Having a case of "grasspiper fever" I hit three sod farm areas after work today to look for some of the grasspiper species that had been previously reported. First stop was the large sod farm on the e/s/o Randall Road, n/s/o Cooper Street just south of Route 25A in Shoreham. 22 killdeer were the only shorebird representatives. From there I traveled to the sod farm on the e/s/o CR 51 adjacent to Pine Meadows County Preserve. Had 56 killdeer, 11 semipalmated plovers and 3 black-bellied plovers. Last stop was the sod farm off of Eastport Manor Road and had several more killdeer, 7 black-bellied plover, and a lone pectoral sandpiper in the shadow of the light blue metal storage barn.....Saw quite a few barn swallows flying over all three farms making me wonder if there recently was some large hatch of aerial insects that in the larval stage feed on grass. I tried but couldn't discern any winged insects.....
-- 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/ --
