Sounds like quite a spectacle that I missed out on. I was leaving (arms tired and compact flash card full from photographing mergansers) as Corey was arriving. I tried planting a seed in his head to count them on the West Pond, as it seemed that something was out of the ordinary. Many of the bay ducks in Jamaica Bay roost on the pond and the late afternoon provides an opportunity to get flight shots as they come in -- which is what brought me there. I was amazed, though, at the amount of Red-breasted Mergansers coming in today. Going through my pictures, I counted 164 individuals, from singletons to flocks of 15. Of course, there were a lot more birds that were too far to bother with or I couldn't get on in time. The time stamps on my pictures indicate that the inbound movement began in earnest around 4:30 and continued full steam until I left at 5:15, and probably a bit longer as Corey suggests. Whenever the inbound movement wound down, it's possible that the West Pond hosted an assemblage of Red-breasted Mergansers unlike any seen there before (I could be all wrong, but I have to sound dramatic).
So maybe another chapter in the interesting regional waterfowl story of late. I had stopped by Baisley Pond earlier in the day, where at least 30 Redheads remain. Along with some of the other groups of Redheads that have been reported, is it possible the Long Island is currently hosting its largest number of Redheads in decades? For one thing, it has me ready to declare Canvasback the 5th most common Aythya duck on Long Island. It seemed like a hands down number 2 when I started birding in the 1980's. Steve Walter Bayside, NY From: Corey Finger Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2011 7:41 PM To: New York Subject: [nysbirds-l] Duck Behavior at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge this evening I hit up Jamaica Bay's West Pond today shortly before sunset and met Jeff Ritter on his way out and managed to convince him to turn around and watch the ducks fly into the pond to roost for the evening. We enjoyed the show until 6 PM when most of the Red-breasted Mergansers and Greater Scaup, both of which were present in larger numbers then I had observed so far this spring, suddenly started massing near the west edge of the pond. At first we were convinced that a predator of some kind was making them uneasy but we had no luck spotting any hawks, owls, or raccoons. Then at least two-thirds of the ducks on the pond took off and flew over us, heading southwest towards Fort Tilden/Breezy Point, an amazing spectacle as they went over. I don't know how many ducks there were total, but it was well into the thousands. We tracked them as far as we could and it looked like as they reached the coast they started heading east. We waited around until about 6:15 but they did not return. Perhaps they were moving on in their migration? I can't think of any other reason for the behavior. We did not spot the Barrow's Goldeneye and saw a total of maybe 15 Common Goldeneye on the pond, and only two flew in from 5:30-6 PM. On the way out we had an American Woodcock along the trail and a calling Gray Catbird. Good Birding, Corey Finger http://10000birds.com -- 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/ --
