from one side of the bay to the other

I took my granddaughter Juliette to her swimming lesson at Tiana Beach yesterday morning and hung around watching the birds just off the east end of the town park. The tide was very high -- Dune Road was flooded most of the way down -- and there were many fewer shorebirds than had been seen a week earlier. The dominant birds were still Short-billed Dowitchers with fair numbers of Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers plus Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, Black-bellied, Piping and Semipalmated Plovers. There was a group of about a dozen Royal Terns and a few Common and Least Terns plus the usual gulls (including Laughing Gulls) but no Forster's Terns. Also American Oystercatchers and Willets. At one point, a flock of plump long-winged, short-billed shorebirds came silently by; I'm fairly sure they were Red Knots.

Belted Kingfishers have been on the creek for the past two days. This bird, formerly common on Weesuck Creek, used to breed in the sand quarries north of East Quogue but I believe that they no longer do so, probably because of the continuing expansion of the sand mines. Yellow-crowned Night Heron continues to frequent the pond edge and there are at least two Green Herons and a Great Blue Heron in the area. Forster's Tern is now regular on the creek including birds that are clearly flying juveniles.

On the marsh, Seaside Dragonlets are everywhere with many identifiable females (all black) and males (with varying amounts of yellow). The only other common dragonfly (in much smaller numbers) is the Halloween Pennant which may be breeding here. Among land animals only Raccoon (often active and noisy in the daytime) and Box Turtle are often seen; there are deer but they are way down in numbers. Notable by their absence are the Muskrats (their burrows on the west bank of the pond were all caved in by Sandy) and Cottontail Rabbits (also possibly victims of the storm).

Eric Salzman