Seabirds and shorebirds made a big showing on LI this weekend. During a Saturday afternoon seawatch at Cupsogue, near Moriches Inlet, Patricia Lindsay and I were joined at times by Richard Kaskan, Mike Higgiston, and Eileen Schwinn. Highlights were our earliest ever Wilson's Storm-Petrels (11) and a first summer Black-legged Kittiwake; five Roseate Terns and 27 Black Skimmers were present on the flats. Later at Shinnecock Inlet we were amazed to see at least 70 WISPs feeding over a patch of water southwest of the inlet mouth. A breeding-plumaged Horned Grebe was also noteworthy on Shinnecock Bay.
This morning at Robert Moses SP, we observed a very nice movement of seabirds from 6:40-8:40: 2 Sooty Shearwaters 144 Wilson's Storm-Petrels 605 Northern Gannets (almost all immature) 46 Common Loons 17 Red-throated Loons 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (first summer & third summer) 1 Roseate Tern 45 Least Terns 3 Black Terns (breeding plumage) 1 Parasitic Jaeger (adult light morph) Shorebirds have also moved in big numbers. Cupsogue featured 350 breeding-plumaged Dunlin, 350 Sanderlings, 15 Red Knots, and a White-rumped Sandpiper on Saturday; another White-rump was present today in the swale south of Jones Beach West End parking Field 2, among 350 Semipalmated Plovers and 500 Semipalmated Sandpipers. Ruddy Turnstones and Short-billed Dowitchers are starting to build numbers--we saw about 50 of the former and 20 of the latter along Dune Rd yesterday. Breeding landbirds were pretty much as expected in central-eastern LI yesterday. We couldn't find the Blue Grosbeak at Rte. 51 in Eastport, but we found a singing male Summer Tanager near where the dirt road from Hunters Garden connects with the north end of the bike path. ________________________________ Change is in the Air - Smoking in Designated Areas Only as of July 1, 2011<http://www.csi.cuny.edu/tobaccofree> -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
