The Snowy Plover was seen by many observers today at Sandy Pond Outlet, Oswego County. I know of at least one person who will be trying tomorrow morning, so there should be reports. The walk to see it is a bit tricky, so I have provided directions below. First, to get to the right place to park your car, do NOT use the ebird hotspot Sandy Pond Outlet. Use Sandy Island Beach State Park, which is also an ebird hotspot. When you arrive (at the west end of County Route 15), turn right down the hill and park in the first lot that you get to. Start walking north from your car but DO NOT start your ebird checklist yet. You will walk into a private parking lot with signs on the parking spots meant for the people who own the cottages here. Walk into the NW corner of that lot. You should see an orange and white traffic cone. Start your ebird checklist as you pass that cone, so that you can use your mileage walked on that list to follow my directions. For the first 0.9 miles you will be walking roughly north on the bay (east) side of the barrier island. Rather weirdly, you will be walking through people's yards on a herd path that the residents use to get to their cottages. This herd path has been present for decades and the residents are comfortable with perfect strangers walking through their properties. Mostly today the residents were not around because it was a September weekday. The ones I've met were curious about today's traffic and interested to hear about the plover. The 0.9 mile marker is important because that is where you turn left (west) and climb over the dune to the beach side of the barrier island and walk the rest of the 2.5 mile one-way trip to the outlet. You will have passed other crossovers in that first .9 miles but don't take them. They'll get you to the beach but then you'll be prevented from walking further north by rock jetties. You know you're getting close to the crossover point when you pass through a yard festooned with American flags. Once you've done so, look for a gray house with a bright blue tin roof, pass that house, turn left, climb up then down the dune and you're on the beach. Remember to look around at your surroundings because you'll need to find this crossover point on the way back. Then its any easy 1.6 miles or so along the beach to the outlet. If you come via Interstate 81N, you will pass through the village of Pulaski on NY Route 13. There are plenty of gas stations, fast food restaurants and a grocery store. Good luck and happy birding. Pat Martin
-- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
