Jamaica Bay, August 27th

After enduring a lot more traffic than was strictly necessary, I managed 2 hours at the East Pond of Jamaica Bay WR on Thursday. Modest number of shorebirds, OK diversity, and although the tide was not perfect it was the last sunnier day before two days of rain. Best bird was the adult Red-necked Phalarope (pic) which seems like it might have had some trauma (or at least a really hard life) judging from disturbed feather patches at the vent. Not a good thing in a frequently pelagic species. Another good bird was a rather skittish juvenile Baird's Sandpiper and a distant American Avocet (so distant that if Shai Mitra had not pointed it out, it was nigh-on invisible with binoculars).

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Gadwall
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Peregrine Falcon
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Red-necked Phalarope
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Black Tern
Northern Waterthrush

Jamaica Bay, August 16th

I made an early morning trek across the Verrazano Bridge to Jamaica Bay WR in search of shorebirds and some decent photographic opportunities. If anything the water in the East Pond was even higher than on my previous visit, but there was some exposed mud at the south end which is where I started. Shorebird numbers were fairly low, and diversity even lower, with the most novel shorebirds being a single Short-billed Dowitcher and two Spotted Sandpipers. Semipalmated Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers, Least Sandpipers and a few Lesser Yellowlegs dominated the activity. I have a lot of photos of those so I gave up early and went to the north end.

Here the water was even higher than on my previous trip - the Sharp-tailed Sandiper one - and the water was up to the edge of the phragmites in most cases. Really quite remarkable conditions for mid-August, when they normally have the pond drawn down. However I was able to pull out a distant Red-necked Phalarope (always a good bird here), a few White-rumped Sandpipers, and two fly-by juvenile Gull-billed Terns. The situation was so odd that I was standing in about 6 inches of water looking at shorebirds and taking photos of White-rumped Sandpipers while looking back toward the phragmites. Thankfully nobody attempted to go past the cove, sparing some exposed mud for roosting and feeding shorebirds. You'd probably sink up to your neck in that section anyway.