This Week in South Brooklyn

     Earlier this week I birded before work, I birded after work, and today, late in the morning in either the Salt Marsh at Marine Park or at Floyd Bennett Field.
     In all my outings I have noted that there are a ton of yellow warblers, house wrens, Carolina wrens, and a good showing, seeing at least one white-eyed vireo on each outing! The birds have been showing up and doing their thing as their settle in or fuel up and keep the journey moving. Spring is such an exciting time but there is so much FOMO when I am at work so it is always a treat to get out and take in the scenery.

Happy to see this face as I entered the Salt Marsh in the morning before work. Yellow crowned night herons always look sharp. Like they are too cool for school, and are always in style.
I was never a yellow crowned night heron, and I doubt I ever will be.

While I didn't see a heck of a lot that morning, I did see and become very familiar with the white-eyed vireo's song as I stumbled upon two of them. I also got my first magnolia warbler of the year, and checked in on the osprey family.
On my way out I said hello, and goodbye to this greater yellowlegs and headed off towards work.

After work on Wednesday I went back to the salt marsh, but wanted to take some time to explore the other side of the marsh, where there is more shrub and tree growth, which I thought could be good for warblers.

Oh yeah, there were also a lot of these guys (and gals, too) everywhere, common yellowthroats. Or as I like to call them, batman birds.

Love seeing a garden snail, or banded snail, as is their common name. Also it is common to find that they are not always banded.

I love catbirds.
A lot.
I love their personality. They can sing a sweet melody, turn on the attitude as needed, they will find you before you find them, and they make meows!

This one is not meowing or singing... it's gulping down a berry.

The female common yellow throats have this glowing presence. I love seeing them just as much as I enjoy seeing tehir batman counterpart.

The yellow warblers were out in force, singing their "sweet sweet I'm so sweet!" song. And looking so good aganst a blue sky and tender new leaves. 

An American Lady Butterfly. I am looking forward to seeing more and more pollinators as the weather warms up!

Almost walked into this yellow-crowned night heron on my way out of the salt marsh.

Today at Floyd Bennett Field, I got all the feels.
I experienced happiness, sadness, and anger.
This little round friend brought me sadness after I got a better look at him...

Birds are freakin' tough. They can mask it all until they are on their deathbed.
This little ruby-crowned kinglet is missing a chunk of it's face, or has its face smashed in a bit.
It was a little slow. I even (I admit) tried to see how close I could get, because if I could capture it, I would have sought out a rehabber. But it still knew to get away from me, but I know something faster will put an end to it's time in this world. 

I can't even imagine how this little fella got this way.

But, gosh, he is one tough nugget.

This bird made me so happy.

For a solid 7 seconds this bird came out, sat 10 feet away from me and belted out in song before another two individuals of its kind chased it off.
The white-eyed vireo is a damn cool bird.

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What in the world did I do to deserve this special moment?!

And then in the blink of an eye, he was off, continuing his song, being chased and giving chase to the other birds.

 And then, this. This hurt my heart, and made me angry....

I watched this bird swoop down to the fields, grab the bag and fly off with it. Osprey are notorious for using trash in their nests.

:(

We can do better. We need to do better.
Single use plastics suck.

Saw a different bird with proper nest material, flying off in a different direction.

Remember that tomorrow is migratory bird day and the Birdathon! Please consider supporting our Feminist Bird Club team: The Rowdy Turnstones.

We are using all the fund to help the Brooklyn Bird Club adopt some space in the Choco in Columbia that benefits our migratory birds!