South Shore Beaches 30 July. Visited Malibu Beach Park (before the 8:00 AM opening charge), the next beach to the west of the Point Lookout Town Beach. It's at the first traffic light going west after coming off the loop parkway and opposite the Lido Beach Passive Nature Area. The roped off area holds the smaller of the two Tern/Skimmer colonies with an estimated 1-200 skimmer pairs and a estimated 200 Common Tern pairs. To the west, a roped off area at Nickerson Beach Park holds about twice as many of each. In addition there are Piping Plover, American Oystercatchers and Least Terns nesting on the beach.
There is lots of activity and commotion at the colonies and the terns will dive bomb you if you venture too close to the rope. I chose to stay near the water where Sanderlings were enjoying the edge with occasional joggers. A seawatch observed numerous fishing Common Terns, a Gull-billed Tern and a Royal Tern. A quick stop at the Nature Area produced few shorebirds, but a Northern Waterthrush and two Yellow Warblers along the path to the bay. Short Beach Island opposite the Jones Beach West End Marina held some 4-500 Shorebirds; Black-bellied Plover, 2; Semipalmated Plover, ~20; American Oystercatcher, ~150; Willet,, 26 mostly "Western"; Ruddy Turnstone, ~15; Red Knot, ~25, about half with color; Sanderling, ~75, they flew off to the far bar; Semipalmated Sandpiper, ~20; Short-billed Dowitcher, ~40. Sy Schiff -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
