Apologies for the duplicate message; I simply forgotten to add my name and NY location) ______________________ Friday, 17 September, 2010 - Brooklyn / Kings Co. & Queens Co . N.Y. City
At Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, N.Y. City, the four juvenile- plumaged Buff-breasted Sandpipers continued as of about 8:45 - 9:45 a.m. in the weedy (not recently mowed) and uneven field across from and immediately northeast of the parking area by the F.B. Field 'aviator' building and adjacent to where the western vehicle entry / traffic signal is from Flatbush Avenue-Marine Parkway - this is not the standard old entry point but the newer one with black cyclone fencing & gated at certain times. The 4 Buff-breasted Sandpipers were ranging almost all around the weedy field and also were rather skittish when cars drove close by & at any speed, yet with care, 3 of us watched and photographed these 4 juvenile-plumaged birds, from as little as 150-200 feet without interrupting any of their feeding and roaming in the field. Also present at times (& also moving away at times) were a flock of 10+ Killdeer. If the directions given are still unclear, the field we mention is directly down the runway-drive that passes the F.B. Field "community gardens" and just a 1/4 mile or so to the north along the same side as the community gardens are. It is the unmowed area that has 2 modest size trees standing apart and alone within the "back" part of that same field and is also edged on the east by a low berm of grassy-weedy covered earth about 6+ feet high, that runs almost the length of this weedy field on one side only (at the edge next to the runway). In addition to looking at the Buff- breasted Sandpipers with Rob Bate who came by serendipitously as we were watching, E. Katsnelson & I looked in the Floyd Bennett Field community gardens and found a young Dickcissel in the northern part along with the usual gang of House Sparrows. The dickcissel seemed to retreat with these sparrows into the SW section within these gardens, this after 10 a.m. Otherwise F.B. Field seemed a bit "quiet" for freshly arrived migrants; we also saw 3 N. Harriers and 4 American Kestrels, hunting in the grassland areas. At Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens Co., N.Y. City, at and after the day's high tide cycle (~ 4 p.m. until just after sunset) a juvenile -plumaged Marbled Godwit was found and photographed by us at the East Pond of the refuge, seen first at nearly sunset from the trail past "Big John's Pond" looking at the raunt area due east, and the godwit on the east shore of the pond (not amongst the birds scattered thru the raunt, but working deliberately south on and along the shore of the pond) and after about 20 minutes or more of good scope views, we watched as the godwit took low flight almost skimming the pond and heading directly to or at least towards the south end of the East Pond at at least 7:15 p.m. - with moonlight beginning to win out over daylight... incidentally, the Marbled Godwit was noted in the refuge log book for Thursday, 16 Sept. as well. At the Refuge, the East Pond also held at least 250 additional shorebirds, mostly yellowlegs with a fair number of Short-billed Dowitchers and far fewer numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers. We did not check the north end of the East Pond at all - but did look at the West Pond and there added at least 80 additional shorebirds of the same species mix as at the East Pond. There were great numbers of Snowy Egrets at the refuge, with easily 150+ in both west & east pond area, & trees surrounding. Forster's Terns were noted in very modest numbers at the Refuge, and some Boat-tailed Grackles were also seen. Another birder, whose name I ought to know, was able to view the Marbled Godwit at the last possible moment before it flew to the south end of the E. Pond, with our nice scope views. A look at Fort Tilden & Riis Park, on the Rockaway peninsula of Queens Co. in mid-day hours provided a very modest number of most birds with the exception of what seemed to be a very nice flight that was just developing, of American Kestrels, Merlins, Ospreys, N. Harriers and accipiters including Sharp-shinned and a few Cooper's Hawks. The passerine flight, such as it was, was extremely light and yet there were at least a few such migrants around including a Prairie Warbler & a few others. The Atlantic was as quiet as could be both close and distantly, with barely a tern in sight (we did see a few Common Terns go by), and the beach was relatively free of birds other than a few surf-chasing Sanderlings and a duo of American Oystercatchers. A few hummingbirds buzzed thru at the hawk-watch platform at Fort Tilden , but it might be noted that by far, the most numerous long-distance migrants seen (in the many hundreds, indeed thousands - if calculated per 1 day rather per 1 hour) were the Monarch butterflies streaming SW down the beach, the surf line, the dune line, and well up over the whole peninsula. A few times there would be 50+ in view at once and their steady SW-bound stream seemed to increase after noon... this is a natural event equal to many of the greatest such wonders in the world and there were precious few people there to see it all, in that location. The only other birds really noted in any multiplicity were Laughing Gulls, about 100+ seen in the various locations visited. Good birding! Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
