Although the Rufous Hummingbird at Morton NWR was reported this morning, it did not show at all between 10:50 and 1:25. Refuge staff report that the bird has been coming to the visitor center constantly since Friday(!), but when the feeders were refilled around 9 today the bird returned once and disappeared thereafter. Perhaps something different about the fresh mixture was not to the bird's liking. The usual friendly chickadee and titmouse squad, along with plenty of Wild Turkeys, were welcome distractions from the dipped target.
I stopped at the Riverhead Sod Farms on the return trip westward, and at first glance found them devoid of birds. There was a lot of machinery and equipment moving through the fields, which may have been a contributing factor. Scanning from the Doctor's Path, I spotted two Killdeer and a Baird's Sandpiper in a distant patch of dirt between the grass plots. While I was focusing my scope on the Baird's to confirm its buffy coloration and tapered rear, I saw a small number of birds fly out of the grass beyond. For the brief moment I saw them, they looked like shorebirds and their wings appeared pale. I can speculate that it's possible these were the Buff-breasted Sandpipers reported yesterday, but I certainly didn't get any kind of a diagnostic view with the heat shimmer, distance, and out-of-focus glimpse. Cheers! -Tim H -- 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/ --