I spoke to the landlord today and told him we were moving in December--I thought he'd be happy to get the apartment but it seemed like he felt it was one more damn thing he had to deal with. Ya try to make some people happy...
Until then we're spending going back & forth, which gives me the opportunity to bird in 2 states on the same day. I started early, walking my usual route through the Whiting WMA, ending up at the lake. Unseasonably warm still but the sun wasn't strong this morning so aside from one active pocket of birds there really wasn't much around. The last few days I've added both kinglets and
White-throated Sparrow to the species list. I'm up to 43 species in the small part of the WMA that I regularly walk. But today, I only found 8 species .
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Pine Warbler 7
Chipping Sparrow 3
We got on the road around 10:30 and by 12:30 I was sitting in the car waiting out Alternate Side of the Street Parking just like the old days. After lunch, I walked down to Pier One. The marshes there are so overgrown that, while they make a wonderful habitat for birds, It is very hard to actually see the birds.
There were a lot of birds there; unfortunately the constant thrum of the useless (and apparently deadly) tour helicopters made them very skittish and they dove into the underbrush every time one passed by.
The best find was a
Golden-crowned Kinglet working the edges of the pond. That makes the 63rd species recorded at Pier One, which, I maintain, is pretty good for what is essentially a pier jutting out into the East River.
There were 4 species of warblers I could identify and one that I wasn't sure about--Orange-crowned Warbler was what it seemed to me to be but it wouldn't stay still long enough for me to confirm my hopes. And the juncos are back, my FOS. A large mixed flock of juncos, White-throated Sparrows and yellow-rumps were feeding on the lawns--the grass is very high and they were easily hidden if you didn't get the right angle and height. Altogether I found 17 species there, one less than we were able to get wandering all over Sandy Hook this weekend.
American Black Duck 4
Mallard 3
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 5
Mourning Dove 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 4
warbler sp. 1
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 30
Dark-eyed Junco 20
House Sparrow 4
In the next couple of months I hope to get down to Pier One a few more times. I'm still hoping for one really great bird, some weird rarity, to show up there. I leave it to birders more skilled than I am to find it.
