Registrar: Regina Ryan
Trip Report: Miriam Rakowski
Participants: 18
Weather: Partly sunny; temperature 71-74 degrees; winds SSE, 5-7 MPH
Bird Species: 46
After a rather long drive, we arrived at beautiful Cupsogue beach. We checked the marshes and saw a dark sparrow in flight, a Seaside Sparrow—a nice bird to begin our day. Up on the boardwalk we found a Little Blue Heron and a Clapper Rail.
As we walked the sandy beaches, we had good looks at Black-bellied Plovers, with a few still in their dark breast plumage. Later we saw seven Red Knots and 28 Royal Terns. Also exciting were hundreds of Common Terns and a few Forster’s Terns. As we were leaving the beach, we had good looks at a scurrying Salt-marsh Sparrow, probably a juvenile, racing around in the grasses.
After lunch, some of our group went for a brief stop at Tiana Beach, where more of these lovely shorebirds were seen.
Species Lists
Birds
Mute Swan
Mallard
Mourning Dove
Clapper Rail
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Least Tern
Common Tern
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
House Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Butterflies
Monarch
Cabbage White
American Copper
