Conditions were ideal for scanning the shorebird flocks today 1510-1725 at
Chincoteague NWR. Nothing truly rare, but a nice array, at least par for the
date. Two second-year Lesser Black-backed Gulls still hanging on there as
well. Shorebird tallies were:
Semipalmated Plover 344
Piping Plover 1
Killdeer 2
Black-bellied Plover 11
Whimbrel 15
Western Willet 6
Eastern Willet 46
American Oystercatcher 15
Black-necked Stilt 4 (all Causeway, e. end)
Marbled Godwit 1 (Swan Cove's n. end)
Dunlin 1310
Short-billed Dowitcher 215
Long-billed Dowitcher 1 (worn basic; 2nd year? flushed by eagle and calling)
Stilt Sandpiper 3 (worth the trip; all Snow Goose Pool)
Semipalmated Sandpiper 600+
Least Sandpiper 5
White-rumped Sandpiper 34
Greater Yellowlegs 13
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Ruddy Turnstone 11
Red Knot 2
Sanderling 2
Twenty-three taxa is good for this time of year but not unexpected. Other
Shore shorebirds recently were a Solitary Sandpiper 22 May (about as late as I
ever see them here) at Cape Charles; Purple Sandpipers at Cape Charles jetty
23 May; and Pectoral Sandpiper 11 May at Bayshore Concrete Products riprap. I
haven't seen Western Sandpiper, snipe, or woodcock since March. Conditions
at Chincoteague look good for Curlew Sandpiper, but I could not find one in
about 80 minutes on the Wildlife Drive. In a week of birding in coastal
North
Carolina 13-21 May, the only additional shorebird species seen were American
Avocet (6 at Pea Island) and Wilson's Plover (4 at Beaufort); the latter has
been in for 6 weeks on the Virginia barrier islands as well.
Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA
