Thursday, July 29, 2010

Field Notes from Suffolk and Queens County 7/24/2010...

 Short-billed Dowitchers on the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

I had an early start at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge on the 24th, where I ran into Brooklyn birder Shane Blodgett. Together, we birded the East Pond and had 14 species of Shorebirds. The following are conservative numbers of what we came up with.


Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus 20
Killdeer - Charadrius vociferus 1
American Oystercatcher - Haematopus palliatus 5
Spotted Sandpiper - Actitis macularius 8
Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca 21
Willet (Eastern) - Tringa semipalmata semipalmata 1
Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes 132
Hudsonian Godwit - Limosa haemastica 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla 1400
Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri 2
Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla 132
Stilt Sandpiper - Calidris himantopus 27
Short-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus 1023
Wilson's Phalarope - Phalaropus tricolor 1

 Juvenile Least Bittern digiscoped from a distance.

Friends, Shai Mitra and Patricia Lindsay arrived while we were out on the pond and in no time they picked up 2 Least Bitterns. One Adult and one juvenile. They also had a Long-billed Dowitcher. Shane and I had debated over on LBDO candidate, but let it go because we were not sold on the field marks.

 Western Sandpiper with a rather small bill.

Later in the afternoon, I joined Shai, Pat, Joan and Gerta out on Eastern Long Island where we birded Cupsogue. We tried for a Brown Pelican that was seen earlier in the day, but it was not at the said location. Out on the flats, our highlights were Royal Terns, we had 9 out on Pikes Beach earlier, a tiny billed Western Sandpiper and 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, a good shorebird to get at that location.

 Sea watching with the gang.  Good Times out at Cupsogue LI.

A seawatch after Margaritas produced Greater Shearwater, Whimbrel, Northern Gannets and lots of migrating shorebirds.

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1 comment:

  1. Howdee..
    Looks like some good birdies starting to show their faces.
    Great time of year.


    Planning a BwBTC bird outing the end of August..not sure of the Date or the place. Suggestions are welcome.
    Thinking CT or RI.
    Let me know if you are interested.

    Nobbiecat@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete