We left Iselin this morning and the first thing I did upon hitting Staten Island was to bird Mount Loretto. As I was coming in, around 10:30, I met a group of birders who were leaving. Their early start got them 3 Wilson's Snipes on the Wetlands Trail and Ring-necked Ducks out on the bay, an odd place for them. But the snipes were flushed and the ducks had flown off, naturally.
However, I was happy to walk around the area, but disturbed by all the habitat that has been chopped down or destroyed. I'm not seeing as many birds as I usually do, and I'm wondering if all the bulldozers, backhoes and dumpsters scattered around, laying down mysterious roads tearing up the fields for no good reason I can see, has something to do with the scarcity. Of course, a perfectly fine natural area can't be left that way--somehow it has to be improved. And now the fields are off limits--a guy who appeared to be some kind of foreman told me to stay on the roads when he saw me sloshing through the muddy tread tracks one of his machines had made. Apparently it's dangerous to walk by idle machinery--or are they afraid of eco-vandalism. I'd like to know what all this digging and wrecking is for--and why a large garage type building was constructed last summer. Something's up and I don't like it.
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| Improvement |
The happy moment was when I saw my first of year Black-crowned Night Heron skulking in the reeds of one of the ponds. Other than that, nothing I hadn't seen before. Good to be back in NY though.
Number of species: 22
Brant 75
Canada Goose 16
American Black Duck 10
Mallard 8
Northern Shoveler 7
Green-winged Teal 8
Bufflehead 2
Red-breasted Merganser 24
Horned Grebe 10
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 10
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue Jay 2
Carolina Wren 1
American Robin 7
European Starling 8
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 2
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| No Problem |
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