Marine Park West 4/14--Little Blue Heron & Common Tern

Two first-of-year birds today at Marine Park West: a first-spring Little Blue Heron and a couple of Common Terns on the pilings near the entrance. My first reaction when I saw the Little Blue was, "Boy is that a grungy looking Snowy Egret." But then the blue bill and greenish legs snapped the identification into place.

A pair of Lesser Scaup were hanging out with the Buffleheads and Ruddy Ducks--all these birds will be moving on pretty soon. Still a lot of Brants around, though not nearly as many as I've seen there and other spots. But Brant, because they nest so far up north, hang around a long time, late May, even early June.

I walked the sandy trails going out to the beach and the muddy ones walking back as the tide receded. Along the way I photographed more junk that's been dumped in this city park.  It is deplorable, of course, that the city lets the park go to ruin like this, threatening important habitat, but of course, it is even more deplorable that there are so many morons in this city who think nothing of trashing and destroying a public park.
Meanwhile, across the water the Army Corp of Engineer is "restoring" 40 acres of habitat--and taking forever--while abandoned cars leach oil and chemicals into the creek and ATV's and dirt bikes tear up the trails--when they stay on the trails.

Some of what I found today:
CHAIRS & LOUNGERS

PAINT BALLS

AUTOMOTIVE

 Another variation on the abandoned car motif--not only drive it into the phragmites, but instead of flipping it over, disembowel it and put the muffler on on top of the bashed in roof--meaning someone had to go under the car in the muck to do it--what a lot of work vandalism is.

Pontiac bumper in middle of trail

 35 Species for the day.

Brant    130
Canada Goose    1
Mute Swan    5
American Wigeon    3
Mallard    5
Lesser Scaup    2
Bufflehead    20
Red-breasted Merganser    4
Ruddy Duck    25
Pied-billed Grebe    1
Double-crested Cormorant    7
Great Egret    2
Snowy Egret    3
Little Blue Heron    1
American Oystercatcher    4
Greater Yellowlegs    1
Ring-billed Gull    33
Herring Gull    25
Common Tern    2
Rock Pigeon    5
Mourning Dove    4
Northern Flicker    4
American Crow    2
Tree Swallow    2
Black-capped Chickadee    3
Hermit Thrush    1
American Robin    50
Northern Mockingbird    1
European Starling    40
Song Sparrow    5
White-throated Sparrow    1
Northern Cardinal    8
Red-winged Blackbird    35
Common Grackle    4
House Sparrow    1

Prospect Park 4/11--Eastern Meadowlarks

Twitter ran me ragged today.

I subscribe to Peter Dorosh's Twitter feed (the only thing I use Twitter for). Whenever Peter has a report of a rare bird in Prospect Park, he tweets his followers. Usually I'm nowhere near the park and the tweet is just interesting. But today, while I was on the south side of the lake I got the message that a Yellow-throated Warbler was being seen on the Lullwater. That's a pretty good walk from where I was, but I walk fast. I got there in about 20 minutes and met Adam, who had reported the sighting, and Stanley in the woods. Typically, it had just flown north toward the Pagoda. We stood around for while hoping it might reappear, meanwhile watching the phoebes, yellow-rumps, chickadees, kinglets, nuthatches, and creepers flit around tree to tree. While we were standing on the hill I got another tweet from Peter about a Rusty Blackbird that was seen on the Esdale Bridge--again not where I was.

Eventually we walked over to the Binnen Pool/Pagoda area to look for the warbler. We didn't find it, but Adam did pick out a Northern Waterthrush, my FOY.

I decided to head over toward the Ravine to see if I could find the Rusty Blackbird. As I was walking over there I met Mary who had texted Peter about the bird. I told her about the waterthrush. As I was walking in the Ravine I met Peter who was on his lunch hour and told him about the waterthrush too. He hadn't had any luck finding the Rusty Blackbird. He went off in search of the waterthrush and I looked around the area in vain for the RUBL. I decided to go to the Vale and then head home. As I was walking there I got another tweet--now Peter had seen the Yellow-throated Warbler by the Pagoda, where I had just been not a 1/2 hour ago.  "Peter," I wailed aloud, "You're killing me."

I decided on a "Fool me once, fool me twice" approach and went into the Vale. I didn't have much time to look around because another tweet came in: Mary had Eastern Meadowlark on the ballfields--all the way on the other side of the park.

Okay, I figured, let's try this one--at least meadowlarks stand out in the open. I walked practically the length of Prospect Park and saw Peter and Mary standing in the outfield of one of the diamonds. (Peter has a little electric vehicle for his job in the park--gotta get me one of those.) Peter was waving me on. I put up my binoculars and found the meadowlark immediately. But wait--there were four meadowlarks in the grass. I stood with Peter and Mary for a few minutes watching the birds. A man walking his dog approached and we managed to get his attention before he flushed the birds. Another person came by and they flew a short distance to the outfield of a neighboring diamond and our group split up--Mary to try to find the Yellow-throated Warbler. I was sorely tempted but I was also damn tired.

What I noticed in the park today was that many of the birds seemed to gather nesting material. I saw robins, sparrows, starlings, all with grass, sticks, bits of cloth and ribbon, even bits of cotton stuffing in their beaks and the two titmice I saw behind the Upper Pool looked like they were setting up housekeeping in the hole of sawed off branch.

All in all a great day in the park--started off cool and misty and ended warm and sunny--but if I hadn't seen the meadowlarks my feelings about the day would probably have been more about cursing technology than anything else. But: Twitter works.

44 species on the day.
Canada Goose     41
Mute Swan     4
American Black Duck     1
Mallard     70
Northern Shoveler     18
Ruddy Duck     67
Double-crested Cormorant     8     Two on lake, six f/o
Black-crowned Night-Heron     3     Three Sisters
American Coot     6
Laughing Gull     1     Lake
Ring-billed Gull     55
Herring Gull     32
Rock Pigeon     5
Mourning Dove     11
Belted Kingfisher     1     Lullwater
Red-bellied Woodpecker     3
Downy Woodpecker     1
Northern Flicker     6
Eastern Phoebe     1
Blue Jay     13
American Crow     1
Tree Swallow     2
Barn Swallow     8
Black-capped Chickadee     9
Tufted Titmouse     2     Nesting? behind Upper Pool
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
Brown Creeper     4
Carolina Wren     2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     2
American Robin     150
European Starling     60
Yellow-rumped Warbler     4
Pine Warbler     4
Northern Waterthrush     1     Behind Pagoda
Song Sparrow     3
Swamp Sparrow     1     Peninsula lake shore
White-throated Sparrow     3
Dark-eyed Junco     2     One Lullwater, one Vale
Northern Cardinal     10
Red-winged Blackbird     20
Eastern Meadowlark     4     Ballfields
Common Grackle     30
American Goldfinch     1     Male, Vale
House Sparrow     20

Staten Island 4/9--Some Surprises

A full day of birding Staten Island with Ben Cacace yielded a large list and some interesting surprises. The day started with Shari dropping Ben & me off at Mount Loretto while she went to model as a pin cushion for a couple of hours.

We walked up the grasslands trail to a little path that goes out onto a spit in one of the ponds. There we picked up Pine & Palm Warblers. There wasn't much waterfowl on the northernmost ponds so we walked up the hill to check out Raritan Bay. There the water look fairly empty too, but very close in was my first surprise:  Northern Gannet. Rarely do you get to see these big birds so close up standing on the shore. In fact, I don't know that I've ever had a closer look at one. In all, I saw about 5, though I think Ben counted more. We walked almost all the trails, picking up a wide variety of the expected birds, with 4 raptors in the mix.  Toward the end of our trek we came to a pond on the left side of the entrance road where there are usually ducks (and there were) and came across a shorebird on the far shore. First reaction was yellowlegs, but the more we looked at it the less it seem like either the greater or lesser. (I thought it was too early for lesser, but according to eBird, they could be here by now.) Still, it's legs didn't seem yellow and the bill seemed too small for either yellowlegs, and it just didn't have the gizz for either species. And it wasn't calling; in my experience, yellowlegs are pretty noisy. After some hemming and hawing we settled on Solitary Sandpiper (it was alone), a bird that I certainly didn't expect to see today. After seeing some genuine Greater Yellowlegs later in the day, the ID seems  meet and proper to me.

The weirdest thing we saw was a Brown-headed Cowbird sidling up to a starling, looking like he wanted to get cozy.

I counted 39 species--Ben had a few more that I wasn't able to see well enough to list in good conscience.
Mount Loretto

Number of species:    39
Brant    50
Canada Goose    5
Mute Swan    2
Gadwall    2
Mallard    6
Northern Shoveler    2
Red-breasted Merganser    8
Northern Gannet    5
Double-crested Cormorant    3
Great Egret    2
Turkey Vulture    2
Sharp-shinned Hawk    1
Red-tailed Hawk    1
Merlin    1
Solitary Sandpiper    1
Ring-billed Gull    X
Great Black-backed Gull    4
Mourning Dove    1
Belted Kingfisher    1
Red-bellied Woodpecker    1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker    1
Northern Flicker    5
Blue Jay    1
American Crow    1
Fish Crow    1
Tree Swallow    1
Barn Swallow    1
Black-capped Chickadee    3
Carolina Wren    3
American Robin    5
European Starling    25
Pine Warbler    2
Palm Warbler    1
Song Sparrow    6
Dark-eyed Junco    1
Northern Cardinal    5
Red-winged Blackbird    15
Common Grackle    5
Brown-headed Cowbird    3

Next stop, after a diner lunch, was Great Kills Park. The treat there was Horned Grebes molting into their breeding plumage. A spectacular looking bird compared to its drab, gray winter version. We checked the bluffs along the mud flats for Bank Swallows, but it's too early for them.

Great Kills Park
 Notes:    Mud flats and Marina
Number of species:    20
Brant    700
Canada Goose    2
American Black Duck    4
Bufflehead    3
Red-breasted Merganser    4
Horned Grebe    7
Northern Gannet    5
Double-crested Cormorant    10
Osprey    1
American Oystercatcher    4
Ring-billed Gull    10
Herring Gull    50
Rock Pigeon    4
American Robin    5
Northern Mockingbird    1
European Starling    10
Song Sparrow    3
Northern Cardinal    2
Red-winged Blackbird    3
Boat-tailed Grackle    6

We stopped at the William T. Davis Refuge in the Greenbelt, hoping for some spring migrants, but not much was shaking there. A woodpecker we couldn't ID by it's sound was hammering away at a tree. We did add White-throated Sparrow to the day list.
William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge

Number of species:    6
Mourning Dove    1
Black-capped Chickadee    1
American Robin    3
Northern Mockingbird    1
White-throated Sparrow    1
House Sparrow    1

Goethals Pond, where Shari & I haven't been in years, was our next destination. Ben knew a couple of paths behind the trailer park (yes, a trailer park on Staten Island--I suspect the only one in the environs of New York City) where we could get much better looks than the observation platform off the Home Depot parking lot. Killdeer and lots of Greater Yellowlegs were on the mud (the pond was virtually empty but certainly not dry). Off in a corner, across the brown muck, past the orange Home Depot shopping carts, the faded traffic cone, the half-buried tires, was a flock of Green-winged Teal in a puddle. And among those teal was one Green-winged Teal (Eurasian) with a horizontal white stripe instead of the usual vertical one along the shoulder, a "life" bird for all 3 of us though since it is only a race of teal (it doesn't even qualify as a sub-species), nothing that will show up on our life lists. Still, it was certainly a surprise to finally see one in that desolate corner of the island (where once a Roseate Spoonbill picked its way among the overturned carts). 

Goethals Pond
Number of species:    13
Canada Goose    10
Mallard    1
Green-winged Teal    20
GREEN-WINGED TEAL (EURASIAN)    1
Snowy Egret    3
Turkey Vulture    1
Killdeer    4
Greater Yellowlegs    15
Rock Pigeon    10
American Robin    3
Northern Mockingbird    1
Northern Cardinal    1
Red-winged Blackbird    5

On our way to the Verrazano Bridge I got the inspiration to make one more stop and check out the South Beach Psychiatric Center for Wild Turkeys. Ben didn't know this little avian secret of the island and happily, there they were, behind the fence, 8 of them. With a little more time I would have like to have found the "Turkey Crossing" sign on Midland Avenue, but as it was, it was a satisfying ending to an excellent day of birding. 55 species in all for me (and as I said, probably a few more for Ben).

South Beach Psychiatric Center
Number of species:    5
Canada Goose    5
Wild Turkey    8
Fish Crow    1
American Robin    X
European Starling    X

Propect Park 4/8--Pine & Palm Warblers

Finally felt like spring today, despite the overcast sky and the gloves on my hands.

Green tufts sprouting through the brown leaves.

Birds were easy to find today, especially robins. I'm sure my count is conservative. I found my first Pine Warblers of the season alongside the north bank of the Lullwater and my first Palm Warbler on the Peninsula, along with my first Swamp Sparrows and Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. Winter ducks like ruddies and shovelers are still hanging around and one junco was digging through the leaves along the Lullwater. Phoebes, kingfishers, cormorants, Wood Duck--all in all a productive morning spent circling the watercourse.

Cormorants on Three Sisters

Number of species:    43
Canada Goose    51
Mute Swan    5
Wood Duck    1    Drake, Three Sisters
American Black Duck    1
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid)    1
Mallard    68
Northern Shoveler    29
Ruddy Duck    75
Double-crested Cormorant    5
Black-crowned Night-Heron    4    Three Sisters
Sharp-shinned Hawk    1
Red-tailed Hawk    1
American Coot    7
Ring-billed Gull    50
Herring Gull    37
Rock Pigeon    13
Mourning Dove    24
Belted Kingfisher    2
Red-bellied Woodpecker    2
Downy Woodpecker    2
Northern Flicker    4
Eastern Phoebe    6
Blue Jay    8
Tree Swallow    2
Barn Swallow    2
Black-capped Chickadee    8
White-breasted Nuthatch    2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher    1    Peninsula
Ruby-crowned Kinglet    1    Lullwater
Hermit Thrush    6
American Robin    190
European Starling    85
Yellow-rumped Warbler    4
Pine Warbler    9
Palm Warbler    3
Eastern Towhee    1    Behind Pagoda
Song Sparrow    8
Swamp Sparrow    2    Peninsula
White-throated Sparrow    7
Dark-eyed Junco    1    Lullwater
Northern Cardinal    17
Red-winged Blackbird    19
Common Grackle    35
House Sparrow    26

Piers One & Four 4/4--New Spring Arrivals

I was starting to get a little discouraged about Pier One. I haven't seen much of interest there lately, but today there was a hint that the activity might be picking up.

Two Eastern Phoebes were active around the salt marsh. Duck numbers are thinning. But there is a possible interesting development; not all of them are leaving. On April 1, I noticed a drake American Black Duck and a hen Mallard hanging out together in the center pool of the salt marsh. They were there again today, nestling down close to each other. I have seen, of course, many Mallard/Black Duck hybrids but I haven't ever seen one "in the works" so to speak. Also, if they are nesting, will they be the first breeders at Pier One?

There was some activity too down at Pier Four, or what's left of it. There I spotted my FOY Laughing Gull.
Pier One
Number of species:    13
Gadwall    9
American Black Duck    6
Mallard    1    
Double-crested Cormorant    3
Herring Gull    1
Great Black-backed Gull    1
Rock Pigeon    4
Mourning Dove    1
Eastern Phoebe    2
Northern Mockingbird    1
Song Sparrow    1
Dark-eyed Junco    4
House Sparrow    3
Pier Four
Number of species:    9
Brant    13
Gadwall    2
American Black Duck    3
Bufflehead    2
Red-breasted Merganser    1
Double-crested Cormorant    1
Laughing Gull    1
Herring Gull    2
European Starling    1

JBWR 4/3--Bird #100

My 100th bird for the year turned out to be a Gray Catbird eating dessicated berries in a bush just before Bench 1 on the West Pond. It's been a real slog this year.

Some hints of spring there today, despite the chill wind and temperatures: Ospreys on the nest, American Oystercatchers chasing each other around, a Greater Yellowlegs fluffed out in the breeze, prancing around a puddle, lots of Tree Swallows.

Holdovers from winter: Still a couple of thousand Snow Geese on the pond and especially in the marshes. I find them hilarious, gabbling and honking incessantly, and then "deciding" that the marsh isn't where they want they want to be, it's the pond--so a thousand take flight, coming in like lines of bombers over our heads.

Photos by Shari Zirlin

After lunch we headed over to the East Pond. As we were turning into the parking I saw 2 birders waiting to cross the street to go over there too. Let me make a confession of how irrational I can be: Whenever I see other birders before me (lots of cars in a parking lot, groups of birders standing around a feeder or looking over a pond) I feel like their eyeballs are going to use up all the birds before I get to see them, so a sense of crazed urgency comes over me to get to where we're going so I can see the birds before they have been magically exhausted by the other guys. Which is one of the reasons I'm always in a hurry. (I said it was irrational.) So, when I saw those two waiting for the light to change I thought, "Oh no, they're going to ruin the East Pond." I don't know if they were the ones who did it, but there wasn't much on the East Pond to see that we hadn't seen already--a Bufflehead, a Great Black-back Gull.
West Pond
Number of species:    28
Snow Goose    2000
Brant    200
Canada Goose    100
Mute Swan    1
American Black Duck    50
Northern Shoveler    25
Green-winged Teal    6
Greater Scaup    100
Lesser Scaup    100
Ruddy Duck    50
Double-crested Cormorant    10
Great Egret    2
Osprey    2
American Oystercatcher    4
Greater Yellowlegs    1
Ring-billed Gull    1
Herring Gull    50
American Crow    1
Tree Swallow    40
American Robin    1
Gray Catbird    1
Northern Mockingbird    1
European Starling    10
Song Sparrow    3
Northern Cardinal    2
Red-winged Blackbird    75
Brown-headed Cowbird    1
American Goldfinch    10
East Pond
Number of species:    10
Canada Goose    4
Mute Swan    35
Northern Shoveler    50
Greater Scaup    10
Lesser Scaup    10
Bufflehead    1
Ruddy Duck    200
Double-crested Cormorant    10
Herring Gull    10
Great Black-backed Gull    1

Brig & Barnegat

It doesn't feel like spring yet. We drove down to Brigantine today and it just got cloudier and windier as the day progressed. There are still lots of ducks (mostly black) and Snow Geese around. Notable birds  were Great Egrets swooping in, one Snowy Egret far out in one of the impoundments, Ospreys hanging around the nest platforms and, in the left-hand pond near the exit, a Blue-winged Teal among the Green-wing Teals and Great Blue Herons.

There didn't seem to be any point in make two circuits of the drive, especially since the wind was starting to pick up, and the woods seemed very quiet, so we decided to drive up north and stop in at Barnegat Light.

At the end of the paved walkway, Shari spotted 2 Harlequin Ducks (drake & hen) on the side of the jetty. Great to see them without having to take the horrible hops, skips and jumps along the uneven boulders of the jetty. Maybe if I had (there's no chance of Shari doing it again) I might have seen Purple Sandpipers but I'm 60 now and premonitions of mortality prevail.

2 lists.
Brigantine 
Number of species:    33
Snow Goose    300    One blue morph
Brant    10
Canada Goose    50
Mute Swan    2
Gadwall    20
American Black Duck    400
Mallard    10
Blue-winged Teal    1    Pond on left near exit
Northern Shoveler    50
Green-winged Teal    175
Hooded Merganser    2
Red-breasted Merganser    1
Ruddy Duck    50
Double-crested Cormorant    3
Great Blue Heron    8
Great Egret    10
Snowy Egret    1
Turkey Vulture    2    Rt 9, one f/o one eating carrion
Osprey    7
Red-tailed Hawk    2
Peregrine Falcon    1
American Oystercatcher    2
Herring Gull    100
Great Black-backed Gull    1
Mourning Dove    1    Heard @ Experimental Pool
Belted Kingfisher    1    Experimental Pool
American Crow    10
Fish Crow    6
Tree Swallow    5    Near Visitor's Ctr
Carolina Wren    1    Heard @ Experimental Pool
American Robin    3    Heard in woods
Song Sparrow    1    Entrance to Gull Pond road
Red-winged Blackbird    50
Barnegat Lighthouse State Park
Number of species:    9
Brant    300
Harlequin Duck    2
Long-tailed Duck    50
Red-breasted Merganser    20
Common Loon    2
Double-crested Cormorant    10
Herring Gull    100
Great Black-backed Gull    20
American Crow    1