GRAY-HOODED GULL then JBWR East Pond Southern End

Gray-hooded Gull (click to enlarge)
Photo: Shari Zirlin

 GRAY-HOODED GULL is a common species in Southern Africa and South America, but this gull is either the 2nd or 3rd North American sighting, right here, mid-summer, on Coney Island's famous beach, just down from the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel, walking among the sunbathers, associating with the other common beach gulls, mostly Laughing.

I didn't relish the idea of looking for the bird (which has been around for the better part of a week) in and among the crowds but Shari thought we could give it a try in the relatively early morning before we went out to Jamaica Bay.

Sure enough, the beach was not crowded yet (birders and bathers in about equal numbers) and we easily found the bird strolling along the strand. There was no frisson of excitement seeing it though--gulls, to both of us, are just not that interesting, even if they are thousands of miles of from "home." Needless to say, it was life bird for us.

Then we drove over to JBWR as planned. We wanted to see what was on the East Pond. Because of clogged pipe, the pond is not draining as it should in the summer, so the northern end of the pond is impassable. The southern end is still very mucky and there isn't enough mud exposed for the really large numbers of shorebirds the East Pond can attract. The Brooklyn Bird Club was having a field trip today, so there were a lot of people I knew from Prospect Park there and it was good to see them. The big disappointment for me was missing the Sora that was detected running in and out of the reeds on the eastern shore--I would have loved to chalk that one up for the year.

Neither of us was too interested in slogging around the pond north up to The Raunt, so after seeing the expected species we just headed home, happy that we stopped off at Coney Island beforehand. I also wasn't really in the mood to count some of the birds we saw today--there were lots of swans, I can tell you that.

Canada Goose  X
Mute Swan  X
Mallard  4
Great Egret  3
Snowy Egret  1
Black-crowned Night-Heron  4
Glossy Ibis  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  X
Semipalmated Sandpiper  X
Least Sandpiper  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  2
Laughing Gull  1
Forster's Tern  1
American Crow  1
Barn Swallow  1
Gray Catbird  1
European Starling  X