Shai Mitra's discovery (post courtesy of Andrew Baksh) of an American Avocet on Sunken Meadow Creek at Sunken Meadow State Park did not mention that the bird was found during the low tide cycle. I did not find any nearby reference points at my usual tide table reference (saltwatertides.com). Probably the nearest useful point for tide information is the Nissequogue River, which is just east of Sunken Meadow State Park. A high tide table is available online from Nissequogue River Canoe and Kayak Rentals Inc. at http://www.canoerentals.com (I am sure there are others sources for nearby north shore tides). The tide table indicates that the high tide in the Nissequogue River is 3:01PM for Thursday, July 31st, indicating that a morning visit may be productive.
One of the few benefits of Superstorm Sandy was the loss of the dike that inhibited the tidal range in Sunken Meadow Creek. The replacement of the dike with a bridge has allowed for a more varied tidal range, exposing a fair amount of mudflat at low tide. We had anticipated that if the area was birded frequently, good shorebirds would eventually show up, and in this, the second Fall shorebird season since Sandy, Shai Mitra has found what we hope is the first of many (although the high number of Pectoral Sandpipers in the creek in Spring was also noteworthy). A distant photo of the Avocet is on my Flickr site. Ken Feustel http://www.flickr.com/photos/kfeustel/ -- 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/ --
