Breezy Point Birds

     I did maybe one of my last NYC Plover Project plover beach roving this last weekend. Kinda bittersweet. I love all the babies, helping them, and teaching people about them, but I also am excited for fall migration and to explore other places around Brooklyn as the seasons change. It was a much better season for the plovers this year, many more fledglings than last year, but there can still be better.

    It was easier with beach closures this year, now being the second year of doing that, people are (kind of) getting used to it and accepting of it - still of course a few outliers. 

    On today's final outing for me, only a few chicks, on the verge of fledging remained on Breezy. So off I went, and aside from the plovers, what a showing of birds out there!

The first pictures I took were of this young gull, I was intrigued by the clear view of its oil or preening gland.

Almost all birds have this gland, and by rubbing their beak on it, they can then spread the oil on their feathers and give themselves ample waterproofing!

A few fledgling terns remain and continue to beg, like this least tern. As you can see, parenting in birds also gives you grey hairs on your head!
But truly, the adult birds as they transition out of parenthood and their bodily chemicals from that phase of life wane, they also change plumage for the winter, which is a bit less sharp looking.

If you like great-black backed gulls, Breezy Point is the place to be... so many!

American Oystercatchers gather in large groupings as they prepare for their journey south. This behavior is called staging, and Breezy point is a staging space for many species of shorebird, including the piping plovers.
This banded bird looks like it may have been a resident, as their bands look like the ones used on this beach, by NYC Audubon.

And somehow they are not all yelling at the same time.

Hundreds of sanderlings also gathering up, some with the rusty remains of their breeding plumage.

This sanderling was cracking me up, as it was trying to bathe, and was deep in the water, for a sanderling. And as the waves receded, the same way your feet get the sand dragged out from under you and you sink.... that is exactly what is happening right here.
But they seemed to know what they were doing.

A semipalmated plover is another bird that is just passing through. Like the sanderling they breed far North of here and are also gathering to head south for the season.

Ruddy turnstones are fun, calico looking birds. They like to mix into other flocks. This one was feeding with the plovers and sanderlings and came up lucky with a surf clam, which was not under s tone that required turning.

Wild! A look at the tongue of the ruddy turnstone has papillae on its lower side! I guess that helps to extract clammy yum yums from their shell.

I saw around 11 piping plover, all looking mostly like this. In their juvenile and non-breeding plumage. Still cute!

Sand-tern-lings.
A few common terns of mixed ages within the group of sanderlings.

A common tern at the cusp of being their own bird, but still begging to be fed.

What luck to run into a single, and very obliging, whimbrel!

This is my year bird, thank you, whimbrel.

I'd say this bird was early, but I'm pretty sure this is the same common loon I and many saw over the summer. Anyway, they were quite close to shore, so nice to gab a pic on a bright sunny day versus a gloomy cold winter day.

Topped it all off with a black skimmer.

Now. Onto migrating shorebird season, warblers, and soon, weird ducks!

Marsh Youngsters

     I applied the deet and wandered into the Salt Marsh Nature Center trail this morning in Brooklyn's Marine Park. After an early morning rain, the mosquitoes were buzzing, and also, West Nile has been found in the area during testing of mosquitoes, so protect yourself out there.

    I wasn't sure if I'd encounter much, but I was wrong. Some of the recently fledged critters of all kinds have yet to figure out how to hide from large scary creatures, like myself. So I got more photos that I thought I would!

This American goldfinch looks like it is starting to go into its molt to its winter plumage.

A young and rather unafraid Eastern cottontail.
It's ear facing us has 2 engorged ticks on it and if you look closely, a third engorged tick is on its muzzle. A good reminder to stay on the paths!

Every visit to Marine Park has yielded a very vocal marsh wren.
Well today, I found what I presume is one of its offspring!

AND IT HAD NO BUTT.
This horrid picture is only for butt-less purposes only.

Important feature of the marsh wren - that split stance. Looks like this little one has it down.

A cute, disheveled little thing!

SCREAM IF YOU HAVE NO BUTT!

Another youngster, very likely born this past season, a common yellowthroat.
Also supposed to be very shy.

It and the two other young common yellowthroats it was with, were not young. In this shot, the bird came toward me, and landed in this plant maybe 8 feet from me, which is not far.

I figured I'd try my luck near an area where I knew some Baltimore orioles nested and like that, a family of dad and his two youngsters were just perched in a tree. Dad and sibling 1 took off, but sibling two lingered as we made eyes at each other.

In addition to all these youngsters, there were very many young American robins and even some young red-eyed vireos also in the area. My favorite was a young male cardinal, molting into his red plumage from that baby olive plumage they have when they fledge. GO see them while they are young and curious about the world to get some good looks at some birds before they head south, which has begun!

Virginia Beach Vacation

     This past week our family along with all of our family, kids, aunts, uncles, and grandparents shared a large beach house (13 of us in total) on Sandridge near Virginia Beach. The beach was half a city block away, our yard offered a pool and access to a freshwater canal that led out to Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Down the sliver of land was Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and I did all my birding and wildlife peeping down there. I also had a really nice time casting the fishing rods brought by a family member, I forgot how much I love just stopping to cast a rod. Caught a few small fish that we released back. 

    It was a good week away and the birding wasn't half bad either.

Woke up on the first full day of vacation and headed out early to the wildlife refuge, first greeted by this spotted sandpiper.

Having my clothes treated the night before with permethrin and sprayed down with 100% deet, the bugs were no bother. for me.

Originally I thought this was a young cardinal, but closer inspection of that ultra scowl made me think blue grosbeak - and a fledgling at that!

And maybe this is dad, just a few feet away!

If it seems funny confuse that fledgling for a cardinal, if you look at the beaks of cardinals and blue grosbeaks, they are pretty similar - these birds are in the same family!

The background bird sound of the trip for me was purple martins, they were everywhere, and many martin houses were propped up along the waterways where we stayed.

Green herons were easy to come across throughout the refuge. This one was just divebombed by martins.

Just 10 miles north of North Carolina, there were plenty of Carolina wrens to go around.

A good number of eastern cottontails among any grasses and roadsides.

I went back for more birding on my birthday. I was VERY, VERY excited to find my very first cottonmouth, a venomous snake in the pit viper family. It just floated in the water, with zero cares to be had. I was able to safely observe this snake from a boardwalk above the marsh waters it was floating in.

Still plenty of green heron to be had.

Some other herons around the area were great blues, which I saw mostly in flight.

Blue grosbeaks were everywhere, a sight that is hard to get tired of.

The female blue grosbeaks are pretty lovely too...

Osprey were everywhere, usually screaming and whining at each other.

My last day of visiting the refuge was a day that threatened rain, and the birds were just not as abundant. So I took in the birds I could but also looked to the other many wonders of the refuge.
This spotted sandpiper, presuming its the same one I have been seeing daily in the same area, snacks on a spider.

If you keep your eyes down on where you are walking along the marsh, it's easy to spot a green tree frog. These are frogs are maybe an inch long? They are quite tiny.... and cute!

For sure one who likely feasts on boardwalk green tree frogs.... a green heron.

And boy oh boy, was I happy to see that the cottonmouth pretty much calls under the boardwalk home.

You can see its heat sensing pit directly in front of its eye, allowing it to "see" the body heat of animals it may wish to make into a meal.

This snake was small, maybe 2 feet? For sure has a touch more growing to do.

They are closely related to rattlesnakes but unlike rattlesnakes spend a lot mor time in and around the water. They get their name from their mouth that looks very pale in contrast to the rest of their body and that they flash open, agape, when feeling threatened. A bit could be very, very painful and potentially fatal, so definitely one you should observe safely.

One cannot ignore the swamp mallows growing everywhere, white and pink were easy to spot. These are the plants from which marshmallows were made from!

A lovely female red-winged blackbird, always nice to see them with no brush hiding their beautiful plumage.

Noticed something hop quickly across the trail, it paused to let me snap a few pictures to help me identify it as an Eastern American Toad! This one must be quite young as some can reach lengths around 2-4" in length!

A very screamy osprey briefly landed to let me see its look of absolute chaos.

AHHHHHHHH!
(It was more like a whiney whinny)

These yellow garden spiders blew my mind with their web designs!

The spider itself also quite beautiful too, and decently sized, especially for any who may have some adversity to spiders. It isn't fully known why they make the zigzag pattern, but one thought is so that birds can see it and not fly through it, thereby destroying the spider's hard work.

A female Eastern pondhawk, the males of this species are blue. These voracious predators eat insects on the wing, and sometimes even each other!

There were A LOT of dragonflies at the refuge, Halloween pennants are everywhere and lovely to look at with those spotted black and orange wings.

Another green tree frog, which would "sing" from time to time, especially early on the wettest mornings.

A great blue skimmer, one of the larger dragonflies flying over the refuge.

A young brown headed cowbird, wonder who the lucky host was to raise this little one.

Some notable birds I enjoyed - but didn't get pictures of - included yellow-breasted chats, white ibis, tricolored heron, white-eyed vireo, prothonotary warbler, Northern waterthrush, royal tern, and Caspian tern.