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| EAST TO PIKE'S BEACH & CUPSOGUE DUNE ROAD |
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| Continuing west on Dune Road, you pass the increasingly numerous beach houses of the villages of Quogue, Westhampton Beach and Westhampton Dunes. It is possible to make a detour into downtown Quogue or Westhampton Beach for food or facilities and there is also a “beach shack” further west on Dune Road between the incorporated stretches of Westhampton Beach and Westhampton Dunes. Housewatching gives way to birdwatching only in the middle of the latter locality. This stretch of Dune Road was flattened by hurricanes in the ‘90s and isolated from the rest of Dune Road by two wide storm-created inlets. Westhampton Dunes incorporated itself as a village (the only inhabitants of which were Piping Plovers and Least Terns) and successfully lobbied the Army Corps of Engineers to fill in the inlets. One of the conditions of this work was that the Piping Plovers and Least Terns be protected. Another was to provide public parking, both on the beach and bay side, right in the middle of the “village” which has been built up, in record time, in imitation Cape May Victorian style. (Note that the speed limit in Westhampton Dunes is 20 mph and this may be rigorously enforced.) If the public parking lot is manned (or womanned) and you don’t have the required parking sticker, it should be possible to explain that you do not plan to visit the beach but intend to birdwatch on the bay side for an hour or so. |
| BIRDING THE SOUTH FORK WITH ERIC SALZMAN |
| On the northwest side of the bayside parking lot there is a break in the snow fencing through which you can cross over to the bay shore. To the left (west) is an area of flats and islands, often filled with shore birds. In 2000, I went out to see a reported Red-necked Stint here and discovered a Little Stint as well; the next day, a Cayenne Tern was seen on one of the islands off this beach. |
| To the right (east) is the peninsula created by one of the inlet breakthroughs of the Perfect Storm. Wilson’s Plover and breeding plumaged Red-necked Phalarope have appeared at the base of this peninsula with Brown Pelicans and Black Skimmer at the tip. This is also an excellent spot for Royal Terns in the summer and fall and it may well be the best shorebird locale in Eastern Long Island with large numbers of Red Knots, both godwits, Whimbrel, and all sorts of commoner and rarer species quite regularly in evidence. Westhampton Dunes is also, at present, the Piping Plover capital of the world; young and old birds of this species will be found everywhere along these shores from early spring well into the fall. |
| The end of the line is Cupsogue Beach, which extends to Moriches Inlet opposite the eastern end of Fire Island. (Cupsogue is the only part of the barrier island between Shinnecock and Moriches Inlets that is in Brookhaven Town not Southampton.) This is a big area and has to be covered with a 4-wheel drive or on foot. There are extensive marshes, flats and spoil islands on the north side with similar birds to Pike’s Beach (Red Phalarope has recently been seen here and these flats used to be famous for their godwits). The inlet itself and its jetties are less often visited but should have an avifauna similar to Shinnecock Inlet. The spoil islands and other bay areas should be investigated by boat from one of the marinas on the north side of the bay, accessible from the mainland. |
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