Cupsogue on an early mid-week morning in late July -- with a fast-rising tide -- was only moderately busy. Since I last looked, there were a few new arrivals: numbers of Royal Terns (a dozen or more at Cupsogue and at least half a dozen at Pike's Beach), at least one Forster's Tern, a Lesser Yellowlegs (with a distinctly short bill), a likely Western Sandpiper (with a not-so-long bill but distinctly larger than the other peeps and with some color tints on the scapulars and tail feathers). Heard a possible White-rumped Sandpiper but never saw it. Many Semipalmated Sandpipers, one Semipalmated Plover and some of the more usual suspects: Willets, Ruddy Turnstones, Short-billed Dowitchers and Least Sandpipers. No Red Knots.
In the shrubbery around the beach pavilion there were Yellow Warblers and a young empid -- brownish olive on the back, slightly yellowish on the breast with a narrow eye ring and buffy wing bars. I suppose Alder Flycatcher is a vague possibility but this was almost certainly a young Willow (Willows breed nearby in the vegetation on the upper marsh).
Eric Salzman
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