World Does Not End We Go To JBWR

Well, depending on your perspective that did or did not work out pretty well. We napped through the deadline.

So this morning it was back to birding. We drove out to Jamaica Bay this misty morning. A cold and dank day--I still haven't had a comfortable day out there this year.

 I felt like I had to re-attune my ear to get the eastern calls of the familiar birds having listened to the west coast versions for 10 days. Witchety-witchety-witchety, conka-ree, drink-your-tea...got it.

However, a lot of new birds for the year. Most of these species arrived while we were in California. It was good to see the Yellow-crowned Night-herons, a couple of different plovers and the sandpipers. A Red-necked Phalarope was our nominal target bird. It was supposed to be hanging around Bench 12 but we had no luck finding it. Just now I saw posted on line that it had been found again, same place. The advice was to be patient as it moves around a lot. I thought we were being patient--I guess not enough.

We did both ponds; almost all the action was on the West Pond, but over at the East Pond there were an impressive number of Barn Swallows gobbling up an even more impressive number of gnats.

47 species for the day.
Brant    750
Canada Goose    50
Mute Swan   82
Gadwall    6   Bay
American Black Duck    2
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid)    1    Bay
Mallard    15
Lesser Scaup    9
Red-breasted Merganser    6
Ruddy Duck    75
Double-crested Cormorant    1
Great Egret    8
Snowy Egret    4
Black-crowned Night-Heron    4
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron    2
Glossy Ibis    9
Osprey    3
Black-bellied Plover    10
Semipalmated Plover    3
American Oystercatcher    29
Willet    3
Ruddy Turnstone    1
Semipalmated Sandpiper    60
Laughing Gull    120
Herring Gull    15
Great Black-backed Gull  8
Common Tern    1
Forster's Tern    4
Mourning Dove    1
Willow Flycatcher    3
American Crow    1
Tree Swallow    25
Barn Swallow   129
House Wren    1
American Robin    1
Gray Catbird    9
Brown Thrasher    4
European Starling    9
Yellow Warbler    13
Common Yellowthroat    7
Eastern Towhee    1
Song Sparrow    2
Northern Cardinal    1
Red-winged Blackbird    50
Common Grackle    1
Boat-tailed Grackle    3
House Sparrow    3