Terns of Nickerson Beach

Date: Thursday, June 6, 2024
Rain Date: Friday, June 7, 2024

Leaders: Patricia Lindsay and Shai Mitra
Participants will be responsible for their own transportation. However, the registrar will help connect those in need of a ride with other participants who are able to offer one. (The exact meeting place and time will be shared with attendees after their registration is confirmed.)
Schedule: This trip starts early and will likely end in the early afternoon.        
Relative difficulty: Terrain is mostly flat, on the sandy beach.        

This trip will focus on studying the terns that nest and visit Nickerson Beach. A spotting scope or high zoom camera are highly recommended for this trip. Nickerson Beach is a unique area, partly designated to protect bird species that are threatened and even endangered, with portions cordoned off for nesting Common Terns, Least Terns, and Piping Plovers. The area also hosts several large Black Skimmer colonies, and nesting American Oystercatchers are numerous. The access to food and shelter is an attraction to other avian species as well, such as local Eastern Willets and Gull-billed Terns, and migrants such as Roseate Terns, Black Terns, and Arctic Terns, which are uncommon and do not nest at Nickerson. Access to tidal pools and rain pools at this time of the year attracts shorebirds like Red Knots, Semipalmated Plovers, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, and other species. Lesser Black-backed Gulls frequently make an appearance. None of these visiting birds are guaranteed, but what fun it is to find them when they do appear! We will also be watching for shearwaters and whales on the ocean—on a previous trip the extremely rare and endangered North Atlantic Right Whale gave us quite a show.

Please read The Linnaean Society of New York COVID-19 Field Trip Guidelines before registering.

Registration opens at 9 am on Monday, May 27. After that time, click here to register. Registration closes at 6 pm on Monday, June 3.

Please read the About Our Trips page, especially if you’re going on a field trip for the first time. It details our field trip policies, recommends what to bring on a trip, and offers other useful information.

If after visiting the About Our Trips page, you still have questions, feel free to contact the registrar via email (or phone, if listed) between the hours of 9 am and 9 pm.