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| Looks beautiful but where are the shorebirds? |
Here is the follow up to my
"Peregrines are Punks" post.
(Sigh...yeah and I know the meaning of "punk"). As readers may know, I was quite the frustrated birder having crossed the
East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge from the South End to the North End only to see 1 then 2
Peregrine Falcons spook a bunch of shorebirds, that I wanted to get a closer look at having scoped them from across the pond.
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| These two culprits spooked the shorebirds. |
It was a frigid day and I was under dressed but I was not going to leave
without having a chance at studying the flock, so I stubbornly waited
it out. My gamble and a prayer paid off as the birds filtered back onto the pond and I
was able to study them for some time.
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| Patience paid off as shorebirds began to return to the pond. |
It turned out that the mixed flock had some goodies. Can you tell from the photo what the flock is made up of? In the end I pulled out 1
WESTERN SANDPIPER, 3
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS and a single
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER, that were hidden in the flock of
DUNLINS.
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| Can you identify the shorebirds in this photo? |
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| A White-Rumped Sandpiper was a nice surprise. |
Birding on the East Pond can be quite rewarding with patience and the time I spent with the flock got even more rewarding as 2
Pectoral Sandpipers dropped in from out of nowhere. I had not seen any on the pond as I made my way up north, so they could have just flown in or were tucked in some corner out of sight. It was nice to add to the diversity; especially since Pecs were scarce all summer. I finally left the East Pond, shivering from the cold but quite happy at being able to study the shorebirds. In a show of appreciation, I said a silent thank you to the shorebirds for being cooperative and to the Peregrines for not disturbing me :)
Tags:
Western Sandpiper,
White-rumped Sandpiper,
Semipalmated Sandpiper,
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
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