I dip another toe into the ocean of technology

The cell phone I bought to replace the one that wound up in the washing machine came with a camera as I guess any self-respecting cell phone will now. I took some pictures with it just to play around. That's not my personal advance in technology--I can take photos all right. But I couldn't find a port on it to attach it to my computer so I could transfer the photos. Into the manual I delved and found that I was supposed to transfer files via Bluetooth. 

As if I knew what Bluetooth was. 

However, after 15 or 20 minutes of perplexing instructions:

Here is a  photo, taken on my cell phone, in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden yesterday. Looks very impressionistic doesn't it? 

Today I went to Salt Marsh Nature Center--the first bird I saw, hopping around right in front of me, was a juvenile American Redstart. Here is documentary evidence. 

Hmm, this camera idea may need a little work. Sometimes you don't want that impressionism effect. I've cropped the photo, by the way, to eliminate the big piece of dog sh*t from which the bird was catching little flies. Ah, nature.

It was high tide when I arrived so walking without waders was impossible. I entered the drier trails about 1/4 of mile south of the entrance. Since the tide was in and had covered almost all the wooden posts that are all that remains of the former Gerritsen Mill, there was no place for gulls, egrets, cormorants, etc to roost. Aside from a couple of stray gulls, the only bird I saw on the water was a Pied-billed Grebe, first of the season. Quite a few warblers were darting in & out of the reeds. The ones I could identify are listed below. Dogs off the leash and guys riding dirt bikes and ATV's along the trails (and trashing the habitat) didn't help the birding experience today. 

Salt Marsh Nature Center--West

Notes:    High Tide
Number of species:    21
Pied-billed Grebe    1
Great Egret    1
Osprey    2
Spotted Sandpiper    1
Ring-billed Gull    X
Herring Gull    X
Rock Pigeon    1
Mourning Dove    25
American Crow    1
American Robin    12
Gray Catbird    15
Northern Mockingbird    10
European Starling    8
Yellow Warbler    1
Palm Warbler    1
American Redstart    2
Common Yellowthroat    3
Song Sparrow    2
Swamp Sparrow    1
Northern Cardinal    3
American Goldfinch    2

Prospect Park 9/7

Fifth day in a row birding. I went to Prospect Park this morning hoping for warblers, vireos, woodpeckers and such--4 days of confusing sandpipers is enough.

On Lookout Hill at the Butterfly Meadow I came upon 3 birders I know casually from the park. It was a humbling experience, because they were all better birders than I am. It was miraculous how many birds suddenly appeared while I was standing with them--warblers, vireos, woodpeckers, a nuthatch, a hummingbird, a couple of flycatchers and a goldfinch. It made me more determined to get better at spotting the birds. You can't identify them if you can't see them to begin with.

The list: Note how many of the birds were found at the Butterfly Meadow while I was with the group.
Prospect Park
Number of species:    37
Canada Goose    60
Mute Swan    7
Wood Duck    5    Upper Pool
Mallard    50
Double-crested Cormorant    3
Green Heron    1    Near buoy by Terrace Bridge
Spotted Sandpiper    2    Both on lake
Rock Pigeon    25
Mourning Dove    40
Ruby-throated Hummingbird    1    Butterfly Meadow
Red-bellied Woodpecker    2    Near Maryland Monument
Downy Woodpecker    3
Northern Flicker    1    Lake
Eastern Wood-Pewee    1    Butterfly Meadow
Great Crested Flycatcher    1    Butterfly Meadow
Red-eyed Vireo    1    Butterfly Meadow
Blue Jay    4
American Crow    1
Black-capped Chickadee    1
Red-breasted Nuthatch    1    Butterfly Meadow
White-breasted Nuthatch    4
Carolina Wren    3
American Robin    100
Gray Catbird    30
Northern Mockingbird    2    South Lullwater
European Starling    20
Nashville Warbler    2    Butterfly Meadow
Magnolia Warbler    1    Butterfly Meadow
Black-and-white Warbler    2    Near MD monument and Rocky Pass
Ovenbird    2    Peninsula & Breeze Hill
Northern Waterthrush    4
Northern Cardinal    8
Red-winged Blackbird    3
Common Grackle    2
Baltimore Oriole    1    Butterfly Meadow
American Goldfinch    2    Butterfly Meadow and Lily Pond
House Sparrow    75

JBWR 9/6

We spent the late morning/early afternoon at JBWR, with most of the time spent on the south end of the East Pond, sorting out the various sandpipers that fed right in front of us. We added Pectoral Sandpiper and Long-Billed Dowitcher, and spent a long time studying one sandpiper that we finally decided had to be a Western in non-breeding plumage (or maybe a juvenile, or maybe a female, but in any case a Western). Finding a Northern Waterthrush jumping in & out of the reeds was a good sighting. Also, on the West Pond we found a couple of Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, one of them a juvenile. Hadn't seen Yellow-crowns in a couple of months. Big-nosed birds: 2 very distant American Oystercatchers out on the bay by the West Pond. We didn't see the pelican today.

We also made a quick scouting-type stop at Plum Beach. In the winter it will be a good place to look for ducks without walking over a former dump as we sometimes do at nearby poetically named Dead Horse Bay. Some Sanderlings were running along the water's edge, pretty much unperturbed by people wading nearby. I think for the last 4 days we found about 70 species, which isn't great, but we really weren't able to pad our lists with warblers, vireos, and other little woodsy birds because we didn't spent much time among the trees.

The day list:
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (both ponds) & Plum Beach

Canada Goose    20

Mute Swan    105
Gadwall    4
American Black Duck    10
Mallard    100
Northern Shoveler    30
Double-crested Cormorant    150
Great Blue Heron    6
Great Egret    5
Snowy Egret    5
Little Blue Heron    1
Black-crowned Night-Heron    2
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron    2
Glossy Ibis    12

American Oystercatcher    2
Greater Yellowlegs    12
Lesser Yellowlegs    12

Semipalmated Sandpiper    25
Western Sandpiper    1
Least Sandpiper    3
White-rumped Sandpiper    1
Pectoral Sandpiper    1
Stilt Sandpiper    1

Sanderling 8
Short-billed Dowitcher    5
Long-billed Dowitcher    1
Laughing Gull    75
Ring-billed Gull    70
Herring Gull    55
Great Black-backed Gull    2

Foster’s Tern 5

Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove    1
American Crow    1

Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird    4
Northern Mockingbird    1
European Starling    5

Northern Waterthrush 1
Red-winged Blackbird    1

House Sparrow 3

Brigantine 9/5

This picture is a metaphor for what we found at Brig today--nothing!

Well, not really nothing, we tallied 40 species today when you include the grackles and Turkey Vultures on the GSP, but compared to the reports from yesterday we found less than half the birds from 24 hours previous. I can understand us not finding some of the little sandpipers, but when lots of ducks are reported and we don't see them, that's means they've moved on.

Best bird, by far, was a Whimbrel far out in the South Pool. In the big-nosed bird category we had 3 Black Skimmers. There were hundreds of egrets, snowy & great, hundreds of gulls, hundreds of sandpipers, but as to challenging birds, not much at all.

Shari was able to get really nice, tight shots of this juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron. Notice the film over the usually red-eye--it's sleeping!

She also got some good shots of 3 Ospreys in a row but I refuse to post them. I've learned that while driving the loop, if we see a birder with a scope intent on something in the pool it might be worth stopping, but if I see a photographer stop and start clicking away, chances are he's got an Osprey and who cares? So I found it ironically amusing to watch Shari photograph the birds, even it was unusual to have 3 of them all in a row on two perches.

The (semi-pathetic) list:
E.B. Forsythe Wildlife Drive

Number of species:     38

Canada Goose     100     Grazing, North Pool

Mute Swan     4     With geese

American Black Duck     2

Mallard     8

Blue-winged Teal     10     Flyover, North Pool

Northern Shoveler     1     South Pool

Double-crested Cormorant     30

Great Blue Heron     3

Great Egret     100

Snowy Egret     100

Black-crowned Night-Heron     1     Juvenile, East Pool, on weir

Glossy Ibis     5

Osprey     8

Northern Harrier     2

Black-bellied Plover     4

Semipalmated Plover     5

Greater Yellowlegs     20

Lesser Yellowlegs     20

Whimbrel     1     South Pool

Semipalmated Sandpiper     500

Least Sandpiper     5

White-rumped Sandpiper     1     South Pool

Short-billed Dowitcher     10

Laughing Gull     100

Ring-billed Gull     100

Herring Gull     200

Great Black-backed Gull     20

Common Tern     5

Forster's Tern     50

Black Skimmer     3

Blue Jay     2

American Crow     2

Tree Swallow     200

Barn Swallow     2

Carolina Wren     1

Gray Catbird     3

Red-winged Blackbird     70

American Goldfinch     1     Molting, near benches

JBWR & Fort Tilden

I thought that with Hurricane Earl rushing up the East Coast, that perhaps some unusual birds would be blown in--instead, this morning at Jamaica Bay it looked like they all were blown away. Almost all the species we saw yesterday were around, but their numbers were greatly diminished--except for swans and cormorants. This was probably more a function of the tides than the storm. Still, Shari was finally able to digiscope the American White Pelican on the East Pond and trip to Fort Tilden yielded not only our favorite big-nosed bird, American Oystercatcher, but Sanderlings, turnstones and Willets.

A couple of the oystercatchers were disturbing to look at through the scope: one had a huge growth on its bill and another had a broken foot--it was painful to watch it hopping along in the water with one foot flopping in the surf.

Because we were able to get very close to the birds on the beach at Fort Tilden, I was able to notice size differences in the Willets, leading me suspect that we had the two subspecies of Eastern and Western Willet. More studying of photographs in fields guides is required, but, from what I understand, the Eastern Willets we have here in the summer migrate south, while the Western Willets replace them in the autumn and fall.

We're still not getting up early enough to find a lot of warblers--we had 3 today. Great Crested Flycatcher at Big John's Pond was a happy sight, as were the two waxwings we saw--one of which was a juvenile. Lots of juveniles about now, adding to the identification confusion.

The combined list (47 species) for:
Jamaica Bay West Pond, East Pond, Big John's Pond and Fort Tilden

Canada Goose     50

Mute Swan     200

Gadwall     10

American Black Duck     3

Mallard     100

Blue-winged Teal     10

Northern Shoveler     20

American White Pelican     1     North end of pond

Double-crested Cormorant     200

Great Blue Heron     3

Great Egret     15

Snowy Egret     25

Black-crowned Night-Heron 1

Glossy Ibis     3

Osprey     1

American Oystercatcher 6

Greater Yellowlegs     10

Willet 8 probably Western & Eastern

Lesser Yellowlegs     10

Ruddy Turnstone 3

Sanderling 10

Semipalmated Sandpiper     1

Least Sandpiper     2

Short-billed Dowitcher     5

Ring-billed Gull     10

Herring Gull     50

Great Black-backed Gull     10

Forster's Tern     5

Rock Pigeon   1

Eastern Phoebe   1

Great Crested Flycatcher 1

Eastern Kingbird   1

American Crow     3

Tree Swallow 2

Barn Swallow 1

Carolina Wren 1

American Robin 1

Gray Catbird     4

Northern Mockingbird   6

European Starling   50

Cedar Waxwing 2

Yellow Warbler   1

Black-and-white Warbler     1

American Redstart     1

Baltimore Oriole     1

American Goldfinch 1

House Sparrow   1

--------------------

Tomorrow: Brigantine

JBWR East Pond

We took a jaunt to The Raunt today. This was our first excursion to the southern end of the East Pond this year. The north end is apparently too mucky for any birding--for some reason the rangers at JBWR didn't lower the East Pond as much as usual.

However, there was no dearth of birds either at the south end or in the middle of the pond where The Raunt is. Try looking up the word "raunt" on Google and all you'll come up with are references to Jamaica Bay. It was, from what I understand, a rail station and hotel, but all that remains are posts and timbers in the middle of the  East Pond. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that the word is originally Dutch.

Okay, now that we're done with the "words" part of Birds & Words, the Birds part features this male Wilson's Phalarope that Shari was able to photograph decently. The 2nd shot shows the phalarope with a yellowlegs (probably a lesser) showing the size difference between the species.  We've seen Wilson's Phalaropes, before, but never this close up.  That's what's great about the East Pond--you literally walk among the peeps and other sandpipers, so you're able to to identify them a lot easier. Shari found a couple of White-rumped Sandpipers, a bird that would be really difficult for us to id from the distances we normally see sandpipers at the West Pond or Brig. Supposedly there are a couple of Baird's Sandpipers also on the south part of the pond, but that's a species I'd be extremely reluctant to call, especially in the fall when all the plumages are pretty dull--they're a little bigger than Semipalmated Sandpipers, but that isn't really much help when you have a hundred birds scampering in all directions.

The other highlight today was a big big-nosed bird--the American White Pelican is still incongruously on the pond, swimming placidly among the 200 or so swans. When we were on the south end it was up by the Raunt, floating behind the poles, and when we were across from the Raunt he was up on the north end of the pond, so it wasn't possible to get a picture. In all we found 39 species in a couple of leisurely hours--weather was overcast, humid and breezy as Hurricane Earl blustered far off the coast.
The list:

JBWR, East Pond

Canada Goose     50

Mute Swan     200

Gadwall   10

American Black Duck     1

Mallard     50

Northern Shoveler     7

American White Pelican     1     Raunt, then North End of Pond

Double-crested Cormorant     150

Great Blue Heron     2

Great Egret     2

Snowy Egret     25

Little Blue Heron     1

Black-crowned Night-Heron     7

Glossy Ibis     14

Osprey  1

Semipalmated Plover     25

Greater Yellowlegs     20

Lesser Yellowlegs     11

Semipalmated Sandpiper     100

Western Sandpiper     2

Least Sandpiper     4

White-rumped Sandpiper     2

Stilt Sandpiper     1

Short-billed Dowitcher     5

Wilson's Phalarope     1     Non-breeding

Laughing Gull     2

Ring-billed Gull     X

Herring Gull     X

Great Black-backed Gull     2

Common Tern     1

Forster's Tern     5

American Crow     2

Carolina Wren     1

Eastern Phoebe  1

Gray Catbird  1

Yellow Warbler  1

American Redstart   Juvenile

Song Sparrow   1

Red-winged Blackbird     75     Mostly juveniles.

Salt Marsh Nature Center--West

31 species on a hot summer morning (frankly, even I, a hot weather guy, am getting tired of summer) is acceptable. Not great, but with very close looks at American Oystercatchers and an Ovenbird hopping around in the woods, it was certainly a successful 2 mile trudge.
Salt Marsh Nature Center--West
Number of species:    31
Canada Goose    6
Mute Swan    2
Mallard    10
Double-crested Cormorant    6
Great Blue Heron    1
Great Egret    7
Snowy Egret    1
Osprey    2
Semipalmated Plover    13
American Oystercatcher    3
Spotted Sandpiper    1
Greater Yellowlegs    1
Laughing Gull    4
Ring-billed Gull    2
Herring Gull    50
Great Black-backed Gull    2
Common Tern    2
Mourning Dove    16
Downy Woodpecker    1
Northern Flicker    2
American Crow    7
Barn Swallow    4
American Robin    10
Gray Catbird    6
Northern Mockingbird    8
European Starling    10
Yellow Warbler    1
Ovenbird    1
Common Yellowthroat    1
Song Sparrow    1
Red-winged Blackbird    25