Birds

Some of Saturday’s Sweet Shorebird Shots from Suffolk County Shorebird Spots

August 2, 2009 by Corey 3 Comments

Say the title of this blog post five times fast and I guarantee a life bird within two weeks!  Rather than do a full trip report from a twenty-shorebird-day with Birding Dude I’m just going to put up a few of my favorite pictures from the day and wait to do the full post until after I finish putting together the latest I and the Bird.  Anyway, for those who are way too interested in my birding life, the twenty species of shorebird spotted on Saturday included four peeps (Least, Semipalmated, Western, and White-rumped Sandpipers), four plovers (Piping, Black-bellied, Semipalmated, and Killdeer), both yellowlegs, Red Knots, Short-billed Dowitchers, Ruddy Turnstones, American Oystercatchers, Willets, Sanderlings, Spotted, Stilt, and Pectoral Sandpipers, and, best of all, for the second week in a row, a Whimbrel!  Not a bad day’s birding!

We’ll start with the worst of the six pictures I am set to share, that of the best shorebird of the day, the Whimbrel.

Though the picture is far from the quality I would like the Whimbrel was rather distant and though it was still relatively early in the morning heat waves were already starting to distort any bird seen at a distance.  Next up is a Least Sandpiper that was much closer and provided me with what I think is the best shot I got all day.

The following plovers were spotted and photographed at Sagg Pond, the same location the Whimbrel was found.  The Semipalmated Plover was color-banded and also had a “tab” style band, the likes of which I had never seen.  Once I get the bird reported and find out where it was banded I’ll put up a post about it.  The juvenile Piping Plover was just too cooperative…

Finally I wanted to share these shots of Short-billed Dowitchers, first of one solo at Sagg Pond and then a shot of several near Pike’s Beach.

As I said already, a full report will be up at some point, probably very late in the week…I hope you liked seeing these shorebirds as much as I liked photographing them!

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.