Some Birding and a Spoonbill

    I have been doing my birding here and there when I find the time. I need to start bringing my gear with me to work so I can either on my way in or on my way home, make a short little stop as some of my favorite spots are north of me. 

    I did try some Jamaica Bay birding, but with a very rainy summer, the East Pond was a huge disappointment. Water too deep to expose the mud therefore making it very un-shorebirdy and very un-walkable.

    I did though have a chance today to add a new state bird to my list, a roseate apoonbill, after the one that was here two or so years ago evaded my sight.

Braved the mosquitos at Marine Park and was rewarded with this great-crested flycatcher.

Which craned its neck as it looked eagerly for its next fly.

Maybe a least flycatcher? It made no sound.

Always love a sneaky clapper rail. 

My short walk into the East Pond yielded only a (very) small handful of what is usually there this time of year in ridiculously large numbers...
A lesser yellowlegs

A short-billed dowitcher, doing its thing.

Least sandpiper.

A semipalmated sandpiper who was really showing its ability to overcome...

Little buddy only had one leg! As long as it can feed and fly, the bird will probably do alright. Just a bit more hoppy and bouncy than the rest,

Another visit to Marine Park yielded me a few migrating warblers, including the common, but soon to be missed, common yellowthroat.

Also always dig an exceptionally badass looking yellow-crowned night heron.

This Marine Park Mockingbird is going through molt and looks like they are just doing their best!

In partaking in a spoonbill chase, I also tried out a new park: Bayswater Point State Park. It has a birding trail that I opted to not go too deep into due to mosquitoes, but I did find some little birdy spots outside of the trail.
This great crested flycatcher is looking at you with its good eye, its other eye seemed to be out of commission. Thus, resulting in lots of head tilting.

A red admiral butterfly feeding on some tree sap.

A great Treegret.

Doing some fancy aerial work with the flycatcher was also this handsome Eastern Kingbird.

And at Willow Pond in Hewlett, A roseate Spoonbill.

Looks like a juvenile with its pale plumage and face, took a wrong turn somewhere.

Glad to see them and check them off my state list, bird #323 for New York State.

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!