite the bullet" and get out there at first light, later this morning ! -- 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/ --
