Terns at Cupsogue

Went down to Cupsogue with Eileen Schwinn and walked down from the dune to the shore then all the way east to look through the tern roosts. The weather was sunny with light breezes and some thin cloud cover to mitigate the head. The last time I was in the area, I had a group from the Linnaean Society at the Museum of Natural History in NYC and there simply wasn't time to include Cupsogue. I was right about the time issue. Eileen and I spent three hours down there this morning. We finally left, not only because lunch was calling but also because the Fourth of July crowds (boats, campers, cars, people) had grown considerably during the morning and were still increasing.

The tide was low and still going out so we hardly got wet as we trudged across the sand and mud flats. Among the many Common Terns and increasingly common Forster's Terns was a first-year plumaged Black Tern -- see Eileen's photo attached. Among the preening Commons there were also at least two Roseate Terns (one of them might be in Eileen's picture but, alas, it was actively preening and its black bill was hidden in its back plumage).

The list of interesting birds was substantial. When we first drove into the parking lot, we went through the reeds on a 'trail' that leads to the head of the marsh where there was an agitated Seaside Sparrow with food in its beak, another Seaside (possibly its mate) and a couple of Saltmarsh Sparrows; this was my first Seaside of the year! A Willow Flycatcher perched on the top of a dead tree welcomed us down the path which was criss-crossed by both Barn and Tree Swallows, Common Yellowthroat and Red-winged Blackbirds. At the bottom and all throughout our walk along the shore, there were different flavors of Boat-tailed Grackles (big males, young males, females) flying up and back between the marsh and the spoil islands in the bay. There were quite a few Glossy Ibis both in the marsh and flying past and there was a small group of Black Skimmers in the water opposite the flats. There were few shorebirds but we did see Short-billed Dowitchers (almost inevitably the first southward migrant of its tribe), a few non-breeding-plumaged Black-bellied Plovers and a lonesome Dunlin. Clapper Rail calls accompanied us almost all the way out and back.

Two terns that we did not see were Gull-billed and Sandwich, both reported from here in recent days. But, just as we started to turn back, a Royal Tern came flying in low and virtually across our path, making a large flying punctuation mark to end the morning.

Eric Salzman