Salt Marsh Views

I've been slacking on getting stuff up on the blog because it's spring, we have the house and have taken on so many DIY type projects. Tim is building a fence to make our yard more private, I have been chiseling away at our bland lawn of patchy grass and other small weeds and transforming it into a lawn of native and pollinator-friendly plants.

So, because of that, here are some birds at Marine Park's Salt Marsh Nature Center last week!

Mourning dove in the morning sun.

These crows brought this harrier right over head! I never had a harrier come so close, legit, like 5 feet over head as the crows gave chase.

Showing male plumage.

There is someone in there... So I kept still and waited.

Hello, Killdeer!

Just took a seat for a few.

Osprey is on the nest... perhaps on eggs by now.

I wonder what he is thinking about...

Probably about hitting those notes just right.

Literally, everyone is singing-- even this Northern Flicker. Who even let me look at it!

Normally the moment you make eye contact with a flicker, they are off!

A young red tail uses the unoccupied osprey playtorm to survey the area.

A female American wigeon, looking especially lovely on a spring day.

April Showers - Green-Wood Cemetery

     A grey day just about all day. I wanted to sneak out before the rain and chose Green-Wood Cemetery. I was hoping for woodcock, but that of course, didn't happen. But I did see some other feathered friends that were just as great!
     Highlights include some new spring arrivals, including my most favorite Egret in all of Brooklyn, the Great Egret who lives at the Crescent and Dell Waters. It is reliably in that location for the season in which it lives here and feasts on frogs, minnows and goldfish. Sometimes it shares with great blue heron, green heron, and night herons- but it is just about always at these two water features from spring till fall migration kicks in for her/him.
     Even with raindrops falling, the birds didn't stop. Birds are tough, rain ain't no thing.

Oh what a lovely surprise! A very feisty (and probably hangry) blue-grey gnatcatcher! 

Best brows, wings down!
Normally these birds are catching little insects, so it took to the ground where the most insects could be found. Normally these birds are high, making you crane your neck to catch those flashing outer white edges of the tail, a sure sign of this bird as it flits through the canopy quickly and meticulously.

A magnolia with buds ready to burst had 2 red-breasted nuthatches among its branches, plus 2 more white breasted nuthatch and a yellow-bellied sapsucker.

Working hard, looking hard for some snacks...

Golden-crowned kinglets were also quite busy looking for food. With the cooler temperatures and grey skies, insects were not really flying.

The Green-Wood great egret is back, and in breeding plumage with those beautiful egret feathers flowing behind it.

Once those feather were its biggest flaw, attractive to humans, egrets were nearly wiped out until protected by the migratory bird treaty act. Those plume were popular for fashion. I think they look best on the bird.

The first warblers are here, a palm warbler sits, briefly at the Sylvan water edge. Pine warbler were more plentiful but hard to photo in the low light. There will be plenty more to come as we progress into the month.

My record shot for the rusty blackbird that my eyes sifted out of common grackles, brown-headed cowbirds, and starlings. It's call also confirmed it for me.

A handsome brown-headed cowbird male nomming on some seeds and grassy things.
Seeing all this nomming made me hungry.
I hit up my favorite dumpling spot (that I mis dearly) before heading home and getting my nom on.

Finally.

     In moving from mid-Brooklyn to the deep South of Brooklyn, my regular birding patches have changed. The Salt Marsh Nature Center and Floyd Bennett Field are my closest spots, with the Salt Marsh being the easiest to get to. So when the rain finally stopped today, I hopped on my bike and peddled to Marine Park and got to do some birding.
     This is the time of year where with each outing you hope to catch that next new bird, coming into the northern climes on its migration northward. But at the Salt Marsh there has been one bird who has just done a darn good job of avoiding me every visit I made there since December. I don't consider this bird a nemesis bird (that title belongs to the Lincoln's Sparrow), but this individual in particular, perhaps.
     I walked the trails, braved the cold gusty winds, and hoped to see something cool - whether it be a bird, a muskrat, or some interesting behaviors. I saw two of the three...

It's not everyday you find a red breasted merganser walking in the mud.
As diving ducks, their legs are set far back so they are a bit front heavy and walk a bit more upright than your average duck.

It also appears this bird may have once broken part of its lower mandible, giving it an appearance of having an overbite.

The osprey pair were busy today. Battling the gusty winds during the lowering tide for some muddy grasses to line their nest with.
I love how they even have shrubbery growing from their nest...

The one in the nest was doing a lot of the actual nesting. I feel that one may be the female.

This looks like an attempt to mate-- but it is really just an attempt to land, fighting the wind.
Especially because the one on the post, I think, is the male.
Even he looks a bit puzzled by this maneuver.

FINALLY.
Literally threw my hands in the air, to celebrate seeing this duck.

Came into the marsh. It was not there.
Leaving.
HELLO.
Eurasian Wigeon.

Everytime I visit the Marsh- it is seen that same day. But never when I am present. So this was a happy sight.
Because as the weather warms, soon the wigeons will all be a winter memory.

Also, I like birds who have the same color plumage as me.

:-D

Stunning... as it eats up all that marshy, sludgy, deliciousness.

There were American Wigeon too...

But, I just couldn't avert my eyes and camera from this stunning hunk of marsh slime eating duck.

Vernal Equinox & World Sparrow Day

It's Spring! It's World Sparrow Day! How much better can it get?!
I visited last week, Green-Wood Cemetery, Dead Horse Bay, and today, The Salt Marsh at Marine Park and Floyd Bennett Field after work today. I got to enjoy some winter favorites before they go and welcome some early migrants.

Welcome back, little Golden-crowned Kinglet!
Fly catching last week on our 60+ degree day. 

A winter favorite that will soon fly up north... the Fox Sparrow. One of my favorite sparrows!

It was so warm last Friday, the Common Snapper at the Dell Water made it to the surface. I want to free its poor face of all those awful leeches! 

Another great sparrow, who sings a very sweet song- the white-throated sparrow.

Corvids do not like raptors.... A young red tail gets dive-bombed.

A raccoon that was either hung-over or sick. Found it laid out on the ground, making sure it wasn't dead, I clapped and woke it up and it sauntered off like a groggy mess.

A special bird, a common redpoll, who was hanging out among a flock of American Goldfinch.

It was very reliant upon the sweet gum seed pods.

A low Turkey Vulture over Dead Horse Bay last Saturday.

Today at the salt marsh.
Welcome back! Laughing Gull!

Welcome Back! Osprey!

Oh hai! 

Crows are NOT the welcome crew...

Oh, another great sparrow, an American Tree Sparrow!

Welcome back! Eastern Phoebe!

Welcome Back! American Oystercatcher!