Everything but the waterfowl.

     This weekend I helped one of my friends out with the annual waterfowl count. Their patch to survey is the Coney Island to Brighton Beach waterfront. Things started off fairly slow, but as we moved east along the beach, things picked up. Also, bonus, everything ended with delicious borscht and Russian food in Brighton Beach..

    I mostly took pictures of everything that does not count as waterfowl...

So if it is near the water and in the water, that does not always constitute as waterfowl.
This purple sandpiper is not considered waterfowl.
Waterfowl for the purposes of this count include ducks, geese, loons, swans, and grebes.

But even if it isn't waterfowl, we still stopped and took a look.

Because, if you don't stop and look, you might miss that very subtle purple sheen on those wings.

Purple sandpipers never turn their backs to the sea.
Well, they do, plenty.
But they are touch, living upon rocks in the surf, they power through some big splashes!

Salty spray sparkle makes a purple sandpiper look absolutely fab.

While we saw plenty of Bonaparte's gulls offshore, this one was right at the shore. Gave some nice opportunity to see one close and floating along the waves.

These dainty little gulls have black heads when in their breeding plumage, so in the winter, they just have a little ear patch.

My favorite thing about these gulls is that when they feed while flying, they faceplant into the water. With grace.
They also look lovely with the waves crashing behind them.

While less dainty than the Bonaparte's gull, it's smaller than it's "greater" cousin, this adult lesser black backed gull was a lovely treat.
Again. Not waterfowl.
Standing out with its yellow legs, streaky head, and short stature, the adults are easy to pick out from the regular crowd.

Another treat and also not waterfowl, had a few close views of normally further off-shore northern gannets. 

Another great gull, the bird in the foreground is an Iceland gull with a herring gull further back. The Iceland gull is a nice sight, they are not super common, but there are always a handful around to see. They are easily distinguished from our regular ol' seagulls because of their white wingtips.

Before we wrapped up, we got two red-necked grebes which was a nice way to end the survey and go eat a lot of (very) good food!

Red-headed Woodpecker Neighbor

     So, if there is a red-headed woodpecker less than a 10 minute bike ride from your home, yes. You go see it. Took a 20 minute pause in my morning to grab some looks, some sub-par photos, and yeah, I'm glad I went. Perhaps the little buddy will stick around and maybe even get their full red head in due time.

This immature bird is coming into its red head. Another indicator of its age is that its white wing atches have some black bars,

Red-headed woodpeckers can be found in New York, but like, not reliably where we live, but in other parts of NY, NJ, and places south of us. But a small amount tend to show up every year in the city.

This bird was hanging out in Marine Park, and as for exactly where.... oh I just can't quite recall...

(It was at the entrance near Stuart Street and the Avenue T intersection....)

I hope this bird sticks around into the weekend, I'd love to see it in some better light.

Trying out some infrastructure.... a lamp post.

Potentially just seeking out advice from some urban birds.

A Weekend: From Prospect Park to Staten Island

     What a weekend, it involved birding playdates, scoping seabirds from Coney Island, and chasing a rare hawk on Staten Island.

    In Prosect Park, Kestrel and I met up with another birding mom that we met on one of the bird walks I led. We planned to bird a little part of the lake and up to the feeders. Both areas provide great vantage points for kids to also look at birds and them interacting with each other and their environment. Kestrel recently got a camera for the holidays so she was excited to take pictures of birds. a few of her bird photos are as follows... not half bad, eh?

I suppose we should fix that timestamp setting... But here she captured the "dada" swan, a few duckies (mallard), and a baby duck (coot).

    Today, Sunday, I mostly scoped off the shores of Coney, and got the two birds I was hoping for, a razorbill and a red-necked grebe. Both are rare for our area, so I was quite happy to see them. My original plan was to kinda stop and go along the coast till I got back home. But then I saw an alert for a SWAINSON'S HAWK in Staten Island, saw it was a 15 minutes drive and my plans changed. I was really really happy I made the choice to go, I got there, grabbed some amazing looks and got home to still enjoy lunch.

When birding with the kiddos, you remember that mallards are gorgeous and deserving of attention.

We enjoyed the American coots.... or, as a 2.5 year old calls it, baby ducks.

This one had a lot of opinions.

This hooded merganser flew in with two shovelers and looks to regret its choices?

The feeders are such a great place to visit as a new birders, seasoned birder, or anyone, really. Its so fun to see them easily without a need for binoculars, being active, interacting with other birds. And also why I recommend it for anyone with kiddos who are interested in birds or animals. There is a fence to give birds their space and even the "naughty" blue jays are a delight.

When birding with kids, the most common birds are the ones you come to appreciate. They are reliable treats to the eyes, a little comfort for your bird-needing soul, and with kids, some of their first birds that they will come to recognize. SO please, give us cardinals, blue jays, titmice, and chickadees every day!

For today, I planned to start from Coney Island and bird east back toward home along the shore and waterways. 
Well.
That plan got derailed once I saw there was a Swainson's Hawk in Staten Island and ZERO traffic? Yeah, that choice was made pretty quickly.

This hawk is a juvenile. It seems to have gotten lost as it should be in Argentina or thereabouts.

It was kind of funny to come and see this bird sitting on the ground. These are birds of open fields and grasslands with few trees, so, it isn't fully out of the question to see one on the ground.

Their normal range, here in the states, is their breeding range which is more or less, Western North America, Canada and into Alaska.

I've seen Swainson's Hawks out in Colorado before, but it was a lovely treat to see this one close to come and so close. I took these first few shots from my seat in the car.

I wish I wasn't in the car for this shot, as its taken through my (probably dirty) front windshield. It woulda been a lot cooler without that "filter."

This bird has such long wings when sitting, they do look a good amount different than our common red tailed hawks.

The bird flew a few times, but keeping to the general area.

And when it did land, sometimes it chose some pretty telling background for its not so usual location

While watching this Swainson's, I also got the chance to observe a bunch of other birds, including lesser scaup, Bonaparte's gulls, common goldeneye, gadwall, and a flyover bald eagle.

Whenever out of range birds show up, it's always like a bit of a death sentence for some. As they show up, are starving, and there is little to no food around. Swainson's hawks are mammal and insect predators, so perhaps there is a chance for this bird?

A very Staten Island pic.
It's definitely cheaper to fly across.

In front of the eyes of many observers, the hawk snatched up a rat from the shoreline and flew off with it. 
A word of advice, especially to newer birders who may not know, leave a bird with prey be. Let them eat.
A few birders pursued this bird who was in perfect sight from a respectable distance, a bunch of us had scopes and happy to share. But the birders then pushed the bird to fly off and hide behind a tree to eat, keeping it out of sight for when a number of folks had just arrived to observe.

As it approached 1pm, I took a cue from the hawk. Time for lunch.

Endings and beginings

     Last year, number-wise, not my most impressive. I managed 232 species while being a mom to a very energetic toddler, with 90% of the time only a bike to get my butt out and about, and while navigating where to take my career to next. In the end of it all, I'm just so happy I can keep birding while being a mom to a growing, curious, and very intelligent little kid. I even got her a little tot camera so she can take bird pictures with me. But, moming makes birding a bit limited. So I have come to embrace the fact that I still can bird, just at a different pace than most. But I know that it won't always be quite like this. Really secretly hoping she just wants to be a birder and we go on kickass trips to see birds and the world together.

    I closed out 2022 with a visit to Jones Beach, close to where I grew up and I opened up 2023 with an afternoon walk in my local patch. I'm just looking forward to what the year brings, bird-wise!

At Jones Beach when I first arrived, a flock of (likely) over 1000 brant just landed right before me. It was really surreal.

I loved watching all the flocks come from all different directions to become this one really giant flock.

And once on the water together, they were quite noisy. They also began to synchronize their moves and then all at once, with a loud "WOOOSH" they all took to the air in unison and it literally made my heart beat fast, bring a really dumb smile to my face, and I think I even did that thing where I put my full hand over my heart on my chest. Like it was a breath-taking moment.
And just another reason why common, abundant birds can make your heart skip a beat the same way a rare bird can!

All the time between the brants coming and going, this black scoter, joined by an immature male, three females, and a single greater scaup, sat as if nothing had occured.

I love black scoters, I think they are very cute.

This one made me look twice, thought it was a female, but the orange on the beak made me realize it's an immature male.

I took to the median after the coast guard station, where the (nasal, off-key) chorus of red-breasted nuthatches filled the air.

They are very cute.

Love to see them!

I made my way out to the inlet overlooking point lookout and saw the razorbills I had hoped for. But I also saw this dovekie and that was a surprise I was not expecting and very happy to have seen.
Before this, I have found a dead dovekie at Jones Beach many years back, then a BROOKLYN dovekie about a year or two ago that was immediately grabbed by a peregrine falcon. So I was happy to see one living, diving, and being its best dovekie self.

For today, after a morning out with my family, I got in a walk at Marine Park. I feel that this Cooper's Hawk was sent over from the good deed I performed just before this, helping a sweet lady learn how to use her binoculars she just got for Christmas.
"Excuse me, are you a binocular expert?" Is how she approached me, and I helped her adjust her harness, fit her bins to her face, showed her the focus, and she was just so eager to explore the world through them. I hope she also got to enjoy some sights through them on this (ridiculously) warm, new years day.

Thank you, Cooper's Hawk for gracing me with your presence.

The park wasn't suuuper birdy when I went, but it was good to see lots of people outside enjoying nature. Also, this purple shine to this northern shoveler drake, is plenty for me.

Upon arriving home, I noticed our new feeder bird of 2023, we finally have house finches. It began as one male....

And then it quickly turned into a small flock. Word spreads fast I suppose.

These little cuties hop happily into our window feeder where we can appreciate seeing them all day long!
Wishing everyone a birdful year ahead!