Took a ride to Mecox Bay with Eileen Schwinn and Mike Higgiston (the E. Quogue Birding Contingent). I used to do a lot of birding here but this was my first visit in a while. When the cut at Mecox is opened up by the town -- the so-called Seapoose (the word is Shinnecock for "little river") -- the level of the bay is considerable reduced and a series of flats are opened up that can be very birdy. At the moment however, the cut is closed and the bay is brim full with just a few high-rent sandy flats available for bird perching. Even so, there were some good birds, notably a very active HUDSONIAN GODWIT. Either godwit is a good find but of the two North American species, this one is by far the rarer and it was a treat to see it racing around the sand spit shorelines, sometimes venturing out into the wind-whipping waters around, looking quite jaunty with its upturned bill and long legs (in spite of a possibly injured right leg which perhaps only added to the jauntiness). The photo, although taken with a phone through the lens of a spotting scope, gives a good idea of what this bird is about.
Among the Great Black-back, Herring and Ring-billed Gulls loafing on the beach, there was a single LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL (lighter back than the nearby Great Black-backs, yellow legs). Most of the rest of the birds resting on the sand spits in the bay were Forster's and Royal Terns but there were a few Common Terns, five Black Skimmers (two adults, three young), and a small selection of shorebirds (Semipalmated and Black-belled Plovers, Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Sandpiper). Many swallows, mostly Tree, passing overhead.
On our way back, we took Dune Road from Shinnecock Inlet to Quogue and, at a couple of stops, we found Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, a Short-billed Dowitcher, a Willet, a lot of egrets (many Snowies as well as Great) and still more -- or the same? -- Tree Swallows.
Eric Salzman
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