I had a very similar experience on Saturday evening, July 2, but over in Presque Isle SP on Lake Erie -- while vacationing with my family I spotted a WILLET with some Ring-billed Gulls on one of the swimming beaches. I'm pretty sure mine was an adult bird, so not the same individual but part of the same early fall movement.
KEN Ken Rosenberg Director of Conservation Science Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2412 607-342-4594 (cell) k...@cornell.edu<mailto:k...@cornell.edu> On Jul 4, 2011, at 1:53 AM, Mickey Scilingo wrote: While spending the day with my family at Fair Haven Beach State Park on Lake Ontario in Cayuga County, I had the good fortune of spotting a WILLET flying with a group of Ring-billed Gulls that had just been flushed off the swimming beach at around 6:30. The group of birds flew around over the water for a few minutes before settling back down on the beach. Unfortunately, a group of small children were chasing the gulls around, causing them to flush repeatedly, and sometime during the ensuing confusion, the Willet disappeared. As we were leaving just before 8 PM, the WILLET was back on the beach foraging near the waters edge. This time I was able to see that it was an immature plumaged bird. I did snap a few photos of it through my binoculars, but they came out worse than I expected. The Willet was still at the water's edge when we left. Mickey Scilingo Constantia Oswego County, NY mickey.scili...@gte.net<mailto:mickey.scili...@gte.net> 315-679-6299 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
