Yesterday in New York was hot.  Way too hot.  Fortunately for Daisy and me our friends Kerry and Becky were heading to the beach and offered a ride.  And it wasn’t just any beach either, but the birding Mecca of Nassau County, Jones Beach.  The south wind was strong, the waves were huge, and we were swimming.  But after being buffeted by waves for awhile I decided to take a stroll down to the jetty at the west end of Jones Beach just to see, you know, if there might be a bird or two in the area.

The Piping Plover above was one of at least ten that I spotted on my walk.  A couple birds were sitting on nests and two young were wandering around under a parent’s watchful eyes at the edge of some beach vegetation.  Between them and the Least Terns that would pass overhead on their trips out to sea and back into the dunes I was pretty satisfied.  But they weren’t the only birds at the beach.

No less than seven American Oystercatchers were present, and one group of three was comprised of two adults and a young bird.  The usual gulls were present, of course, and Great Black-backed Gulls seemed to be the most numerous.

After my walk it was back in the water to be beaten up by the waves once more before we packed up and went for ice cream.  It’s a tough life but somebody’s got to live it…