Dowitcher
Summer is just about over … I remember saying that to a non-birder friend of mine a while back. “Summer is over in mid-July because the Shorebirds are done nesting and they begin their long migration from the high Artic to South America,” I said with a big smile feeling very proud of myself.
My friend looked at me very sad and was depressed for at least the rest of day. She promptly went home and turned in her beach badge to Ortley Beach and began instead surfing the Internet for sales on winter coats.
But for those of us who love birding this is a great time of year, when flocks of thousands of Semipalmated Sandpipers can be seen moving through the marshes like one single minded entity controlled by unseen forces. Dowitchers, Dunlin and Yellow-Legs line the mudflats. It is one of those amazing spectacles of nature that should not be missed.