Encouraged by Angus' e-mail early this morning, I decided to do a survey of shorebirds on the East Pond at Jamaica Bay. I started from the north end walking towards the south end then back towards the north end and finally crossed over to the west side before a Peregrine Falcon pushed the birds off the north end, including the lone Hudsonian Godwit who was very tolerant all day of its admirers, both birders and photographers.
While the Hudsonian Godwit was nice to see. The highlight of the day for me, has to be the juvenile PIPING PLOVER that was seen by a few of us (including Tom Burke, Gail Benson and others) scoping from the east side of the pond, picking up the bird on the west side of the north end of the pond. Other notable shorebird highlights included Baird's Sandpiper (1), Western Sandpipers (11 adult and juveniles), White-rumped Sandpipers (15 adults only), Pectoral Sandpipers (6), Sanderling (1) and Red Knot (1) Both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, adults and juveniles were observed but in low numbers. They tend to find small corners on the pond where they feed undisturbed. Juveniles of Short-billed Dowitchers were in excellent numbers with only 2 adults seen out of a total of 78. A couple of juvenile Stilts continue along with multiple juveniles of Western Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers and Least Sandpipers. I looked for but did not see the candidate for Long-billed Dowitcher that was reported and then later retracted yesterday. In non shorebirds news, numbers of Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal and Blue-winged Teal have started to build. Cheers, 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> *The Art of War* <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device! Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- 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/ --
