Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge: Shorebirds for Beginners

Date: Saturday, July 20, 2024

Leader: Andrew Baksh
Participants will be responsible for their own transportation. However, the registrar will help connect those in need of a ride with other participants who are able to offer one. (The exact meeting place and time will be shared with attendees after their registration is confirmed.)
Schedule: Full-day trip.        
Relative difficulty: The terrain is flat but can be muddy and wet. There can be mosquitoes. Please wear mud boots.       

The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge includes over 12,600 acres of salt marshes, freshwater and brackish-water ponds, upland fields and woods, an open bay, and islands. It is one of the most significant bird habitats in the northeastern United States and a great place to observe seasonal bird migration and resident species. 

Every spring and summer, the water levels in the East Pond are mechanically lowered to create mudflats where shorebirds can forage. When the nearby tides are high, shorebirds gravitate to the exposed mudflats of the East Pond. Shorebirds such as various Sandpiper species, both Yellowlegs, Short & Long-billed Dowitchers, Semi-palmated Sandpipers, and more rare shorebirds species such as Godwits and Phalaropes, will be our targets of study. Terns might include Caspian, Gull-billed, Forster’s, Common and Least Terns.

This walk is scheduled for early shorebird migration at Jamaica Bay and will likely require mud boots to navigate comfortably. A spotting scope is also highly recommended but not essential.

Seven Deadly Stints and Their Friends, Part 1

Seven Deadly Stints and Their Friends, Part 2

Dowitcher ID with Jon Dunn

Please read The Linnaean Society of New York COVID-19 Field Trip Guidelines before registering.

Registration opens at 9 am on Monday, July 8. After that time, click here to register. Registration closes at 6 pm on Wednesday, July 17.

Please read the About Our Trips page, especially if you’re going on a field trip for the first time. It details our field trip policies, recommends what to bring on a trip, and offers other useful information.

If after visiting the About Our Trips page, you still have questions, feel free to contact the registrar via email (or phone, if listed) between the hours of 9 am and 9 pm.