Mount Loretto 7/22--Bobolink

Okay, it was hot yesterday. We had to take the car for servicing to SI, so I thought I'd give it a try at Mount Loretto, not really expecting to find much in the heat--at 8:45 when I started it was over 90 degrees.

I was surprised to find as many species as I did--32--and some of them were "tasty" like the female Orchard Oriole I spied in some high bushes, or the Killdeer I found coming in off the bay.  But the most interesting of all the birds to me was the beautiful male Bobolink I flushed along the Wetlands Trail. Mount Loretto is the last large parcel of grasslands in NYC (much to the real estate developers' chagrin) and is perfect habitat for this declining species, but up until yesterday, I'd never seen one there. In fact, I hardly ever see them--I think the last time I was lucky enough to see one was a couple of years ago in Massachusetts. 

One problem I've never had at Mount Loretto, up until yesterday, was bugs. Maybe it was the extreme heat, maybe it was the perspiration on my legs, but the flies there were unbelievable in their numbers and their desire to bite--right through my socks. I think a lot of them were no-see-ums but a lot I saw--in fact they seemed to team up, 2 at a time to bite my knees, or especially aggravating, my hand while I was holding my binoculars trying to see a bird. 

While it was hot walking around the trails and while there was no breeze off the bay, the heat didn't really amaze me until we were going to lunch at a diner on Hylan Blvd. There, where the heat was radiating off the sidewalk and there were no trees to block the sun, it felt like I was standing on top of a grill and I was the hamburger. 

I have no idea if it was 101, or 104, or if the real feel was  110 or 111--really, these distinctions are meaningless to your skin and brain--all I can say is that with today looking like it will be very close to yesterday's weather (though, looking out the window I see the trees moving in a breeze), I'm staying in and birding by book--reading Avian Architecture by Peter Goodfellow. 

32 species on a ferociously hot day--4 hours and 45 minutes. 

Wood Duck  4
Mallard  1
Double-crested Cormorant  19
Great Egret  3
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Killdeer  1
American Oystercatcher  4
Laughing Gull  2
Herring Gull  25
Common Tern  2
Mourning Dove  1
Northern Flicker  1
Willow Flycatcher  2
Eastern Phoebe  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
Warbling Vireo  1
Blue Jay  2
Barn Swallow  1
Carolina Wren  1
American Robin  25
Gray Catbird  7
Northern Mockingbird  8
European Starling  100
Yellow Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  4
Song Sparrow  4
Northern Cardinal  4
Bobolink  1    Wetlands Trail
Red-winged Blackbird  40
Common Grackle  1
Orchard Oriole  1    Grasslands Trail
American Goldfinch  3