Morningside Park and Bashakill

A beautiful juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper at Morningside. This is the normal pale individual.

I kayaked Morningside again this morning. The light but north winds overnight can put down shorebirds at this time of year. They often won’t fly as far without a good tail wind and I think that’s what happened last night. There was a great change, but a couple of new birds did come in. Our FOS JUVENILE SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS arrived overnight. Two fresh juveniles, in very different plumage. One typically pale, the other browner. Also still present were at least 9 LEAST SANDPIPERS, all juveniles this morning, and the juvie SEMIPALMATED PLOVER continuing from yesterday. Noticeable in their absence were Killdeer, not one to be found my entire time there. As usual the sandpipers were cooperative for photos. The problem for me is when to stop! As I birded there, I got a call from Scott Baldinger that he had found his FOS Philadelphia Vireo. Always one of my favorites, I headed right down. I couldn’t find the bird, but we are just starting the period for good numbers of these beautiful Vireos and I’ll catch up with one before long. I spotted one of the Great Egrets and one Common Gallinule while I was there, little else this morning.

The much browner individual posed nicely too.

The paler bird in full sun.

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