August Birding

     Birding can be what you make of it, there is always something going on. You can get in on the action or take it easy. Lately, I have not let racking up numbers and species get to me, but I do get very excited at the opportunity to add a bird to my year list. 

    The piping plovers have been fledging and moving and a lot of the plover patrol has tapered off, so I have been looking t birds other than plovers. As the plovers are on the move, so are many other shorebirds, so I have indulged in them a bit, but also have taken it slow, getting under some shade trees and waving hello to a catbird or nine. A wrap up of a few locations: Tilden, Jamaica Bay, Canarsie Park, and Green-Wood Cemetery.

In watching plovers all summer, I got to also spend some quality time with other birds who called the shore home either for a few weeks or temporarily as they migrated through, like these ruddy turnstones.

And they are just these beautiful mosaics of bold colors, I love 'em!

Toward the end of plover season the sanderling numbers really increased dramatically. These high Artic breeders have been heading south since early August!

I learned this summer skimmers can predate upon plover chicks. They also breed on the Rockaway Peninsula like the plovers. They are incredibly mesmerizing to watch. 

This mature and very good looking lesser black-backed gull spent a good chunk of the summer on the stretch of beach I spent most of my time. It's a gorgeous bird.

*swoon*
Adults are the easiest to tell apart:
1. size, they are somewhere between ring-billed to herring gull size.
2. Head shape, is more round, less blocky than a great black-back.
3. Legs, those yellow legs set them apart from all the others.

On August 13th I co-led a shorebird walk at the Shore Bird Festival at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge for the Feminist Bird Club.
It was really awesome, because shorebirds are hard and we helped some folks see the intricacies that set them apart from one another.
We saw a lot of these, lesser yelowlegs, which are very cute.

This was a treat, one of two pectoral sandpipers. With their yellow-orange legs, orange bill base, and larger size, these birds are one of the easier ones to pick out of a crowd of semipalmated sandpipers.

I really enjoy seeing these, as you have to work hard to see them and sift through other birds. So in a way, it's rewarding!

Caught mid- scritch, this one looks very cute.

One that is a touch harder to find in your sifting are these, two white-rumped sandpipers. The bird on the right is giving an exclusive peek to that white rump this is often hard to see!

Compared to the semipalmated, they are just a touch bigger, I originally found them because they felt so big in comparison to the birds are them. They also have a very strong eyebrow, and I admit, this photo doesn't show it very well, but their wings are longer than those of the semipalmated, reaching (just a touch) past their tail.

Then another stand out from the crowd.

This bird was just a touch smaller than the lesser yellowlegs, a more dainty head and bill, but a deep chest, like a boat. And normally this bird is like a boat, as they typically swim to get their food. But this one was running, and we were so glad to see this Wilson's Phalarope!

Got to see a number of birds on this walk that were show stoppers, very exciting to share my very amateur shorebird knowledge with folks. 

In my visit to Canarsie Park, this little one really delighted me. It's a fledged brown-headed cowbird and it was not shy. Which I suppose is an important factor in being a cowbird.
It's damn cute.

Even I would let this little bird infiltrate my life and raise it as my own, being that cute.

I was very excited that my first steps into Green-Wood Cemetery last week revealed an entire mob on Italian wall lizards! I am excited to go back and see more.

The Dell Water was very low, and this great blue heron was plucking tadpoles from the water like small snacks.

A very lovely black swallowtail finding the thistle to be perfection.

Lots of black swallowtails out on this day.

Got to see one of my favorites having a bad feather day. It is not that crazy to see some songbirds with a more catastrophic molt on their heads, as this brown thrasher is demonstrating.

I don't mind the funny feathers, still love these gorgeous rich, brown birds.

I thought this was my special treat before heading out, a lone immature drake wood duck on Sylvan water.

He was hanging about with a gang of Canada Geese, good pals if you want some protection!

But silly me, the treat was yet to come, a flowering shrub filled with a family of eastern kingbirds, a scarlet tanager, and a yellow warbler! I love the kingbirds and was hoping to see them, nearly sad to have not seen them in my walk thus far, so getting to see them right before my exit was extra special!