Long Island Birding: Jones Beach West End, Nickerson Beach, Point Lookout, Robert Moses, Sunken Meadow, St John's Pond, Norman Levy Preserve

Monday, September 15, 2014

Jones Beach West End, Nickerson Beach, Point Lookout, Robert Moses, Sunken Meadow, St John's Pond, Norman Levy Preserve

I started the day as I usually do at Green Island and the Jones Beach Coast Guard Station - at Green Island I saw a large flock of Brown Headed Cowbirds and at the Coast Guard Marina a Caspian Tern was flying East, plunging hard into the water every several seconds. I checked the weedy patch by the Coast Guard looking for songbirds and found a juvenile Magnolia Warbler. The rest of the day was mostly uneventful except for the Black Skimmers at Point Lookout (not at Nickerson) and when I returned to the Jones Beach Marina in the evening:

When I came back searching the sandbar, all I saw was a Royal Tern and a sandpiper I could not ID (turned out to be a Red Knot) I decided to walk around the bay and go onto the spit using the "tidal sandbar" to get a better look at the sandpiper (Red Knot). When I arrived on the North side of the spit I was surprised to see a variety of shorebirds: 200+ Oystercatchers to the west and a mix of Black Bellied Plovers, Red Knots, and Dowitchers to the east. I inched my way over so that I had a good frontal view of the shorebirds. To my delight I spotted a lifer Marbled Godwit and Hudsonian Godwit. The Marbled Godwit did it's own thing and walked to the south side of the spit (main sandbar) Some time later, the Oystercatchers got chatty and took off - the other shorebirds followed about 5 minutes later. They landed on another sandbar close to the Loop Parkway (need to find a way to observe that spot - think only by boat) When I walked back to the marina dock, I got more views of the Marbled Godwit - another birder pointed out a Lesser Black Backed Gull that I missed on the sandbar so 3 lifers for me in one day!