The Birding Weekend Recap

     My weekend has come and is nearly gone, and I am pleased to say I spent most of it outside and birding, with many less layers on! On Friday afternoon, after a busy morning, I birded for a few hours in Prospect Park. I got to enjoy the afternoon outside without gloves, it was so lovely!
     Today, I birded at Canarsie Pier and at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge to get some fun sightings. I got to bulk up my year list a bit, I am up to 80 species at this point and still looking for more!

Upon walking into Prospect Park, a sweet gum tree was dangling a small group of European Goldfinch from its seed pods. 

Much of the lake still had ice, with some pockets of water. It brings the waterfowl much closer to you, like this Northern Shoveler drake.

A very special close-range duck, a wood duck-- normally not in this part of the lake. And normally never this close. Took advantage of such a rare experience.

I ran into one of my fellow Brooklyn birders, and this duck caught our eye- an immature drake shoveler. We both never realized how blue the wrists of their wings are! A very interesting bird, we noticed with another birder how many different phases of plumage/molt these birds are in.

After finding the upper pool devoid of avian life, I found this Yellow-bellied sapsucker on the middle drive. I only found it because I heard it tapping a tree and didn't move on until I found out who it was making the noise.

I'm glad I waited. I love these OCD tree tappers. They drill one hole after another in line with one another. If you ever see a tree, lined with perfect rows of small holes, you now know who made them.

These little holes are how the bird "injures" the tree, which causes sap to flow, and makes for a very important winter meal. In warmer weather- the sap also attracts insects, it's like putting sprinkles on your ice cream!

If it's too cold, sap stops flowing, as it is freezes. So if it gets too cold for too long, these little guys have to seek another food source or location.

It was such a treat to enjoy this little bird in the act of making its taps.

Not a bird.

A great blue heron seemed to place itself in the late afternoon sun to gather a little extra warmth.

... and a little bit ore wood duck... for the road.

At Canarsie Pier, I was treated to some nice views of waterfowl, as the pier takes you out onto the water. I have never been here before and it's a nice place to stop for a quick look at birds.

This common loon was nice and close, actively diving and fishing among some horned grebes. A lot of horned grebes here.

I also enjoyed this interesting bird, it's a snow goose x brant hybrid! And there wasn't just one...

There are two!

These birds have been here almost all winter. And they associate with groups of brant.

Brant.

When the brant flew, they did too. It was cool to see them in flight. They still honk like a snow goose though.

They landed right in the middle of the parking lot to drink some (mostly?) fresh water from a puddle.

I can't imagine parking lot puddle water is good to drink... but I'm also not too sure how clean the water they swim and feed in is-- a lot of trash visibly floating in the water and littered along the shore.

When birds drink, they have to take a gulp then lift their heads to send it down their throat.

Traveled to Terrapin Point at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge so I can have this bird be a Brooklyn bird. People were flocking here to see it, but were fairly upset when I told them how far away it was. I told them how that is a good thing, because otherwise this bird would be harassed and caused undue stress from people following around. This is a 500mm zoom... let's crop it down to see who's there...

A blurry snowy owl!
Terrapin Point at the refuge is technically considered Kings Co. so I was happy to get this 2017 year bird in Brooklyn. 

Also excited at Jamaica Bay to see this butt in the air...

A Northern Pintail!

A bird I am happy to find this year-- American Tree Sparrow!

This little group of coots clustered on the ice of the East Pond cracked me up.

Lots of snow geese in the air, I love watching these birds fly - especially as they tend to do so in large numbers.

Oh, and not a snow goose- but a bonus AND life bird- a Tundra Swan! The East Pond is COVERED in mute swans. This bird showed up last week, I was working and was also cursing. I am so glad it stuck around! Unlike mute swans they lack that knob on their bill and their bill is black, no orange on it.

I am satisfied, and best part of birding at Jamaica Bay WR is I almost always grab a few slices at New Park Pizza, it's a one of my favorite pizzerias. Birds + Pizza = happiness.