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| SHINNECOCK INLET DUNE ROAD |
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| This is the easternmost navigable inlet on Long Island and a well-known birding site just east of the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays. In recent years, the inlet itself has been dredged, its jetties and parking lots rebuilt, and the ocean beaches just to the west have been extensively replenished but it is not clear what effect, if any, this will have on bird life. Road H, the short road to the right just before the parking lot at the inlet, overlooks the ocean as well as the ocean side of the inlet. You can usually find a place right at the top (attended vehicles are permitted) and this is a good spot to scan with binoculars or a spotting scope, especially early in the morning. Pelagics as well as oceanic migrants can often be seen from here in spring and fall. Sea ducks, loons, grebes, and Northern Gannets are common in migration and sometimes sit in the ocean right off the jetties in the winter. Great Cormorants and Purple Sandpipers are regulars in cold weather. This is also the place to be after tropical storms or hurricanes when southern terns and boobies, pelagics (particularly tubenoses and jaegers) and other exotica may show up. |
| BIRDING THE SOUTH FORK WITH ERIC SALZMAN |
| The newly reconstructed parking lot provides access to the stone riprap that forms the western side of the inlet and gives views of the adjacent parts of the bay. On occasion, pelagics such as Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Parasitic Jaeger and alcids (Razor-billed Auks, Dovekies) will enter the inlet and the near reaches of the bay. In winter and in migration Harlequin Duck and Red-necked Grebe may occur by the rocks on the inside of the inlet. The restoration operations have disturbed the large flocks of gulls that formerly roosted here but the rarer gulls still turn up (Lesser Black-backed, Mew (Common), Thayer’s, Iceland, Glaucous and others). Large flocks of Bonaparte’s Gulls often park here, sometimes with Little or Black-headed Gulls in their ranks. Most of the above birds occur during the colder parts of the year but also during the late spring, summer, and early fall, at the change of tide. Large feeding flocks of terns form at the mouth of the inlet and can be scanned for Roseate (which breeds on the bay) Black and Royal, as well as the rarer tern visitors. Further out in the bay, just opposite the inlet, there is a long sand island paralleling the barrier beach; this is a favorite roost site for Double-crested Cormorants and, in warm weather, the most likely spot for Brown Pelican. |
| The easternmost section of the barrier beach (the eastern side of the Inlet) can be reached by road from Southampton Village (a long detour around the eastern half of Shinnecock Bay). Only a small portion of the beach bordering on the eastern side of the inlet is public land and much of this is given over to trailer camping in the summer. However, due to the fact that the eastern jetty blocks the normal east-to-west movement of sand, the dunes and beach here are exceptionally wide. This is a good spot for Ipswich Sparrow in winter and for dune and beach-nesting birds in spring and summer. There is often a large and diverse flock of gulls on the ocean beach (Common Gull, the European form of the Mew Gull, has spent time here) and the jetties and adjacent waters may be searched for some of the inlet birds mentioned above. |
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