JBWR 9/6

We spent the late morning/early afternoon at JBWR, with most of the time spent on the south end of the East Pond, sorting out the various sandpipers that fed right in front of us. We added Pectoral Sandpiper and Long-Billed Dowitcher, and spent a long time studying one sandpiper that we finally decided had to be a Western in non-breeding plumage (or maybe a juvenile, or maybe a female, but in any case a Western). Finding a Northern Waterthrush jumping in & out of the reeds was a good sighting. Also, on the West Pond we found a couple of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, one of them a juvenile. Hadn't seen Yellow-crowns in a couple of months. Big-nosed birds: 2 very distant American Oystercatchers out on the bay by the West Pond. We didn't see the pelican today.

We also made a quick scouting-type stop at Plum Beach. In the winter it will be a good place to look for ducks without walking over a former dump as we sometimes do at nearby poetically named Dead Horse Bay. Some Sanderlings were running along the water's edge, pretty much unperturbed by people wading nearby. I think for the last 4 days we found about 70 species, which isn't great, but we really weren't able to pad our lists with warblers, vireos, and other little woodsy birds because we didn't spent much time among the trees.

The day list:
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (both ponds) & Plum Beach

Canada Goose    20

Mute Swan    105
Gadwall    4
American Black Duck    10
Mallard    100
Northern Shoveler    30
Double-crested Cormorant    150
Great Blue Heron    6
Great Egret    5
Snowy Egret    5
Little Blue Heron    1
Black-crowned Night-Heron    2
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron    2
Glossy Ibis    12

American Oystercatcher    2
Greater Yellowlegs    12
Lesser Yellowlegs    12

Semipalmated Sandpiper    25
Western Sandpiper    1
Least Sandpiper    3
White-rumped Sandpiper    1
Pectoral Sandpiper    1
Stilt Sandpiper    1

Sanderling 8
Short-billed Dowitcher    5
Long-billed Dowitcher    1
Laughing Gull    75
Ring-billed Gull    70
Herring Gull    55
Great Black-backed Gull    2

Foster’s Tern 5

Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove    1
American Crow    1

Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird    4
Northern Mockingbird    1
European Starling    5

Northern Waterthrush 1
Red-winged Blackbird    1

House Sparrow 3