[nysbirds-l] Go east young man, go east !

2022-03-16 Thread robert adamo
This afternoon I found myself birding on Dune Rd., from the Post La. Bridge
to Shinnicock Inlet, for the 4th day in a row ! Today's jaunt was very
quiet, although I did get 4 Boat-tailed Grackles ! Using this outing's low
production as a challenge, when I reached Montauk Highway on my way home,
instead of turning left, I turned right (easterly) and headed to
Southampton, to ride the "other" Dune Rd., aka Meadow La. This is the
western end of Meadow La.- running from Halsey Neck La. to the e/s of
Shinnicock Inlet. While driving the 1,or,2 miles to the inlet you pass many
large, gorgeous homes (ie, small castles) mostly on the ocean side, with
most of the bay side filled up by marshes ! Through the years this location
has provided many good birds, ranging from the Curlew Sandpiper, found by
Julius & Cecilia Hastings, members of Moriches Bay Audubon Society, before
it was called ELIAS, to the Short-eared Owl that we spooked during a "Big
Day" in May, led by Steve Biasetti, a few years back ! Today's providence
came on the wings of my FOS Osprey, sitting on the only Osprey nest along
this great blue way ! Another highlight was the female N.Harrier that was
hunting while flying in a westerly direction !

Cheers,
Bob
P.S...After not using the "term" FOS for quite awhile, I now found myself
using it 2 days running. I had been using it for many, many "seasons",
until a very knowledgeable and respected birder asked me about my use of
it. He then asked me if I had ever thought of another interpretation, which
stopped me cold ! My look of shock gave him a good laugh, and I can't
remember using it until yesterday ! His words of wisdom brought forth the
possibility of FOS standing for "Full of  ! I just love the birds and
people I have met during these 53 years of birding !

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[nysbirds-l] Go east, young man, go east !

2017-09-14 Thread robert adamo
Having not seen a Buff-breasted Sandpiper this season on the sod fields, I
decided to try yesteryear's best bet for finding migrating,fall
"grass-pipers"...before the advent of sod farms !  If you were looking for
Black-bellied or A.Golden Plovers, Whimbrel and Pectoral or Buff-breasted
Sandpipers you visited the Sagaponack potato fields. Granted, the birds
were harder to find as they moved along the ~ 6-8" rows that remained after
the potatoes were dug...but they were there, for the finding ! Likewise, if
you were after Hudsonian or Marbled Godwits, White-rumped, Baird's, Western
and Stilt Sandpipers, you visited both Mecox Bay and Sagg Pond. Today, I
did all 3 locations with nice results, albeit, I'm still without a BBSA !

I started at a closed Mecox Bay, finding: 1 Black-bellied, 2 A.Golden, 1
Piping & 5 Semipalmated Plovers; 2 Greater & 2 Lesser Yellowlegs; 1 Willet;
5 Sanderling; 3 Semipalmated & 1 Least Sandpipers; a few of the 3 common
gull species; 61 Foster's & 2 Black Terns - one of which, had some kind of
huge growth/object attached to one of its toes, although the bird can still
fly. While enroute to Sagg Pond, I next approached Mecox from its eastern
side, with the only new species being a very entertaining Belted Kingfisher.

Similar to Mecox, Sagg has not been opened to the ocean recently, however,
the beach and limited sandbars held a good variety of birds: 2 A.Golden, 2
Piping and 3 Semipalmated Plovers; 7 Killdeers; 8 Sanderling; 1 Pectoral
Sandpiper;  2 Laughing, ~ 10 Ring-billed, ~ 35 Herring, 4 Lesser
Black-backed,*  ~ 40 Great Black-backed Gulls; 2 Royal & 1 Foster's Tern
and another B.Kingfisher.
* 3 adults, still in full breeding plumage, the 4th, a 2nd winter bird.

On the whole, I enjoyed the day's outing, but it came at a price. As I was
 driving around Sagaponack, on familiar lanes with the names of Daniels,
Hedges and Parsonage, I found only one potato field in the condition
described above. Rather, most of the potato fields that haven't been turned
into massive homes, have been  switched into corn ! While this conversion
might equate into more geese to peruse later in the year, it certainly
short-circuits the shorebird season.

The last notable bird of the day (seen as I headed home) was a Cooper's
Hawk,  in flight, over Bridgehampton.

Cheers,
Bob

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