Pike's Beach

Having heard that there were Red Knots at Pike's Beach, I decided to take a ride down there this morning. Pike's Beach, Westhampton Dunes, has been the most dependable place on Eastern Long Island for Horseshoe Crabs; there is even a Horseshoe Crab Research Project by the Cornell Cooperative Extension located there (I saw their sign) and they are doing a program at Pike's Beach with SOFO on June 2nd. And as is well known, Horseshoe Crabs and Red Knots go together.

But are there Horseshoe Crabs? In contrast to previous years, I saw few signs of these ancient beasts (they go back 450 million years and they are being fished recklessly to local extinction because of New York's lax regulations and poor enforcement). Usually the beach here is littered with their shells which was not the case this morning. Perhaps the Cornell Research team is rescuing the lumbering beasts after they mate and bury their eggs on the shore. They are unbelievably easy to pick up when they come in to perform this ancient fertility ritual; how barbaric that we let 'fishermen', many of them from other states where this fishery is banned, come here and fill up their boats and trucks with the carcasses of the living animals as they try to avoid the Sixth Extinction!

But perhaps some Horseshoe Crabs made it through earlier in the month at the time of the Supermoon. For there were indeed Red Knots. I was at the overlook just west of Pike's Beach at about 7:30 am this morning. The tide was pretty high and the small island just off shore was swarming with shore birds: literally hundreds of Ruddy Turnstones and, yes, many dozens of Red Knots. At that hour, the overlook, which is in the middle of a wetland, was also swarming -- with no-see-ems and mosquitos; I finally beat a retreat to Pike's Beach itself which also had its share of shore birds including quite a few Knots. Finally, I went back to the overlook later in the morning as the insect populations diminished, the tide dropped, the exposed sand flats widened out and the birds continued to come in.

In addition to the Turnstones and Knots, there were many Black-bellied Plover, at least one Golden Plover (smaller, different coloration), Sanderlings, Semipalmated Sandpipers plus the local Willets, Piping Plover, and Am Oystercatchers. Also several Glossy Ibis on the island joining in the fun. All the birds were scattered across the island as well as along the shore, furiously poking into the sand, sometimes bunched up together and even squabbling with each other (Sanderlings seem especially argumentative). Is the attraction the Horseshoe Crab eggs buried in the sand?

In the air, there were Common and Least Terns and a trio of Forster's Terns as well. I saw just one Dunlin; along with the missing Least Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers and Semipalmated Plovers, most of these birds have apparently already gone through. But it is amazing how many shore birds were still in action.

Eric Salzman