After work. I stopped by the compost piles. 4 Dunlin. A few Least Sandpiper= s and 24 Semi Sands. Biggest count of Semi Sandpipers I've seen in Tompkin= s County. They seem to have appeared en mass today Jeff
On Friday, May 24, 2013, Mark Chao wrote: > Wanting to ride our wave of recent luck a little longer, Tilden and I > returned to Myers Park in Lansing on Friday afternoon at about 4:30 PM. We > don’t think we saw anything particularly rare, but the birding was fun and > challenging.**** > > ** ** > > Immediately upon arrival, Tilden exclaimed with surprise and had his > optics up in a split-second. Then he paused, relaxed, and pointed out a > CASPIAN TERN, a species we haven’t seen at rest so far this year. I shared > a little of his shock to see that big red bill after scanning gull after > gull these past couple days on that beach!**** > > ** ** > > Again we saw two SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, and by this time the DUNLIN > contingent had swelled to at least four birds. I could swear that I also > saw a yellowlegs fly to the tip of the spit (big, slim gray shorebird with > a white tail) but I couldn’t find it there a few seconds later. **** > > ** ** > > Even more puzzling were 15 little shorebirds that I think were > SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS. They all had black legs. Their bills all were > completely straight but also quite sharply pointed. Upperparts were much > more brown than gray (though not brightly rufous), with a lot of > dark-centered feathers. All had very fine streaks on the breast. My > instincts were nagging me the whole time that they were Least Sandpipers > that somehow all showed dark legs (I wondered whether the extreme cold had > anything to do with it). In the end, though, I concluded that analytic ID > should trump impressions in this case, largely because I haven’t closely > studied Semipalmated Sandpipers in breeding plumage, nor gotten a very good > sense of variation in bill shape with this species. The field marks do > seem to add up, on the whole. (I feel certain that these birds weren’t > larger Calidris species, nor rare stints. They did not have white rumps.) > **** > > ** ** > > Mark Chao**** > -- > *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/> > !* > -- > -- Jeff Gerbracht Lead Application Developer Neotropical Birds, Breeding Bird Atlas, eBird Cornell Lab of Ornithology 607-254-2117 -- 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/ --
