All, Had the great fortune of finding a BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER among KILLDEER along a very low Susquehanna river at Murphy's Pits Vestal NY in Broome County this morning.
This appears to be a first Broome County record at least via ebird. We will have to check with the NYS records committee as well. The bird was actively foraging and very hard to photo as the bird was in constant motion. I managed a few decent digiscope images. The bird had a fresh look to the scapulars with whitish borders to these feathers suggesting the bird is a juvenile. Dan Watkins and Victor Lameroux joined me after I sent a rare bird alert out. Here are some of the photos I took earlier: https://www.flickr.com/photos/davenicosia/albums/72157673507430325 The bird also is being seen now from River Rd across from Murphy's. As the afternoon progresses lighting is better from River road and I would suggest looking from there. Plus Murphy's has restricted access and closes at 430 pm. River Road should offer decent views as it is directly across from the gravel bars and muddy areas where the bird is being seen. My experience with this species on the coast is that they tend to stick around for a while so maybe this guy will be with us at least a few days. Good luck. Dave Nicosia -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
