JBWR & Fort Tilden

I thought that with Hurricane Earl rushing up the East Coast, that perhaps some unusual birds would be blown in--instead, this morning at Jamaica Bay it looked like they all were blown away. Almost all the species we saw yesterday were around, but their numbers were greatly diminished--except for swans and cormorants. This was probably more a function of the tides than the storm. Still, Shari was finally able to digiscope the American White Pelican on the East Pond and trip to Fort Tilden yielded not only our favorite big-nosed bird, American Oystercatcher, but Sanderlings, turnstones and Willets.

A couple of the oystercatchers were disturbing to look at through the scope: one had a huge growth on its bill and another had a broken foot--it was painful to watch it hopping along in the water with one foot flopping in the surf.

Because we were able to get very close to the birds on the beach at Fort Tilden, I was able to notice size differences in the Willets, leading me suspect that we had the two subspecies of Eastern and Western Willet. More studying of photographs in fields guides is required, but, from what I understand, the Eastern Willets we have here in the summer migrate south, while the Western Willets replace them in the autumn and fall.

We're still not getting up early enough to find a lot of warblers--we had 3 today. Great Crested Flycatcher at Big John's Pond was a happy sight, as were the two waxwings we saw--one of which was a juvenile. Lots of juveniles about now, adding to the identification confusion.

The combined list (47 species) for:
Jamaica Bay West Pond, East Pond, Big John's Pond and Fort Tilden

Canada Goose     50

Mute Swan     200

Gadwall     10

American Black Duck     3

Mallard     100

Blue-winged Teal     10

Northern Shoveler     20

American White Pelican     1     North end of pond

Double-crested Cormorant     200

Great Blue Heron     3

Great Egret     15

Snowy Egret     25

Black-crowned Night-Heron 1

Glossy Ibis     3

Osprey     1

American Oystercatcher 6

Greater Yellowlegs     10

Willet 8 probably Western & Eastern

Lesser Yellowlegs     10

Ruddy Turnstone 3

Sanderling 10

Semipalmated Sandpiper     1

Least Sandpiper     2

Short-billed Dowitcher     5

Ring-billed Gull     10

Herring Gull     50

Great Black-backed Gull     10

Forster's Tern     5

Rock Pigeon   1

Eastern Phoebe   1

Great Crested Flycatcher 1

Eastern Kingbird   1

American Crow     3

Tree Swallow 2

Barn Swallow 1

Carolina Wren 1

American Robin 1

Gray Catbird     4

Northern Mockingbird   6

European Starling   50

Cedar Waxwing 2

Yellow Warbler   1

Black-and-white Warbler     1

American Redstart     1

Baltimore Oriole     1

American Goldfinch 1

House Sparrow   1

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Tomorrow: Brigantine