gmr044@leah.Albany.Edu (Gregg Recer) (01/13/90)
This comes from someone whose shorebirding experience has, so far,
been limited to the Northeast US, but two places that I've seen which
have impressed me most are the Jamaica Bay Refuge in New York city
(part of Gateway National Recreation Area in Queens) and Parker River
National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island in Massachusetts (North of
Boston). Both seem to be most active during fall migration (really
late July to early October).
Jamaica Bay is not much for outdoor-sy scenic splendor (the NYC
skyline is all around you, the entrance to the refuge is on a
trash-strewn highway and jets are taking off from JFK constantly; we
even saw (heard!) the Concorde on one trip) but once you enter the
refuge your thinking is really overtaken by birds and so you tend to
forget the distractions. The refuge has a large freshwater pond area
where ducks and herons and egrets congregate and large expanses of
tidal mud-flat and salt-marsh areas where shorebirds will be found. On
a recent trip we made (late August of 1989) the big prize was a
buffed-breasted sandpiper (uh, _Tryngites subruficollis_, that is)
which hung around within 50 ft of everyone for about an hour while
probably 75 to 100 birders stood there studying it. It was still
there when we moved on. I don't have my notes in front of me, but,
running down a blank checklist, I'd say we saw about 17 or so species
of shorebird that day as well as loads of ducks (including Eurasian
Wigeon, _Anas penelope_) and herons. The numbers of some of the
shorebirds species were pretty impressive. Surprisingly, at least to
me, the leader of our trip, a person who used to work at the refuge
doing migration censuses, said that that day was the least productive
day he had ever seen there at that time of the year.
Parker River NWR has a similar mix of freshwater and salt-marsh
habitats. I've only been there once when shorebirds were present
(last July) and no big rarities showed up but there were lots of
shorebirds there. There were fewer species than at Jamaica Bay, in
part, I think, because it was still early in the fall migration
period. However we did see Hudsonian Godwits (_Limosa haemastica_)
among others. One other interesting aspect to Parker River is the
large movement of egrets to their roosts and night-herons off their
roosts that occurs each evening in the summer. It's quite a
spectacle.
Gregg
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"In future you should delete the words crunchy frog and
replace them with the legend crunchy raw unboned real
dead frog!!"
-- Inspector Bradshaw, The Hygiene Division
*******************************************************************************bob@delphi.uchicago.edu (Robert S. Lewis, Jr.) (01/13/90)
In article <2388@leah.Albany.Edu> gmr044@leah.Albany.Edu (Gregg Recer) writes: >Parker River NWR has a similar mix of freshwater and salt-marsh >habitats. I've only been there once when shorebirds were present >(last July) and no big rarities showed up but there were lots of >shorebirds there. There were fewer species than at Jamaica Bay, in >part, I think, because it was still early in the fall migration >period. However we did see Hudsonian Godwits (_Limosa haemastica_) >among others. One other interesting aspect to Parker River is the >large movement of egrets to their roosts and night-herons off their >roosts that occurs each evening in the summer. It's quite a >spectacle. > I was at Parker River over Christmas: Didn't see any shorebirds (of course), but I did watch three short-eared owls catch mice while a harrier chased them about, stealing thier prey. This lasted about half an hour, until a rough-legged hawk showed up, apparently intimidating the other predators, who quickly retired to perches. There was a saw-whet owl around (I couldn't find it), a shrike, scoters of at least two species (white-winged and black were definite), common loons, buffleheads, grebe species (probably horned, but past the range of my binoculars), oldsquaw, goldeneyes, snow buntings, horned larks, lapland longspurs, black ducks, Canada geese, tree sparrows, myrtle warblers, etc. Nearby, on the Merrimack river (about four miles from the refuge) I saw five bald eagles and a Barrow's Goldeneye. The last was a lifer for me! Whenever I'm in the Boston area I try to get to Plum Island. I've only been there a few times, but I've never been disappointed.
dmark@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark) (01/14/90)
One of the very best shorebirding spots in North America is at the Iona Island sewage treatment plant in Richmond, British Columbia, just north of Vancouver International Airport. The plant is adjacent to huge tidal flats of the delta of the Fraser River, and at high tide, from July to September, many thousands of shorebirds flock into the outdoor settling ponds of the treatment plant. The fact that they can be inspected at rather close range, and the fact that the site is in a metropolitan area with over 1 million people, is probably responsible for the large number of rarities. I was one of 7 co-discoverers of the best, a Spoonbill Sandpiper in July 1978. Other notables include Ruff (almost annual), Rufous-necked Stint (at least 3-4 records), Snowy Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Long-toed Stint (1981), and Black-necked Stilt. It is one of the best two spots around Vancouver for Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, with a few expected to be present in the last half of September and in early October. My other two favorite shorebirding locations are Jamaica Bay NWR, Long Island, New York (especially in August; my "lifer" Curlew Sandpiper was there) and Bolivar Flats, a ferry-ride east of Galveston Texas (I had seven "lifers" there in about an hour, March 1977: Oystercatcher; Snowy, Piping, and Wilson's Plovers; Gull-billed, Little, and Sandwich Terns). And on a world scale, the marvelous Esplanade at Cairns, Australia, where last October I saw my first Australian example of Laughing Gull! David Mark dmark@cs.buffalo.edu
pratt@paul.rutgers.edu (Lorien Y. Pratt) (01/14/90)
Don't forget Brigantine, just north of Cape May, NJ. A great trip we
do twice a year is to drive down to Cape May from where we live in
Central NJ, stay overnight at the off-season rate of $40/night, bird
Cape May on Saturday, then do Brigantine all day Sunday. We also do
day-trips there. It's a great place to take first-time birders,
because of the huge numbers of species, and the low workout required
(this can be air-conditioned birding at its best -- an 8-mile
drive-around track)!
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