Linnaean Field Trip

The hot weather broke just in time for yesterday's Linnaean Field Trip. The Linnaean Society is an old natural history society (the second oldest in the country) which meets at the Museum of Natural History and sponsors talks, field trips, etc. I've been doing this trip (or something like it) for many years now; it's usually billed as "Eastern Long Island specialties" and it usually starts at Shinnecock Inlet. This year, partly because of the Curlew Sandpiper, I decided to start at Cupsogue County Park just off Moriches Inlet and continuing at nearby Pike's Beach, two locations where there are many lingering shorebirds, a good collection of local breeders and various visitors including a variety of terns and possible pelagics.

The area only partly lived up its promise. The Curlew Sandpiper, a distinguished Eurasian visitor, was nowhere to be seen. The Common Terns were active but there were few Least Terns (a species that seems to be doing very badly this year) and we saw just a single Roseate Tern, apparently nesting in the Common Tern colony at the edge of the big spoil island. No other terns were seen unless you count Black Skimmer as a sort of honorary tern. And there were no pelagics unless you count a large unidentified white-winged bird flying away over the bay (possibly a Northern Gannet) and/or a Common Loon in breeding plumage lying dead on the ocean beach. Even without a Curlew Sandpiper, the shorebird collection was a lot more varied than one might expect at this time of the year: Piping Plover, Semipalmated Plover, many Black-bellied Plovers, American Oystercatcher, yellowlegs (calling; I think Lesser), Willets (including at least one Western Willet), Ruddy Turnstone, a few Red Knots (mostly on the island in front of the Pike's Beach overlook), Sanderling, one Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpipers, a possible White-rumped Sandpiper, and quite a few Short-billed Dowitchers. The dowitchers are usually considered the first fall migrants appearing in the last week of June but, with the obvious exception of local breeders, it seems to me impossible to say where these birds are headed. In my opinion, most of the lingering migrant shore birds are immatures or sub-adults who never reach the breeding grounds in the first place but spend at least part of the summer with us before turning around and heading south.

Did I forget anything? Black-crowned Night-Hernon the marsh; a single Glossy Ibis flying overhead. The usual egrets and cormorants and lots of Barn and Tree Swallows. Osprey here, as elsewhere, seem to be doing well with young birds approaching the age of flight. Willow Flycatcher breeds here and is easily seen and heard; also Eastern Kingbird and Yellow Warbler. There are two birds that should be here but I don't know where to find them; they are the marsh sparrows: Saltmarsh and Seaside. I know where to go on Shinnecock but I still have to figure out the Cupsogue marshes.

Our next stop was Westhampton (Gabreski) Airport where, on arrival, we got a brief glimpse of a Vesper Sparrow plus a pair of Savannah Sparrows, one of which appeared to be very agitated suggesting a nearby nest. My guess is that the nervous bird that hung in close on the airport fence was the female while the second bird, keeping its distance, was its mate. Oddly enough, Savannah Sparrows are the most difficult of the grassland sparrows to locate west of Easthampton! A soaring Turkey Vulture (in the past few years a common summer sight in these parts), a soaring Red-tailed Hawk, a singing sub-adult Eastern Bluebird, Chipping Sparrows, Eastern Kingbirds, an Eastern Phoebe, Brown-headed Cowbirds and a Killdeer more or less completed the local roster at this site.

After a stop at the airport restaurant for lunch, we moved on to ex-Grumman in Calverton and its iconic grassland birds. The middle of the afternoon is not the best time to look for these birds but we did find a couple of Horned Larks, many Grasshopper Sparrows perched on mullein stalks, and many Eastern Meadowlarks, perched and flying (easy to recognize in flight with its characteristic mode of flight, short tail with white outer tail feathers). Singing at the edge of the grasslands were Field Sparrow and Prairie Warbler.

Our last stop was north of the Grumman fence on Route 25a just opposite where the Mountain Bluebird had appeared last winter. The VOR field between Rute 25 and 25a has been mowed and is no longer a propos for savannah species (although it may now be good for grassland species) which have moved one field north to a lot full of emergent Red Cedars. The star bird here is Blue Grosbeak, a species that essentially appeared as nesters in New York in Calverton and is still largely restricted to this area. The bird pictured here was photographed by Michael Lotito and is almost certainly the identical male that we saw yesterday! It made a nice finish to the day.

Eric Salzman