The Day After

There were many reports of tropical and pelagic birds in the New York area on Sunday and the Weesuck Creek Bridled Tern was not the only one of its species to have gotten caught up by Irene. Hurricanes have a history of bringing tropical birds to Long Island and a visit to the shore on The Day After seemed warranted. Since access to Dune Road -- the Shinnecock-to-Moriches Dune Road at any rate -- was still being blocked yesterday morning, we headed out to Flying Point Road and Mecox Bay. When the cut at Mecox is open, sand flats appear and so do the water birds which, in spite of the human use of the area, find a spot to hang out.

There, by the side of the bay, was Doug Futuyma, scanning the waters with his scope looking for a reported Black-capped Petrel. Doug is one of the country's leading evolutionary biologists but he is also a passionate birder. The four of us -- Doug, Eileen Schwinn, Lorna and Eric Salzman -- headed to the Mecox cut which was, in fact, open and we set up our scopes overlooking a bird-covered sand flat. This flat, traditionally one of the best shore birding spots on Eastern Long Island, sported no less than seven species of terns including three Sandwich Terns (a southern tern that turns up -- pardon the pun -- regularly after storms), two Caspian Terns (an adult and a young one; this is THE spot for this species), numbers of Royal and Common Terns, a few Forster's and Least Terns and quite a few Black Terns. The prevalence of Black Terns must be due to the storm; these birds normally move off-shore and it takes a storm to drive them to coast in any numbers. A surprise visitor was a calling Whimbrel who flew in, landed on the sand spit, proceeded to explore the dry areas and then waded out into the water for a bit before taking off. Other birds frequenting the flat were Black Skimmers, three or four species of gulls, many Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, one or two dowitchers, some unidentified shorebirds and a Western Willet which had us puzzled for a while. Overhead, there was a light but steady movement of swallows -- Tree, Barn and Bank -- and four or five Osprey were constantly in the air above us during the entire time.

Eric Salzman