Southampton - Went out to Cupsogue last Wednesday afternoon with Eileen Schwinn and Mike Higgiston (the East Quogue bird mafia) to look for the Hudsonian Godwit that was reported earlier by Pat Lindsay and Shai Mitra and seen the day previous by Eileen. The bird was right were it was supposed to be: on a sand flat directly in front of the westernmost of the Moriches Inlet islands and easily visible (with a scope) from the bay shore in front of the country park dunes.

Royal Tern in flight at Jones Beach during the fall.

Hudsonian Godwit is one of the most spectacular of the North American shorebirds. It is about the same size as a Willet, with long knobby legs and a longish somewhat upturned two-tone bill. This bird was seen in the afternoon at low tide when the flats are exposed and it was feeding on a sand bar and in the adjacent shallow water. It showed a rufous breast; that and the rather gentle curve of the bill suggest that it a breeding-plumage male (the females have barred breasts and distinctly longer upturned bills). It also has something of an eye stripe (supercilium if you prefer) as well as a black tail and white rump, visible only when the bird shook its butt hard enough for the tail and rump to show. Since it didn't fly, the wings were not well seen although the wing tips appeared black with a trace of white occasionally visible. It was seen to catch some kinds of small crustaceans and to extract long slinky worms out of their deep coverts in the sand - a good use for that long bill no doubt. Apparently for good reason, the bird is faithful to this spot and, if it hangs out for a while, this would be the first place to look (check for a good low tide).

Hudsonian is by far the rarer of the two native godwits and it has not been much in evidence out here in recent decades. Ironically, in recent years, we've had visits from both Eurasian godwits - the Bar-tailed (which actually crosses the Bering Strait to nest on the shores of Western Alaska) and the Black-tailed - as well as the more common Marbled Godwit. But Hudsonian has been hard to find. The consensus is that this bird was badly reduced in numbers during the days when shorebird hunting was a major sport as well as source of food and, for reasons that are not well understood, it has never really recovered. When I started birding in the '70s and '80s of the last century, it turned up with some regularity but since then it has become a real rarity on the East End. So it was a pleasure to see it among the other early shorebird migrants: Short-billed Dowitchers, Least Sandpipers, Black-bellied Plovers, the usual Willets and Oystercatchers and, yes, a real live Hudsonian Godwit.

A Short Billed Dowitcher makes itself seen in the marshes of Shinnecock Bay.

The first Royal Tern of the season appeared on Weesuck Creek last Thursday morning. Right on schedule. The pale flash of a large white tern banking over the creek caught my eye almost as soon I got down to the water this morning and I watched it set its wings and dive into the creek, gobble its small catch in midair. And then wing its way down the creek and back out to the bay. It was a Royal Tern in full breeding plumage with a yellow-orange bill and a complete black cap (many of the birds we see here are in nonbreeding or juvenile plumage with white foreheads).

Usually I recognize the presence of Royal Terns by hearing their distinctive finger-on-the-teeth-of-the-comb calls (I can hear them all the way back at the house). But this one wasn't calling, probably because it was alone (the calls being most likely a means of communication between birds). Royal Terns breed south of us (nowadays as close as southern New Jersey) and at the end of breeding season they spread out along the coast, moving north as well as south. I don't know whether to call this early fall migration or simply summer visitation but whatever label you want to put on it it happens every year, often as early as mid-July.

Great Crested Flycatchers have been calling all around the house this morning. The calls, although recognizably Great Crested, are somewhat softer and noticably different from the rasps and mocking laughs that we hear in the spring. These birds, probably a family of adults and young, are keeping in touch by sound as they spread out through the woods around the house. Hard to estimate how many birds but there seem to be at least three or four.

A Black Bellied Plover fuels up before heading back south in the fall.

Last Saturday morning's ELIAS (Eastern LI Audubon Society) walk was at Pike's Beach - the bayside beach and peninsula that was formed by The Perfect Storm and other hurricanes and which became accessible with the establishment of the village of Westhampton Dunes and the filling of the inlets by the US Corps of Engineers. This area, in eastern shadow of Moriches Inlet and Cupsogue Beach, has been fairly consistently the best accessible area for shorebirds, both common and rare, on Eastern LI (whether considered by itself or together with Cupsogue County Park a short distance away).

The outstanding sighting this morning was undoubtedly the two Roseate Terns seen flying overhead. A few pairs of Roseates are still apparently breeding on Moriches and Shinnecock Bays but their numbers are certainly low. Additionally a single Royal Tern was seen this morning perched on one of the many sad flats eexposed at low tide (the second of the year for me and the forerunner of more to come).

Two notable species that were seen in fair numbers were Glossy Ibis (many, flying overhead) and Black Skimmer (a fair number of sightings of individuals working the bayshore in classic skimmer style). Piping Plovers were in some numbers, many of them young of the year, confirming this area's prominence as the Piping Plover capital of the East End. In the migrant category, there were a few Semipalmated and Black-bellied Plovers, fair numbers of Short-billed Dowitchers and Red Knots, many dozens of Least Sandpipers and hundreds of Semipalmated. Additionally there were a few Ruddy Turnstones and a yellowlegs, probably Greater. Many Snowy Egrets (outnumbering the Great Egrets). Also the other local breeders: Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Willets, Am Oystercatchers, Common and Least Terns, Laughing Gull and the usual Double-crested Cormorants, Black-backed and Herring Gulls.

On the ocean early in the morning, there were a couple of sub-adult Gannets and a large shearwater too far away to ID as to species. The Hudsonian Godwit was reported again at Cupsogue.

Thanks to Dan Wilson, a member of ELIAS and an employee at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Eileen Schwinn and I had a tour of the lab grounds - not so much to study the colliders or other mysterious scientific installations but to bird some of the 5000 acres. The Brookhaven facility, originally Camp Upton (remember Irving Berlin's "Yip, Yip, Yaphank"?), eventually became one of the country's major laboratories for advanced scientific work in arcane and sometimes scary fields of research. It was considered ideal for this because of its remoteness! Although much of the area has been disturbed, some of it has remained (until now) quite pristine or has been recovering. Although much of the property is dry pine barrens, there are also notable wetlands (the main sources of the Peconic River are inside the Brookhaven Lab fence) and there are also open fields and meadows as well as a lot of edge habitat.

A black Skimmer skims for food at daybreak at Cupsogue County Park.

All of this helps produce large numbers and a substantial variety of birds. Even on a hot, muggy morning in the third week of July, there was an amazing level of activity well into the day. We saw close to 50 species including quite a few singing Indigo Buntings (a species that has increased its number of Long Island significantly), a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (calling and in flight; Black-billed is apparently also present), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, at least three woodpeckers (Downy, Hairy and Flicker), several Red-tailed Hawks, Osprey (on a nest on a communications tower), an angry hummingbird (presumably Ruby-throated; buzzed us literally inches from my face as we trampled on one of its flower beds), several flycatchers (E. Phoebe, E. Kingbird and Great Crested Flycatcher), a mystery thrush (either Hermit or Veery; seen in flight crossing the road), singing Red-eyed Vireos and Field Sparrows, etc. Lots of young birds including B-c Chickadees, Baltimore and Orchard orioles, Ovenbird (adult with young), Common Yellowthroat, Chipping Sparrows, Barn and N. Rough-winged Swallows. The young Rough-winged Swallows were notable as I cannot recall ever having seen this plumage before. There were two birds perched on a wire looking for all the world like some exotic species of swallow: dark around the face, buffy throat and rusty wing-bars.

Unfortunately, some of this habitat - perhaps as much as 150 acres - is due to be cut down for a solar energy project. How ironic that an alternative energy project, a road presumably paved with good intentions, should require environmental destruction on a fairly large scale. Exactly which areas are to be used I am not quite sure; I trust that it does not involve the wetlands. I have also been told that the Lab has agreed to purchased 150 additional acres outside the fence as 'mitigation' but whether these will be equivalent to what is being sacrificed, I cannot say.

Piping Plover with Chick.