Breeding season over, shorebirds are heading back south as the migration pendulum swings the other way. Here are a few of the species I saw this week along Brooklyn’s shoreline:
Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola). 
Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) and American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus), which looks like it’s got a Blue Mussel (which shouldn’t be that hard, the area is littered with them).
Another view of a Turnstone, this time without the magic light of sundown on it.
Back to golden glow of sundown. Here’s a Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus). It has one of the smallest bills in the shorebird universe, where specialized foraging strategies have led to all sorts of bill lengths and shapes, from this little nubbin to the outrageous Oystercatcher schnoz.
OK, so the edge of Sylvan Water in Green-Wood Cemetery isn’t exactly a shoreline, but Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) are as apt to be found on the edges of freshwater as on brine.
This is a juvenile, which entirely lacks the spots of a breeding adult (hey, I don’t name them). And that’s a dragonfly about to be brunch.
Shorebirds
2 responses to “Shorebirds”
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Really a nice piece with variety and the IDs
Thank you very much
Diane-
Thanks, Diane. It’s a challenging time on the shorebird front with all the post-breeding plumage changes. Oystercatchers have been nesting in the area for several years now, making Dead Horse sing with their cries. And there wasn’t a mosquito to be seen/heard/bit-by on the way there, as earlier in the summer when they mass in the phragmites.
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Backyard and Beyond 
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