RAY DUFFY REPORTS: Secaucus

  Birder Ray Duffy went to four sites in Secaucus on Thursday -- Mill Creek Marsh, Schmidt's Woods, Laurel Hill County Park and Mill Creek Point.
  Ray reports: " I found a pectoral sandpiper this afternoon at Mill Creek Marsh, my first for  Hudson County. I also saw an indigo bunting. 
   While crossing town to visit Schmidt's Woods, I stopped at the Huber Street viewing platform for the marsh and found a Savannah Sparrow. 
  "I found four laughing gulls at Laurel Hill County Park with a large flock of seagulls hanging out near the river behind the new Xchange development.
   "I found a yellow-billed cuckoo at Schmidt's Woods."

Click "Continue reading ... " to see Ray's report.

Mill Creek Marsh - 1pm-2pm 23 species. High tide

1 great blue heron

4 great egret

3 snowy egrets

4 semipalmated plover

8 greater yellowlegs

4 lesser yellowlegs

200 semipalmated sandpiper

1 pectoral sandpiper

6 forster's terns

2 marsh wrens

5 yellow warblers

1 indigo bunting

1

Savannah

Sparrow (spotted around 4:55 at the

Huber St.

platform)

 

Laurel Hill - 3:30pm-4:45pm 24 species

1 great egret

3 black-crowned night herons

12 semipalmated plovers

8 killdeer

1 spotted sandpiper

1 lesser yellowlegs

about 100 semipalmated sandpipers

1 least sandpiper

4 laughing gulls

 

Schmidt's Woods - 5pm-5:50pm 15 species

1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo

5 Downy Woodpeckers

5 Northern Flickers

5 Barn Swallows

1 Tufted Titmouse

1

Carolina

Wren

1 juvenile Baltimore Oriole

 

Mill Creek Point - 6pm-6:30pm  18 species

1 great egret

4 snowy egret

4 spotted sandpiper

1 semipalmated sandpiper

1 least sandpiper (there was more peeps along the shore, but I was facing into the sun and couldn't make a positive id)

6 forster's terns

3 barn swallows

6 marsh wren

5 yellow warblers

Pectoral Sandpiper :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14485831@N04/2743142900/

 

What the sandpipers do at high tide :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14485831@N04/2743143098/