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!
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Upon walking into Prospect Park, a sweet gum tree was dangling a small group of European Goldfinch from its seed pods. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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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. |
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It was such a treat to enjoy this little bird in the act of making its taps. |
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Not a bird. |
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A great blue heron seemed to place itself in the late afternoon sun to gather a little extra warmth. |
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... and a little bit ore wood duck... for the road. |
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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. |
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This common loon was nice and close, actively diving and fishing among some horned grebes. A lot of horned grebes here. |
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I also enjoyed this interesting bird, it's a snow goose x brant hybrid! And there wasn't just one... |
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There are two! |
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These birds have been here almost all winter. And they associate with groups of brant. |
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Brant. |
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When the brant flew, they did too. It was cool to see them in flight. They still honk like a snow goose though. |
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They landed right in the middle of the parking lot to drink some (mostly?) fresh water from a puddle. |
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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. |
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When birds drink, they have to take a gulp then lift their heads to send it down their throat. |
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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... |
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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. |
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Also excited at Jamaica Bay to see this butt in the air... |
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A Northern Pintail! |
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A bird I am happy to find this year-- American Tree Sparrow! |
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This little group of coots clustered on the ice of the East Pond cracked me up. |
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Lots of snow geese in the air, I love watching these birds fly - especially as they tend to do so in large numbers. |
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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. |
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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. |
Nice to weekend with Birding with Jamaica
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