BB Park--Pier 1 9/24

A few weeks ago, if I had found one yellowthroat at Pier 1 I'd have been amazed and happy. This morning, knowing what the pier has attracted in the last week, I was getting a little cranky when I had only come up with 1 skulking around the salt marsh. (And isn't the photo above bucolic? Hard to believe it's on landfill jutting out in the East River.) But a few turns around the park turned up 4 species of warblers plus 3 kinglets.  Not bad for what was not so long ago an abandoned Port Authority pier.

I also saw a muskrat chomping on the grass. It was unmistakable--even the rats don't get that big in NYC and they don't have tails as thick as rope. How it found the marsh is the question. I can't believe the park people would introduce the species and I can't imagine it walking down through the Heights. There must be muskrats along the shore to the north and this one made the journey to stake out new territory. What next--deer?
Brooklyn Bridge Park--Pier 1

Number of species:     13

Mallard     3

Double-crested Cormorant     4

Laughing Gull     1

Ring-billed Gull     2

Rock Pigeon     6

Ruby-crowned Kinglet     3

Northern Mockingbird     1

European Starling     8

Yellow Warbler     1

Black-throated Green Warbler     1

Northern Waterthrush     1

Common Yellowthroat     6

House Sparrow     40

Foggy Morning on the Pier