Motivated by Doug Gochfeld's report of alcids in Brooklyn yesterday, Heydi Lopes and I went to Coney Island this morning hoping to find some good birds. Using the bath house on the boardwalk at the end of Stillwell Avenue as a windbreak, we scanned the water from 8am to around 11am. Braving the cold paid off early when a Dovekie flew in from the East, heading West, only about 20 or 30 feet from the shore. It veered South briefly to fly around the Steeplechase Pier. Keir Randall joined us a short time after that, and while we never saw another Dovekie, we did tallied 7 Razorbills, some of which landed in the water off the jetties in that location. Other birds of possible interest were many flocks of Long-tailed Ducks, a good number of Bonaparte's Gulls, several Northern Gannets and a pair of Purple Sandpipers. We briefly considered heading to the Western-most jetty to continue scanning for alcids, but there's only so much sandblasting one can take.
Good birding, Rob http://citybirder.blogspot.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
