Registrar: Debbie Mullins
Participants: 12
Weather: Partly cloudy, southerly winds at 5-10 mph, mid 70`s F
Bird Species: 34
Twelve birders spent a delightful morning at Cupsogue Beach County Park with Eileen Schwinn, an expert Suffolk County birder who has logged many hours at this location. We started the day with a scan of the saltmarsh from the parking lot. Both Saltmarsh and Seaside Sparrows were seen, as well as a Willow Flycatcher taking advantage of a large hatch-out. We then did a brief sea watch from the platform leading out to the beach; it yielded a few shearwaters, likely Greater or Corey’s, but they were too distant to identify with certainty. On the roadway out to the bay, a Merlin was observed, along with several passerines.
We arrived at the bay about two hours before dead low tide and found an abundance of terns, gulls, and shorebirds on the sandbars and mud flats. Hundreds of Common Terns and about a dozen Royal Terns were present, in addition to a good variety of shorebirds. We were delighted to see a Marbled Godwit foraging on the edge of Spoil Island, and a Pectoral Sandpiper was spotted near the area favored by the Royal Terns. Aware of an approaching storm, we wrapped up around noon and enjoyed lunch together at the snack bar before departing.
Species Lists
Birds
Mute Swan
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Willet
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Least Tern
Common Tern
Royal Tern
Common Loon
shearwater sp.
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Glossy Ibis
Merlin
Willow Flycatcher
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
Seaside Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sparrow
Song Sparrow
