Wild Goose chases, either side of Xmas

A Pink-footed Goose at Assiscong Marsh found by Frank Sencher (possibly the Cushetunk Lake individual from earlier in Dec) had me braving the potential for bad mall traffic on the 24th - but I got through Flemington quite quickly and after 15 minutes of sorting through an infinite number of Canadas.  The early start was just as well - I saw the Pink-footed Goose at 7:20am, about 10 minutes before it decided to fly out of the marsh to go feed (it was re-found in a park nearby later on).  Good diagnostic looks, but I was hoping for pictures as well.  At least I managed to put the other birder present on the goose before it took off.  I've now seen Pink-footed in NY, NJ and PA.  Other waterfowl present included: American Black Duck, Mallard, Gadwall and Green-winged Teal.  A brief look around local roads didn't show any goose flocks but I didn't realize until later that there was a nearby park that I should have checked too.


On the 27th a report of a Barnacle Goose came up on JerseyBirds at Mercer Corporate Park found by Mary DeLia - this is just inside Mercer County near Allentown and within striking distance of where I was.  (This spot is also the Northern Lapwing location from this fall).  I'd seen Barnacle in NJ before (Califon) and Barnacle this year (NYC/Bronx) but the odds of getting another Barnacle Goose in Mercer Co seemed remote so I headed out to see it.  It had moved on to an adjacent field making for more obscured viewing but after a little walk up the hard shoulder I picked it out at the back of the Canada flock.  On the recent CBC there had been two Barnacles at Plainsboro Preserve and one at Lake Etra, so there are multiples here or hereabouts.

Both these birds are presumed Greenland-originated (although with Barnacle it's difficult to be certain), and increased numbers of both in the north-east are related to melting of the Greenland ice sheet due to global warming.  Nevertheless they remain some of the more prized winter geese by their scarcity.

Barnegat Inlet, Dec 23rd

The lure of alcids brought me to the NJ coast just before Xmas, but I was to be thwarted on the quest for either Razorbills or Dovekie.  In fact Barnegat Inlet was pretty quiet initially.  Long-tailed Ducks had put in an appearance in numbers compared to my last visit, Common Loons were around in decent numbers but everything else was pretty slow.  Minor novelties were a Canada Goose flock, probably bouncing down the coast as the weather hardens, and Hooded Mergansers flying up the inlet into the bay.  One female Black Scoter was at the bay end of the inlet and a female or subadult male Surf Scoter was along the rocks at once point.  Notable by their absence were any Great Cormorants (regular here in winter).


Red-throated Loon
Common Loon
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Common Eider
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Hooded Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Turnstone
Purple Sandpiper
Dunlin
Bonaparte's Gull
Yellow-rumped Warbler

Dec 15th: White-winged Crossbill and CPK #200 (actually 204)

A brief visit to Central Park on the morning of Dec 15th was entirely mercenary with one species in mind: White-winged Crossbill.  Having dipped on Evening Grosbeak and Red Crossbill previously I was immensely relieved to find three female White-winged Crossbills in Mugger's Woods (charming name, historically accurate) feeding on sweet-gum seeds.  While Evening Grosbeaks were seen earlier that day they continued to evade me.  A Barred Owl was still present, although the vanishing leaves had led it to move roosts to an evergreen over its previous deciduous.

Other birds were an ongoing swarm of Tufted Titmice at the Ramble feeders, a Brown Creeper, a flock of Cedar Waxwings at Strawberry Fields feeding on holly, and a late Baltimore Oriole.  Judging from tail feather shape this oriole was a first winter bird.  Hopefully it heads south quickly because despite a fairly mild start to the winter I cannot imagine it's going to be as mild as last winter.

On Saturday I was elated about the Crossbills at least in part because I thought they were Central Park bird #200.  In fact I'd seriously undercounted and they were #204:

• 204: White-winged Crossbill
• 203: Brant (Nov 17th 2012)
• 202: Barred Owl (Nov 17th 2012)
• 201: Grasshopper Sparrow (May 4th 2012)
• 200: Acadian Flycatcher (May 3rd 2011)

Given that #198 and 199 were Western Tanager Dickcissel (2008) and Varied Thrush (2010) it's clear that 2012 was a far better-than-average year for difficult park species and equally clear that I'm getting laissez-faire with my editing of some of my location species lists - Central Park is actually one of the ones I pay attention to, allegedly.

I'm still missing Red Crossbill and Evening Grosbeak in what is an invasion year for both, however.

Psychotic chasing: Cape Cod

While I'm not an obsessive chaser, the lists that I take seriously are my Life List, Year List and Central Park List.  I'm willing to travel a little distance to plug holes in my Life List, especially now that I'm at 675 and new birds are difficult to find to advance the goal of reaching 700.

So it didn't escape my notice that a Little Egret had been found the previous weekend on Cape Cod.  Although New England is a lot more compact than, say, the American west, it's still 325 miles of driving one way to get from central NJ to Hyannis.  That's a pretty long round trip and as I'm increasingly older also toward the upper limit of what I'm tempted to do in one day.

Nevertheless, Little Egret is something I've tried for and struck out on in the past, and it would make a nice "pairing" with the Western Reef-Heron in Brooklyn (July 2007).

So off I went up a dark and wet I-95 all the way from NJ, through NY, CT, RI and finally MA for a fifth state pre-dawn, ending up at Hyannis on the south side of Cape Cod around 8:45am.  I rolled into the first of two sites that the bird frequented - and where it was seen multiple times the previous day - whereupon an especially helpful birder told me it was over at the other location only a couple of miles west.  Within 10 minutes of looking, I was watching a Little Egret hunt down small fish at the outflow of a marsh using a foot-trembling method to disturb the mud and/or flush the fish.  All the expected ID marks where there - a more massive bill with gray-ish lores, greenish legs with yellowish feet, overall structure intermediate between Snowy and Great Egret.  While the ID is not trivial at range, this was a good look at a bird that could not be confused with a Snowy Egret.

If the Egret wasn't remote-enough odds, it was standing right next to a Black-headed Gull, itself a relatively rare bird in the USA.  Both of these species I've seen in Britain (memorably I once had about eight Little Egrets in GB in one day in February) where Little Egret have become far more numerous than when I used to live there and where Black-headed Gull is abundant.

In retrospect that quick and easy success with the egret (modulo 5.5 hours of driving) should have led me to turn around and head toward home, not least of all because it was drizzling with low cloud the entire day.  Instead I rolled the dice and when 50 miles further up the Cape to Provincetown in search of Thick-billed Murre.  I'd seen the murres this past summer in AK, but wanted a look in the East.  This was a trip I'd considered during the previous winter - and almost executed - but always delayed it due to bad weather and the sheer distance involved.  Provincetown appears to be one of the better mainland sites for finding TB Murre, however luck wasn't quite with me.  I had three Razorbills at MacMillan Wharf along with Common Loons and one Red-throated, Red-breasted Mergansers, American Black Duck, both Cormorant sp, but no murres.  Race Point at the northern edge of the cape had limited visibility (fog, rain) but had Northern Gannet and one Black Scoter.  Herring Cove on the western tip added White-winged Scoter, a quick return trip to the harbor netted exactly the same species, so I headed back down the cape to check First Encounter Beach where the low tide precluded finding any water bird within the visible range, and Corporation Beach in Dennis where there were a good select of water birds just off the breakwater (new: Horned Grebe) but no alcids.  I did have a single fly-over Redpoll here but simply could not find it in the dark gray sky.  The southerly wind that brought the moisture and relatively mild conditions wasn't exactly conducive to winter finch flight so I was unable to track down any (other) Redpolls or Crossbills.

Heading back to Hyannis once more and finding that the Egret had become elusive (various birders were looking for it) at either of its regular spots, so I decided to make an early start on the return trip, and left the cape around 2:30pm to start the 6+ hour drive home in rather heavier traffic conditions than the early morning outbound trip.

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - US bird #676

Van Cortlandt Park/Alley Pond Park Dec 1st

Some days my predictions are luckier than others.  A Barnacle Goose that originally frequented Inwood Hill Park (found Nov 11th, seen over the next few days) had pulled a vanishing act - I went looking for it myself and struck out - and given that there's precious few flat grassy areas in that area I made the prediction via my venerable list eBirdsNYC that it might turn up in Van Cortlandt Park, geographically close albeit in the Bronx and not Manhattan.   In one of those uncommon alignments between plausibility and actual events the Barnacle turned up in Van Cortlandt Park on Nov 26th.

So although I was denied a nice rarity for my Manhattan (NY County) list, I did find my NYC list Barnacle Goose on Dec 1st amongst a large flock of Canada Geese feeding on the parade grounds area on the west side of Van Cortlandt Park.  Taking its cue from the other tame Canadas in this park the Barnacle was not particularly wary, although the light was pretty bad for photography and the bird decided to take a nap, further limiting photo options.  Took me all of 5 minutes to find the bird after finding street parking.  In retrospect I should have stuck around and looked for a Cackling Goose - a rare bird in NYC - amongst the large Canada flocks rather than head out to Queens.

However, flushed with easy success for one NYC bird, I headed out to Alley Pond Park in Queens to search for a more elusive one - the persisting Virginia's Warbler.  Although present for a while it had acquired the reputation for being difficult since it covered a large area in a non-demonstrative way.  In real habitat Virginia's Warbler is rather skulky and difficult to find, too.  Alley Pond Park had clearly taken a beating from Hurricane Sandy with a lot of felled trees although the parks dept had cleared up all the trails.  I predictably failed to find the warbler, and there was really only one part of the park that was at all birding with a mixed flock including chickadees, titmice, robins, Winter Wren and multiple Fox Sparrows.  Most of the woodland was pretty quiet with only a few sparrows.

Thanksgiving Weekend birding

Thursday: a nice little foray into Staten Island netted Eurasian Wigeon at Tottenville Train Station - this bird had been reported last year and is likely the same individual that sometimes was seen at Perth Amboy waterfront last winter.  This time I was far luckier than my Perth Amboy forays and actually saw it in a small flock of American Wigeons.  Then the maint target for the day: Cave Swallows at Cemetery of the Resurrection adjacent to Mount Loretto.  This flock had been upwards of 60 birds a week earlier but between 8 and 20 still persisted when I was there, visiting the pond to hawk insects.  The number is ambiguous because I wasn't sure if I saw the same flock 3x or three different flocks.  A single Tree Swallow was present and also fly-by Pine Siskin and Purple Finch.  Then back into NJ with a visit to Roselle where finding the Greater White-fronted Goose and Cackling Geese wasn't especially hard at Warinanco Park.

Friday: back into NYC in Central Park, where there was no Brant on the Reservoir, no Rufous Hummingbird at the Conservatory Garden, a single Barred Owl in the usual location and a few Fox Sparrows in the Ramble but not a great deal else.  Noteworthy was so many Tufted Titmice it almost constituted a plague.

Saturday: despite strong winds following the passage of a cold front I went out to Barnegat Inlet hoping for a little coastal finch movement - to no avail.  However in challenging conditions I found a late Brown Pelican flying up the inlet, a Royal Tern amongst the Forster's Terns and a larger Bonaparte's Gull flock, and the usual Harlequins.  The rest of the sea duck count was very low, with only two Long-tailed Ducks and 20 Black Scoters.  Down at Brigantine div. of Forsythe NWR where the violence that Hurricane Sandy had done to the wildlife drive (closed even to walking) was quite evident, I did snag a Cave Swallow over the open section of drive toward the gull tower.  Otherwise things were quite distant (abundant waterfowl) or keeping their head down in the strong wind.

Sunday: failing yet again to find Crossbills in NYC - this time in Prospect Park - I did manage to find a single Rusty Blackbird, and a couple of Pine Siskins at the Breeze Hill feeders.

Inwood and Central Parks, Nov 17th: Barred/Bluebird/Brant but no Barnacle

The possibility of a Barnacle Goose lured me all the way up to the tip of Manhattan and Inwood Hill Park early on Saturday.  The Barnacle was nowhere to be found, although I checked all the grassy areas.  A consolation prize - and apparently my first ones for Manhattan - were a flock of 10 American Pipits on the eastern ball fields.


The rest of the day turned out rather more successfully, and by the time I limped off to the train I'd covered a few miles and added three Central Park birds to my list, which now numbers 199.  A little walk across the north end of the park brought me to the Conservatory Garden where the northern (circular) flower garden is an absolute riot of color.  It's understandably lured in a Rufous Hummingbird  that's been there for about a week - I got enough poor tail-spread photographs to be sure it was a female Rufous and not any other Selasphorus, and the incomplete emergent gorget spot suggests it's an immature although I'm not totally certain on age.  This is not the first hummingbird seen in this location - there was an Allen's in 2002, and it's not the first Rufous I've seen in the park since there was an adult female Rufous in 2004.  As long as those flowers keep going and there's not a hard frost the hummingbird should do well for some time at this location.  (Update: it was gone by the following Friday).  I spent some time at this very colorful and warm location and also noted two Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker but not a great deal else - although there were crossbills reported from more coastal locations there did not seem to be a flight over the park.

I met Junko at the hummingbird who told me about a Brant at the Reservoir.  I managed to miss this on the way down the park the first time but looped back up there on my way out of the park and got good looks at an immature Brant hanging out with Canada Geese.  Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead and Ruddy Ducks were some of the more interesting waterfowl on the Reservoir, mostly clustered at the north end.

The I headed down to what has become a reliable spot for Barred Owl.  Barred Owl would normally be exceptionally rare in the park but there was one on the western edge of the park last winter (also roamed the Upper West Side, apparently) and this winter there may be as many as three Barred Owls here.  Despite once being a pretty regular Long-eared Owl roosting spot, Central Park hasn't hosted any regularly roosting owls in years.  Thankfully (and rather unlike the Long-eared) the Barred Owl roost is a long way off the ground, immune to curious onlookers.  A lot of passer's by were curious about this owl, so my skyward-pointed camera turned out to be mostly used a spotting scope.  I've accumulated a pretty good list of owls seen in the park (Long-eared, Northern Saw-whet, Great Horned, Barn, Barred, Boreal) but this was one of the better ones and one that I never expected to see here.

Finally, I was alerted to an Eastern Bluebird feeding at Sparrow Rock.  This bird seemed pretty tame for a Bluebird, considering a small crowd of birders gathered to admire it, and was in immature male plumage - still pretty resplendent in deep sky blue and red but with a little brown shading to the blue color on the scapulars and nape and pointed retrices.  Also there was a Hermit Thrush, which the Bluebird seemed to be using at times to detect insects and then attempted to steal them from it.  The Bluebird seemed to be doing fairly well on insect hunting, and the continuing fairly sunny and milder conditions (high in the 50's) suggest that all the park rarities should do fine for at least the next week.


Brant                              
Wood Duck                            
Gadwall                              
Northern Shoveler                    
Bufflehead                            
Hooded Merganser                      
Ruddy Duck                            
Pied-billed Grebe                                                
Barred Owl
Rufous Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker              
American Kestrel                      
White-breasted Nuthatch              
Carolina Wren                        
Ruby-crowned Kinglet                  
Eastern Bluebird                        
Hermit Thrush                        

Update: the Barnacle Goose seems to be more reliably seen at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, which is geographically close to Inwood.

Northern LapwingS

Northern Lapwings at a distance - record shot only

An unprecedented fall-out of Northern Lapwings has occurred in the north-east with between 5 and 11 individuals being spotted - it depends on your philosophy about how related individual sightings are, and my own suspicion is that there have to be more than this since Lapwings are fond of farm fields where they are not always obvious to birders passing by.   The current sightings are summarized in this piece on the ABA blog.  The nearest Lapwing population is Iceland, and I assume they head south-east in fall to Britain for winter.  Most European Lapwings head south-west in response to harsh weather.

I birded Central Park on Sunday morning (Nov 11th) and drove into NYC with the strategy that if the Lapwings were re-found I'd head out to Montauk.  Central Park had a modest finch flight, so I had Pine Siskins and Purple Finches but alas not the elusive White-winged Crossbills or Evening Grosbeaks.  More conventional early winter species like Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-crowned Sparrow and quite a few Hermit Thrushes were around.  Much of the Ramble was closed off for post-storm tree clean-up (both Sandy and the following week's Nor'easter had an impact on the park).

Then I saw an email reporting the Lapwings and I was back in the car by 10am.

The Midtown Tunnel had  re-opened just the previous Friday after being flooded by Sandy so after leaving Manhattan the first part of the trip was speedy (L.I.E., Rt. 27/Sunrise Highway).  But the problem with Montauk - and the reason I rarely go there any more - is that the next 35 miles are a tortuous wind through Southampton, Bridgehampton, Easthampton, Amagansett and other picturesque towns with very low speed limits.  There's a couple of fantasy 55mph zones near Montauk but most of the time you're closer to 35mph, which is about half the speed you were doing to for the last hour+.

Nevertheless, I made it out the east side of Montauk and to Deep Hollow Ranch (aka Theodore Roosevelt County Park) and found the Northern Lapwings without a problem.  This location is where I saw both Barnacle and Pink-footed Geese in 2007. Here's where it got both surreal and mundane.  I've seen thousands of Lapwings in Britain where they are relatively common on arable land, but it was a species I'd never really anticipated seeing in the United States, much less two of them hanging out together.  I had spent the preceding morning (Saturday) looking for the Lapwing that had been reported near Allentown NJ on Thursday with no success.  Lapwings look quite exotic to American birders, with the irridescence, crest and face pattern, but less so to Brits like me.  However Lapwings as a family are often quite spectacular in plumage.

Much of the time these Lapwings were distant and somewhat wary, being flushed by a passing Red-tailed Hawk (which looks pretty similar to the Common Buzzard, Buteo buteo if you're a prey species) or people on horseback.  So I did see them in flight and their relaxed flight style on broad wings belies the fact that these birds are long-distance migrants in Europe.  Which explains how they made it this far in the first place - something like a Greenfinch would splash down in the Atlantic from exhaustion.

The ABA blog for Hurricane Sandy also speculates that this amazing Lapwing event is correlated with a high pressure system that was present over the north Atlantic Ocean.  It's stretching the correlation to beyond breaking point to suggest that the Lapwings were related to Hurricane Sandy - but if their simulations are right one of the weather systems that led Sandy to turn westward and make landfall in NJ are the same weather systems that made quite a few Lapwings make landfall in the USA.  It just wasn't Sandy that did it.

Update: as of December 8th the one Lapwing on mainland MA and the two on Nantucket Island are still present, the two Montauk birds have long since left, and there was a fleeting report of one in Virginia.  Likely all of them are still on the east coast, but there's a lot of farm land out there.

Post-storm Birds (NJ)

After getting hammered by wind all night and losing power (still out 2.5 days later; was out for 5 days) I went out around 10am to slowly wind my way to local water spots in search of hurricane-displaced birds.  I found a little, but nothing tremendously interesting - most of the action was in New York Harbor or down on the Delaware, out of the range of any sane driving the morning after that hurricane.  Lots of power poles split or downed and multiple downed trees with the inevitable widespread power outages. Mercer Meadows - Rosedale Park lake: 2 Forster's Terns; 2 Ospreys; 1 Bald Eagle; flock of Tree Swallows; 1 Cave/Cliff Swallow - appeared quite dark on forehead and throat but also wet so ID inconclusive but likely a Cave - seemed to be passing through Mercer County Park lake: 3 Common Loons (1 adult and 2 immatures) plus one fly-over 1 Forster's Tern; 2 female Surf Scoters; 3 Bald Eagles (2 adults and 1 immature).    This amounted to a few extra birds on my Mercer County list but not much else.

Storm Birds

Hurricane Sandy did not drop any shearwaters in my back yard but it was remarkable how determined the local birds were to keep feeding even during the strengthening storm on Monday.  Sparrows mainly had their heads down (a few Juncos, one White-throated, one Chipping) but the Chickadees and Titmice were at the feeder all day, so much so that I switched to the larger one and zip-tied it to the feeder stand to stop it from swaying wildly when the winds started to gust >35 mph. By the time the eye passed to the south the wind had been gusting to 60mph but the feeder stayed intact.

I also finally had Pine Siskins, being apparently the last feeder in the whole of NJ to get them.  On Sunday I had a short visit from a flock of ~5 of them, aggressively defending perches on the seed and thistle feeder.  On Monday I had a single individual.

Now we'll see if the hurricane eye deposits anything unusual on the local water spots as it blasts through the area overnight.


Postscript: nothing new on the passerine front after the storm, save one Red-breasted Nuthatch on the Wednesday and a roving flock of Pine Siskins on Thursday - I'd been getting one Pine Siskin but this flock was 10+ birds.  The birds seem to have survived, at least based on feeder activity, although very enthusiastically using the seed feeder perhaps to make up for all that lost energy (or lost food sources?).

More sparrows

Tuesday and Wednesday morning's have seen pretty strong sparrow movements through my yard in central NJ.  On Tuesday it was mainly Chipping Sparrows - I rarely see one during the coldest months to these are headed straight through.  On Wednesday it was Dark-eyed Junco's, which may be moving past or settling in since I get a fair number each winter along with the White-throated (some of which have already been hanging around).

At nearby Rosedale Park I got a look at the Le Conte's Sparrow found the day before, although I had to head into work and couldn't spend much time there.  Not altogether too many sparrows at this location, just Song, one Field and a possible Swamp with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet or two and Yellow-rumped Warblers. This was my first Le Conte's east of Texas (the only ones I've seen are in TX and ND).

Pole Farm (Sat), Randall's Island (Sun)

While spending a weekend coming down with something flu-like, I went out locally on Saturday morning to "Pole Farm", which has been renamed as Mercer Meadows from the old name of Mercer County Park North West.  Mercer Co are doing some work there - questionably they are laying in an asphalt path that runs adjacent (or right through) good Bobolink/Meadowlark territory.  However on the flip side of that they are actively going to be managing some of the lower fields just below the Federal City Road access road as native grasslands.  If they pull that off that'll mitigate things somewhat.

Turned out to be quite a decent quick visit to Pole Farm, with one American Kestrel and two Northern Harriers, one of which was aggressively harassing a Red-tailed Hawk.  Eastern Meadowlarks were singing in the mown field and sparrows put on a decent show.  Song Sparrows are resident here but on this morning I added Savannah Sparrow (2) and White-crowned Sparrow (3) to my Mercer Co list.  Formerly I used to go to Griggstown Preserve for those sort of species but Franklin Twp have taken to over-mowing that site.  Had I been feeling stronger I think a longer walk through Pole Farm would have netted a lot more sparrows.

Pine Siskins continued their epic invasion year, with a few heard flying by and one being chased by the over-optimistic Kestrel.  I might have heard Purple Finch and American Pipit (both likely under the circumstances) but they were a little too far away to be certain.  Finally I had a 30-strong flock of Killdeer flying over from a nearby farm field.



On Sunday I drove into NYC and Randall's Island - technically a part of New York County but not physically connected to Manhattan.  The targets were two Ammodramus sparrow species - Nelson's and Saltmarsh - that had been reported from a small salt marsh on the north side of the island.  Finding them is easiest at high tide and this was half way down and dropping - I had no luck with those species although ironically I've seen both in Central Park over the years (Nelson's once, Saltmarsh twice).  I did have a nice run of luck with other sparrows - one Vesper with a very strong eye-ring in with numerous Savannah and Song, a few Swamp, a few White-crowned, a flock of Chipping Sparrows.  This was my first ever Vesper in NYC (and perhaps NY State) although I haven't been looking hard for them.  Nashville Warbler was good, Yellow-rumped Warbler numerous and there was also a single Common Yellowthroat.  Again, Pine Siskins and Purple Finches were heard as fly-overs (and in one case actually seen).  I'm not sure the 120+ mile round-trip did my flu symptoms any favors, but the Vesper Sparrow was a good find.

Central Park, Fri/Sat/Sun, Oct 12-14th

The best migration day was the Saturday, by far, but there was useful birding on the day before and the day after the large migrant movement.   On Saturday there was a huge influx of late fall birds like Yellow-rumped Warblers (abundant) and Hermit Thrushes (numerous) as well as fairly good numbers of other late fall birds like Winter Wren, Eastern Phoebe, both kinglets, Song Sparrow.  On all three days the number of other warblers were somewhat low - Palm Warblers put in a decent showing but other species were in ones and twos.

All three days had the ongoing Red-breasted Nuthatch invasion with a couple of them found repeatedly in the hemlocks near Belvedere Castle and others turning up all over the Ramble.   Pine Siskins put in an appearance on Sat and Sun with one perching on a camera lens right next to me on Saturday, and a flock of 15 alighting briefly in Strawberry Fields on Sunday.  I saw or heard multiple Purple Finches on all three days.

Friday: low-ish numbers with the best bird being a cooperative Lincoln's Sparrow - no longer a rare bird in the park but still never numerous and the first one I'd seen all year.  Tanner's Spring was the most active on this the least voluminous day with Swainson's Thrush and Gray-cheeked Thrush seen there.  Warblers: Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Magnolia, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat.

Saturday: amongst the Yellow-rumped, which were literally everywhere, the best bird was a Mourning Warbler (immature, likely female) which was near the Tupelo tree.  This unfortunate bird turned out to have only one leg with no trace of a second leg - either a birth defect or an injury that happened a very early in life and completely healed.  It seemed to feed OK, albeit awkwardly, and otherwise was in good feather condition.  My first Mourning of the year.  Another unfortunate bird was an American Woodcock which was handed to the Parks Dept - it did not seem inclined/capable of flying so the attempted release near the MOWA location was abandoned and the bird picked up again.  Woodcocks suffer a fair amount of attrition through building collisions on migration. Warblers: ubiquitous Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning.  Perversely I found some species to be less numerous: Eastern Towhee and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Sunday: a lot of residual birds from the previous day's big migration, held in place by the southerly wind direction.  The Mourning Warbler was still present, many Yellow-rumped Warblers persisted and it was really a scaled-down version of the previous day.  Warblers: Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning.  An adult Cooper's Hawk was vocalizing at an immature Red-tailed Hawk that was sitting in the low canopy in the Ramble - I wasn't sure if this was one of the two rehab Red-tailed that were released nearby on Saturday, but clearly the Cooper's was not at all happy that the Red-tailed was working the same territory.

Not a bad three days, mostly in terms of volume rather than diversity, which is showing the usual drop-off for late fall.  Commuting into Manhattan via the more-inept-than-usual NJ Transit had its upsides on Friday and Saturday since attendees of Comic-Con trekking through Penn Station were sometimes dressed in superhero outfits - memorably including one woman I was following who was dressed up as the John Candy character in Spaceballs (the Wookie parody) complete with tail.  See: short NYTimes video on the convention.  On Sunday I only saw a single person dressed up as part of the Borg, almost a let-down.

Ewing, Oct 7th

A less-dire-than-forecast morning had me doing local birding.  So local I had to travel all of 40 feet to a corner of my back yard to watch a mixed flock of chickadees, titmice and migrants feeding in my big oak and flitting into other neighboring trees.  I netted:

Red-eyed Vireo
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Black-throated Green Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler

with these heard nearby:
Red-breasted Nuthatch (still not on my yard list)
Eastern Towhee
Purple Finch

so not the world's largest migration but not at all bad for one's own backyard.  In fact a brief visit to Princeton's Institute Woods netted less diversity (mainly Yellow-rumped, big flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, two Wood Ducks) than in my own back yard.  However my back yard thistle feeder has yet to prove an irresistible lure to migrant Pine Siskins.

Central Park Oct 6th

My first Purple Finches of the year - last winter was not an invasion year - were in Strawberry Fields, although I missed the Pine Siskins by 15 minutes.  Both were female-type but at least one was probably immature male since it started singing.  There were also my first Golden-crowned Kinglets in fall migration.

Despite a somewhat northerly wind the warbler numbers were unexceptional all day.  There was a hint of a raptor flight, with two Cooper's Hawks, a Merlin and an ambiguous falcon (Merlin/Peregrine) over the Maintenance Field.  But otherwise the day's biggest migrant numbers were unquestionably Cedar Waxwings.  Flocks of mainly juveniles (many molting into a facsimile of adult plumage) were all over the park all day feeding on pokeweed and crab apples.

My best bird turned out to be an immature Black-billed Cuckoo, which popped up in the Upper Lobe while I was listening to another Purple Finch making the 'pik' call on the other side of the water.  This was followed by a Gray-cheeked Thrush - one of my rather more unlikely misses this year since they are regular in the park.  This particular Gray-cheeked gave no hint of candidate Bicknell's and had a nice cold olive-brown tone to it.

Otherwise birding was not high volume.  In the afternoon I ventured out to Duke Farms (Somerset area in NJ) in the mid afternoon and found the parking lot brimming with walkers and cyclists.  Between overcast and a fairly strong breeze the bird activity was relatively low, but I did have a Peregrine (likely a migrant headed down-river after coming off the Watchung Ridge), a family of American Kestrels, Palm Warblers and Savannah Sparrow.  This looks not a bad bet for early winter birding because much of the weedy field habitat is intact - over in Griggstown Preserve they've mowed 90% of the habitat down to the stubble in another example of how not to manage habitat for fall migrants, so there's little reason to revisit it.

Cooper's Hawk                          
Black-billed Cuckoo                    
Chimney Swift                          
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker               
Northern Flicker                       
Merlin                                 
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe                         
Black-capped Chickadee                 
Red-breasted Nuthatch                  
White-breasted Nuthatch                
Golden-crowned Kinglet                 
Ruby-crowned Kinglet                   
Gray-cheeked Thrush                    
Hermit Thrush                          
Gray Catbird                           
Brown Thrasher                         
Cedar Waxwing                          
Common Yellowthroat                    
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Magnolia Warbler                       
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
Swamp Sparrow                          
White-throated Sparrow                 
Dark-eyed Junco
Scarlet Tanager                       
Northern Cardinal                      
Rose-breasted Grosbeak                 
Purple Finch                           
American Goldfinch                     

Central Park Sept 29th and 30th

As the month drew to a close a north wind lured me into the park for both days on the weekend.  It's not a bad point to take stock of what appears to be a slightly later fall migration - in particular I've seen very few Ruby-crowned Kinglets so far and no Golden-crowned despite the date and it has been a month with no really cool days to push birds south.  There has been a switch over to a mix with later species: Blue-headed Vireo being seen on Sat and Eastern Phoebe's being around for a while.  There were quite a few Palm Warblers on Saturday, Eastern Towhees have become easier to find, and there was clearly some sparrow movement on Saturday - many of them had moved on by Sunday.  A few Black-capped Chickadees were seen early on Sunday - you would think this was a species that would do rather better in the park than it actually does, and sightings of them get pretty sparse before the population gets filled out during the invasion years.  Tufted Titmice seemed more numerous than usual, which made me suspect they'd been migrating as well.

Heavy overcast made things a little tough going on Saturday, which was apparently the better migration day but still quite patchy - Sunday it appeared that most of the migrants had left.  Saturday was also accompanied by the sound-testing that preceded the mammoth free concert scheduled for the Great Lawn at 5pm and led me to exit the park sooner rather than later.  On Saturday interesting birds were reported from various locations: Summer Tanager, Grasshopper Sparrow and we had a Marsh Wren in the Maintenance Field.  Marsh Wren is probably about as rare in the park as Connecticut Warbler but has none of the cache of the latter since Marsh Wren breeds all over the place coastally.  It did play the Connecticut trick of vanishing after the initial sighting.  Sunday was sunnier but also quieter from the migration perspective but a female-type Hooded Warbler was a nice bonus.  The last two weeks of the month are fairly typical for Hooded Warbler migration but this is starting to get close to my latest-ever fall Hooded date (Oct 3rd 2000)

Sat:

Cooper's Hawk                          
Chimney Swift                          
Ruby-throated Hummingbird              
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker               
Hairy Woodpecker                       
Northern Flicker                       
Eastern Wood-Pewee                     
Eastern Phoebe                         
Blue-headed Vireo                      
Red-eyed Vireo                         
Blue Jay                               
Red-breasted Nuthatch                  
Marsh Wren                             
Swainson's Thrush                      
Wood Thrush                            
Gray Catbird                           
Brown Thrasher                         
Cedar Waxwing                          
Ovenbird                               
Black-and-white Warbler                
Common Yellowthroat                    
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
Palm Warbler                           
Black-throated Green Warbler           
Eastern Towhee                         
Song Sparrow                           
Swamp Sparrow                          
White-throated Sparrow                 
Scarlet Tanager                        
Rose-breasted Grosbeak                 
Indigo Bunting                         
Common Grackle                         
American Goldfinch                     

Sun:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird              
Belted Kingfisher                      
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker               
Downy Woodpecker                       
Northern Flicker                       
Eastern Wood-Pewee                     
Eastern Phoebe                         
Red-eyed Vireo                         
Black-capped Chickadee                 
Red-breasted Nuthatch                  
House Wren                             
Carolina Wren                          
Swainson's Thrush                      
Wood Thrush                            
American Robin                         
Gray Catbird                           
Brown Thrasher                         
Cedar Waxwing                          
Black-and-white Warbler                
Hooded Warbler                         
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Magnolia Warbler                       
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
Palm Warbler                           
Yellow-rumped Warbler                  
Eastern Towhee                         
White-throated Sparrow                 
Scarlet Tanager                       
Rose-breasted Grosbeak                 

Central Park Sept 22nd and 23rd

Modest migration through the park on Sat and Sun provided some nice species although less than epic numbers.  Red-breasted Nuthatches continued to move, the first White-throated Sparrows cropped up in low numbers.  Hummingbirds seen both days but only a light raptor movement.  A male Hooded Warbler was seen both days but the star of the weekend was unquestionably an immature Connecticut Warbler that was seen around the Tupelo tree and provided elusive but repeated views as it walked quickly through the undergrowth.  Walking, of course, being one of the diagnostic things.  The eye ring was prominent but not huge and broken at the rear of the eye - not at all unusual for a first fall bird.  This was my first one for the year and not an easy bird to find initially - I'd also missed the previous sightings of Connecticut in what appears to have been a decent fall for them.


Sat:
Cooper's Hawk                          
Chimney Swift                          
Ruby-throated Hummingbird              
Belted Kingfisher                      
Northern Flicker                       
Eastern Wood-Pewee                     
Least Flycatcher                       
Eastern Phoebe                         
Red-eyed Vireo                         
Red-breasted Nuthatch                  
Veery                                  
Swainson's Thrush                      
Wood Thrush                            
American Robin                         
Gray Catbird                           
Brown Thrasher                         
Cedar Waxwing                          
Ovenbird                               
Black-and-white Warbler                
Nashville Warbler                      
Common Yellowthroat                    
Hooded Warbler                         
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Magnolia Warbler                       
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
White-throated Sparrow                 
Scarlet Tanager                        
Rose-breasted Grosbeak                 
Indigo Bunting                         
Baltimore Oriole                      

Sun:
Osprey                                 
Mourning Dove                          
Yellow-billed Cuckoo                   
Chimney Swift                          
Ruby-throated Hummingbird              
Northern Flicker                       
Eastern Wood-Pewee                     
Least Flycatcher                       
Great Crested Flycatcher               
Red-eyed Vireo                         
Red-breasted Nuthatch                  
White-breasted Nuthatch                
House Wren                             
Veery                                  
Swainson's Thrush                      
Gray Catbird                           
Brown Thrasher                         
Ovenbird                               
Black-and-white Warbler                
Connecticut Warbler                    
Common Yellowthroat                    
Hooded Warbler                         
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Magnolia Warbler                       
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
Palm Warbler                           
White-throated Sparrow                 
Scarlet Tanager                        
Rose-breasted Grosbeak                 
Indigo Bunting                         
American Goldfinch                     

Chimney Rock Hawk Watch - Sept 15th

After a morning in CPK I went to Chimney Rock in the afternoon, and was surprised at a full parking lot and a lot of people at the designated hawk watch area.  This might have had much to do with the good raptor migration weather with a cool wind out of the north at the time.  Chimney Rock lies on the Watchung Ridge, the most easterly ridge before you drop into the NJ coastal plain.  It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the raptors that pass through Manhattan connect with this ridge in the vicinity of the Montclair Hawk Watch further to the north east.  Hawks here have to traverse a bit of flat terrain before they hit the next ridge, somewhere in or around the Sourlands (Neshanic, Wertzville area).

In the three hours I was there I had multiple Bald Eagles, about 100 Broad-winged Hawks, American Kestrel, Merlin and Peregrine and Red-tailed Hawk.  Half the Broad-winged came by in a single kettle spiralling in the updraft.  The Red-tailed was probably local, and the Turkey and Black Vultures certainly were.  Sharp-shinned and one or two Cooper's came by, and one particularly large Accipiter that I wondered about being a Goshawk (but the hint of red on the underparts indicated just a large female Cooper's).  Nearly all the hawks were pretty high, although later in the day (~5pm) some of them passed by a little lower.

A nice paved path from the parking lot would make this not a bad place to look for actual migrating Goshawk later in the season.

Central Park Sept 15th and 16th

The front passed too late in the night to make Saturday a good migration day and so birding was extremely patchy.  Strawberry Fields was extremely slow, the Ramble a little better, but excitement came in the form of an Eastern Whip-poor-will found in the Ramble.  This is the first one I've seen in CPK in quite a few years (spring 2004 was the last), and also the first one in fall.  Based on pointed tail feathers it appeared to be an immature bird.  While watching the nightjar other good birds of the day were Cape May Warblers (possible ad. female and imm. male) and a Least Flycatcher.  The final icing was the ongoing American Bittern at Turtle Pond - I almost missed it until it flew across the pond to the island just as I turned to leave.  This is only my second Bittern in the park (last: in April 2004).  Other migrants included Eastern Wood-Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Scarlet Tanager and only three other species of warbler (American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat).

As of Monday morning the Whip-poor-will reappeared in the same tree - I'm pretty confident that this is the first time anyone's refound a bird like that in the same roosting spot in the park.


On Sunday migrant volume was better, although still not spectacular and the initial stop at Strawberry Fields included my first Red-breasted Nuthatch for the year - a bird that had been tormenting me.  There was also a start of a change-over in warbler species: Black-throated Green, Blackpoll and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet being evidence of that.  Swainson's Thrushes were numerous but Cedar Waxwings were putting up the best migrant numbers in the park with multiple flocks moving through places like the Maintenance Field while I was there.  A decent raptor flight occurred in the morning with multiple Broad-winged Hawks and an Osprey.  I also had my first White-throated Sparrows of fall.  The American Bittern remained at Turtle Pond, this time giving good views while hunting on the north side of the island.  Despite its persistence here it's a pretty rare bird in Central Park, actually a rarer sighting than the Connecticut Warbler that evaded me in the Ramble later that morning.

9/11 in Central Park

Those of us that were birding Central Park on 9/11/01 are never going to forget that experience, nor what followed.  There's a tendency to mark the anniversary by doing the same thing again - looking for fall migrants in the Ramble.  However the motivation for birding today was more weather-driven than anniversary-driven.

9/11/01 was the "first good migration day of fall" with the wind out of the north, which blew the ash from the WTC site away from the park until the wind changed two days later.  That wind carried quite a decent number of migrants with it.  9/11/12 also had a north-west wind and cool overnight temperatures but the results were not as dramatic bird-wise or in any other way.

The biggest movement of migrants today were the multiple flocks of Cedar Waxwings moving around the park.  Actual warblers were a little more scarce and I came up with a mere handful of them: Northern Parula; Magnolia Warbler; Black-throated Blue Warbler; Black-and-white Warbler; American Redstart; Canada Warbler; Common Yellowthroat.  Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos were around, and the Warblings were still singing, as they have been over the last few trips to CPK.  The best birds that I saw today were Broad-winged Hawks - a heavily marked immature over the Lake, adults and lightly marked immatures over the Ramble and one pale immature sitting in plain view in the Ramble until it finally flew out mid-morning.  Most or all of these birds had clearly roosted in the park overnight because they were seen at low altitude.  I've never seen one actually roosting in the park before.  The hummingbird movement continued with at least one and probably more through the Maintenance Field - the Central Park Conservancy have numerous Cardinal Flower plantings within the Ramble which are often used as a food source by hummingbirds.  I continue to miss Red-breasted Nuthatches despite hearing them in two locations in the park - I might have seen the ones near Azalea Pond but they did not stick around and fell silent.

Nevertheless a slightly lackluster migration day given the north wind overnight.

What follows is the list from 9/11/01.  I keep my sightings stored in HTML format and this is part of my Sightings2001 file.

Northern Flicker
Red-eyed, Philadelphia Vireo   
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Veery, Swainson's, Wood Thrush
Cedar Waxwing
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Northern Parula
Nashville, Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blackpoll, Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush
Wilson's Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

Central Park Sept 9th

Sandwiched inbetween Saturday's and Sunday's trips to Sandy Hook I went to Central Park on Sunday morning.  On average migration was quite modest - the front had taken its time to come through the previous evening and the north winds developed too late. 

Strawberry Fields was comatose apart from a single Ovenbird, or would have been if the humming throng of the impending disease-a-thon had not been gathering at 72nd Street. 

The Ramble was a little more active, mostly around Azalea Pond and Maintenance Field.  Somewhat oddly both Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos were heard singing.  At Azalea there was a cooperative adult male Hooded Warbler and Redstarts and my sole Wood Thrush for the day.  At Maintenance - where I ultimately spent most of my time waiting for the chat (it didn't appear) - warblers included Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Canada Warbler, Common Yellowthroat.  Eastern Wood-Pewee was also here (heard in several locations) along with a Great Crested Flycatcher.  Best bird of all was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo which flew in, gave brief views, and dropped down in the dense foliage now on the edge of the Maintenance Field.  While I didn't get into double digits for warbler species I did manage a good diversity and also saw at least four Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during the day.

The last interesting bird, as I was headed out for the subway, was a Hairy Woodpecker - these are fairly scarce in the park but it's not clear if this constitutes a migrant or not.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Hairy Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Great Crested Flycatcher
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Canada Warbler

Sandy Hook, Sept 8th and 9th

While I did not chase the Elegant Tern at Sandy Hook the previous weekend - when it was found - I decided to check it out a week later despite a somewhat dubious weather forecast for the Saturday.  A birder friend came along on Saturday and did fairly well with two life birds.  On the way out to the False Hook at Sandy Hook we took the wrong trail and ended up meandering down false trails south of the large salt pond.  While being snacked on by mosquitos we did fairly well with warblers: Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler.  Also Cedar Waxwing and Baltimore Oriole  - this was a pretty good selection considering the wind was from the south and it did not epitomize a good fall migration day.  Locating the correct trail and walking to the the beach we encountered a small flock of Palm Warblers - absolutely not what I'd consider typical for early September.

Birders told us that the Elegant Tern was seen earlier (we were they early, but not at dawn) but ultimately we were not successful finding it.  Instead there were a lot of Common Terns, and Amy's first lifer was a Black Tern coming down the beach to join the Commons at the cut.  Sanderlings, Semipalmated Plovers and Piping Plovers were on the beach and adjoining mudflat.  In a fairly stiff breeze most of the Common/Black Terns and numerous Black Skimmers were in a small group in the roped off (shorebird nesting) area, and most of the birders there that morning had gathered to concentrate on that flock.  It also gave a good view of the storm clouds marching up the NJ shore towards us.  While failing to find an Elegant a nice bonus was three Buff-breasted Sandpipers feeding amongst the dunes - this was Amy's second lifer and a year bird for me.

Eventually an interesting larger tern did turn up back at the cut - I could pick it out in the air but this was reported as a Sandwich Tern by birders closer to the scene (also a year bird for me).  As the storm clouds rolled in and we headed back towards the parking lot a Marbled Godwit flew down the beach and was literally the last bird we saw on the beach as the deluge opened up.  Although we got totally soaked on the walk back to the car we did dodge the bullet on that weather system: twisters were reported from Queens and Breezy Point got hit - that's pretty close to Sandy Hook and that would have been the same storm system that hit us.


On Sunday I went back to Sandy Hook after birding Central Park.  The weather was bright and sunny and not too warm, and although there were more people (mostly fishermen, some beachgoers) it was still possible to watch a decent flock of Common and Black Terns and Black Skimmers.  After a little while the Elegant Tern put in an appearance and gave diagnostic views.  Later on it vanished before returning later in the day before sunset when I was able to get decent photographs of it.  Both days gave me pretty much my best views of Black Tern, also, so it was a pretty good birding day if a little exhausting by the time I got home.

Labor Day weekend: Central Park and Brigantine

Saturday, at an obnoxious 92 degrees, kept me around the house doing yard work.

On Sunday I trekked into Central Park on a day with at best modest migration prospects.  I was lured in by the reports of Red Crossbills the previous two days - a very rare bird for the park in what might be a major irruption year for them.  The Crossbills bad obviously left, despite some time spent searching Hemlocks for them.  Migration was also less than spectacular, with very low numbers of migrants with the exception of one small active patch near the Gill: this yielded Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Worm-eating, Yellow and Northern Waterthrush.  That was my first Worm-eating Warbler in the park this year - I'd seen or heard others at Sterling Forest and Belleplain SP but as with Cape May Warbler I had struck out on it during spring migration.

On Labor Day itself I went down to Brig again and had a better birding day there than the previous weekend despite some pretty overcast weather.  Three Bobolinks at the start of the one-way section of the wildlife drive.  A Lark Sparrow (my first in NJ and fairly rare in the East) made itself obvious by lurking around the drive itself where the bulky side and white-tipped tail feathers drew my attention.  Several other birders drove right past it and flushed it from the driveway, so it wasn't apparently obvious to everyone.  Double-crested Cormorant numbers were quite high - already on the move with some flocks in the air, there were also a lot of them staging in the area and big flocks were feeding on fish schools along with similarly high numbers of Forster's Terns.  Since it was windy I did unusually poorly with passerines, i.e. no Seaside Sparrows, and the two Ammodramus sparrows that I did see where a nice bonus - Saltmarsh (Sharp-tailed) Sparrows.  While not the first time I've seen them there, they are not an every-trip bird.  Shorebirds were in modest numbers with the typical selection augmented by Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot (one adult, one juvenile) and three Pectoral Sandpipers.  There were also some interesting terns - a flock on a sandbar with shorebirds had many Royals and a few Caspians.  Later on I saw juvenile Caspians still begging from their parents.  And best of all a juvenile Gull-billed Tern was still being fed by parents that had already started their pre-basic molt and losing their black caps.  A Wild Turkey in the forested area capped off the trip and I did fairly well at avoiding the worst of the Labor Day traffic on the way back home.

Jamaica Bay, August 28th

Despite a really strong showing with Ruffs early in the season, Jamaica Bay has seemed to be pretty anemic when it comes to more regular shorebird species.  Recent deluges (e.g. weekend of Sept 9th) have probably filled up the pond enough to eliminate any more shorebirding until next summer.

I made three visits in late August culminating in the best visit on Aug 28th.  On Aug 26th the best bird was a single White-rumped Sandpiper amongst Semipalmated Sandpipers.  On Aug 27th the south end was fairly slow (Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover) but at least I picked out the American White Pelican all the way at the north end (it's huge and that yellow bill sticks out even through the heat haze over the full length of the pond).

Finally on the afternoon of Aug 28th I had a little more luck - some cooperative common species at the entrance to the north end (Semipalmated Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover) and then an accumulation of shorebirds at the end of the first spit - north of what is called Dead Man's Cove which despite its boot-sucking nature has not killed any birders as far as I'm aware.  It's covered a few in mud, however.

South of where I was standing the American Avocet was seen in the distance and then an American Golden-Plover flew in.  After it settled down I made an approach on it, a whole flock of Black-bellied Plovers flew in - they hardly ever are tame enough to accumulate on the spit in front of you, but this time they came in after a (very experienced pro) bird photographer managed to flush them all off the adjacent spit.  In with this flock came two Red Knots - an adult and a juvenile - which periodically would wander down the shore line towards us (it was us by this time - two more photographers including the pro had joined me).  So I spent a "pleasant" afternoon lying in the mud getting chewed on by biting flies taking pictures of plovers, knots, the occasional sandpiper and a few Common Terns.  The Avocet and the American Golden (my first adult on the East Pond) were by far the most interesting, but for once this year there was a good number of shorebirds lined up in front of me.

Southern NJ - August 25th/26th

A non-birding trip to the Atlantic City area led me to (inevitably) add in some visits to the Brigantine Division of Forsythe NWR and a quick look around Cape May.

I started the 25th on the beach at Longport NJ, which is at the south end of the Atlantic City island and not a specific birding location.  Nevertheless there were good numbers of Sanderling on the beach and a few Semipalmated Plovers mixed in - not really the bird you associate with feeding at the surf line but a reminder that on migration these birds do get everywhere.  A local Peregrine Falcon and an Osprey kept the shorebirds moving around.

At Sunset Beach in Cape May (aka the Concrete Ship) there were no pelagics, but instead a handful of terns - Common, Forster's, Royal and with three Black Terns in the mix.  A few shorebirds on the beach were Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone and one Semipalmated Sandpiper.

At the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge (the place that I always call South Cape May Meadows - its former name) had a few shorebirds on the ponds (Least/Semipalmated Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs) and quite a few flyby terns - mostly Forster's and one Gull-billed over the preserve and Royal Tern seen flying up the beach.  A juvenile Peregrine Falcon spent a little time scaring things on the pond (including Green-winged Teal) but there were few passerines in evidence.  Two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were seen migrating through.

At Brig over the two days I had basically the same birds on both visits: huge numbers of Tree Swallows (with some Barns) over the marsh, a typical assortment of shorebirds (Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstone, Dowitcher sp, Black-bellied Plover), Egrets, Herons and Ibis and the usual raptors: Osprey and Peregrines.  The first Northern Harrier for the colder months was over the marsh.  The tide was very high for the first visit which led me to see a Clapper Rail sprinting across an open channel between the flooded saltmarsh.

Nothing unusual or unseasonal on this trip, although the Black Terns were my first for the year.

Delaware: Black-tailed Godwit

After having missed the 2001 Black-tailed Godwit on Long Island because I was away on vacation, this species had nestled close to the top of my rarity priority list in recent years.  There was an early summer BT Godwit in TX this year that had me tempted to fly for it in a piece of gratuitous chasing.

So the red alert buttons went off on Friday while at work, when a report of a Black-tailed Godwit at Prime Hook NWR in Delaware turned up on the NJ email list.  Since Prime Hook is south of Dover it's too far for an after work sprint, so I had to bide my time for an early morning drive.  So I left at 4am from Ewing, off about 2 hours sleep after being out the previous night in Philadelphia.  Uneventful 3 hour drive but even at 6am DE Route 1 held some beach traffic.  Since DE-1 was built, it's a lot faster to get down there compared to the old sluggish Route 13.

Prime Hook Rd is a little north of Broadkill Beach Road, where the Wood Sandpiper was found in summer 2008, although it's all part of the same marshland just inland of the beaches.  On Prime Hook Rd the habitat seemed to have taken a bit of a beating - signs of water crossing the rode with all sorts of debris on it.  The weather was heavily overcast, cool and windy.  Short-billed Dowitcher was the most numerous shorebird, with some small peeps, a couple of Willets and one Ruddy Turnstone.  It took a full hour for the Black-tailed Godwit to appear, apparently flying into an island of exposed mud while many of us were looking elsewhere.  It seemed that it might be an adult female - it wasn't in basic and it didn't look like a juvenile.  The bird was quite restless - it spent the five minutes on the ground mostly preening and then picked up and flew to the west.  The was useful, because the single most dominant ID feature compared to the similar Hudsonian Godwit is pale wing linings (Black-tailed) vs black wing linings (Hudsonian).  There were also the very prominent wing bars.  Later in the day it was found roosting along a neighboring beach road but apparently wasn't found on Sunday.

I've seen lots of Black-tailed Godwits before, including a few wintering birds on my most recent trip to Britain in Feb 2010, but this was my first one in the USA and completed an unlikely Godwit grand slam for the year:

• Marbled Godwit in TX in January
• Bar-tailed Godwit in Alaska (Nome & Anchor River)
• Hudsonian Godwit in Alaska (Anchorage)
• this Black-tailed Godwit

On the way back I stopped at Bombay Hook NWR but the sleep deprivation was too much to do any attentive birding.  I did track down a few worn alternate plumage Western Sandpiper and a small flock of Stilt Sandpipers but missed the more notable Ruff and Hudsonian Godwit.

Jamaica Bay: Ruff

It seems to have been a pretty good year for Ruff (see: eBird data) and over the last week there have actually been two at Jamaica Bay WR: a white-headed one and a more rufous-cinnamon one.  Although I'd reduced birding during the heat wave I braved things on Sunday, was only 90.  The Ruff was seen at distance but seen well courtesy of others' scopes - stupidly I'd forgotten to bring my own which is not a bright idea on the East Pond.  The Ruff was seen on the mud and in flight, where the dark belly on it made it look like an anomalous Black-bellied Plover.  This was only my second Ruff in the USA (first one: a Reeve in Wayne NJ in 2002) and my first in NYC.

Shorebird numbers were decent but this was early July and actual diversity was pretty low.  A few of the more interesting shorebirds: Pectoral Sandpiper; Stilt Sandpiper, were in evidence but it was mostly Dowitchers and Yellowlegs.  Eventually I buckled under the heat after the sun emerged (90 degrees in waders is not fun) and crawled back to the car.

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Glossy Ibis
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
American Black Duck
Osprey
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Ruff
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Gull-billed Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Least Tern
Black Skimmer
Willow Flycatcher
Marsh Wren
Yellow Warbler

The Central Park Effect: HBO, July 16th

HBO Documentaries are showing Jeffrey Kimball's The Central Park Effect on July 16th at 9pm.  Jeff spent quite a lot of time shooting video footage in the park, which is almost always much more challenging than shooting photographic stills like I do, since things like warblers rarely remain in focus for very long in either medium.  In turn he's also captured a slice of what it's like to bird an urban hot spot like Central Park, also featuring some of the somewhat more cooperative birders alongside some really good bird footage.

Definitely worth programming your DVR for.

Negri-Nepote (Dickcissel) and Brigantine/Forsythe NWR - June 23rd/24th

Finally getting things back into gear I went out to local grassland sites on Saturday.  Briefly stopped at Six Mile Run to scope photo opportunities and found it devoid of Grasshopper Sparrow song while I was there.  The best birds were Orchard Orioles (pair, usual spot) but it was just a usual mix of species (Willow Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting, Field Sparrow etc).

Then on to Negri-Nepote which attracted not one but two birding groups while I was there.  Lots of juvenile birds were around, particularly in the cover of the junipers: House Wren, Field Sparrow, Eastern Bluebird.  The main attractions were threefold - Grasshopper Sparrow (regular breeder), Blue Grosbeak (one pair with a singing male) and Dickcissel (one pair with a singing male).  This is the second year that Dickcissels have been here, something that probably has much to do with the ongoing western drought edging the population further east.  I didn't cover much ground but got decent looks at most of the birds including one particularly tame Grasshopper Sparrow.  None of the Grasshopper Sparrows seem to have fledged yet but it's probably not that far off.

Sunday was a visit to Brigantine division of Forsythe NWR, preceded by a brief drive down Great Bay Blvd in Tuckerton.  The latter was a scan for cooperative Saltmarsh Sparrows (none near the road).  At Brigantine the only shorebirds were Willets but the usual summer suspects were in evidence - multiple nesting Ospreys, lots of agitated Willets, Forster's Terns, a variety of herons and ibis.  There were two photographers merrily breaking Federal law at one of the Osprey nests by walking down the embankment - I stopped at the visitor center after the first loop to report them
and was told that based on license plate (PIX2GET) that one of them was a persistent offender.  I heard a Dickcissel but did not see it, but also found my semi-regular terns at the water control structure - one Least Tern and one Common Tern.  After all the other terns this spring (Sooty, Aleutian, many Arctic, Roseate, Forster's, Least, Royal, Caspian) this Common Tern was actually a year bird !  I also added another new 2012 tern, Gull-billed Tern, a little further on.

Actually still birding

Although apparently moribund since mid-May, I've actually been on two birding trips for much of the intervening time.  First was Florida from May 22nd-26th which netted 7 life birds and missed Mangrove Cuckoo.  Second was Alaska from June 1st-12th which gained me 21 life birds with no major misses and put me up at USA list total of 673.  The problem with 673 is that 700 appears to be close, but the going gets abruptly tougher.

Central Park May 14th

An even slower day than Sunday, complete with overcast conditions, was enlivened by two things: large numbers of Cedar Waxwings, one or two of which were doing the berry-passing courtship ritual, and a female Summer Tanager which was between Belvedere Castle and Delacorte Theater.  Still very much an overshoot bird from its more southerly breeding territories, Summer Tanager is an annual but pretty scarce park visitor.  Also around the castle were continuing Tree Swallows, which surely must be thinking about nesting there (if they try they usually fail) and two Orchard Orioles, a female and immature male.

Peregrine Falcon                       
Chimney Swift                          
Eastern Wood-Pewee                     
Red-eyed Vireo                         
Tree Swallow                           
Veery                                  
Swainson's Thrush                      
Wood Thrush                            
Cedar Waxwing                          
Ovenbird                               
Northern Waterthrush                   
Black-and-white Warbler                
Common Yellowthroat                    
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Magnolia Warbler                       
Blackburnian Warbler                   
Yellow Warbler                         
Chestnut-sided Warbler                 
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
Yellow-rumped Warbler                  
Canada Warbler                         
Wilson's Warbler                       
Summer Tanager                         
Scarlet Tanager                        
Rose-breasted Grosbeak                 
Orchard Oriole