This morning I walked up the east side of the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, and also stopped in briefly at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn on my way home. The highlight was of course the AMERICAN AVOCET on the East Pond, but there were several other notable observations:
East Pond: AMERICAN AVOCET (South of the cove between the 2nd and 3rd spits on the west side of the pond, at the north end. Still retaining a decent amount of breeding plumage). American Golden Plover (The same individual that has been seen consistently at high tide since last Wednesday, with the Black-bellied Plover flock at the north end) Wilson's Phalarope (NE corner with a nice mixed feeding flock of ~200 shorebirds, almost in fully basic plumage) Western Sandpiper (3: 2 juveniles and 1 adult in the same mixed flock at the NE corner) White-rumped Sandpiper (21 adults mostly around the north end. I am sure I missed a few on the west side of the pond) Red Knot (1 faded adult with the B.b. Plover flock) Ruddy Turnstone (2) American Oystercatcher (Just the pair that nested on the island and one of their rapidly maturing chicks) Blue-winged Teal (12) Green-winged Teal (18) Northern Shoveler (5) Brant (1 on south flats not looking particularly good) Little Blue Heron (7, 3 adults, 2 mottled immatures, 2 juveniles) Floyd Bennett Field (runway puddles, which are almost completely dried up): Western Sandpiper (1 juvenile) Least Sandpiper (22 juveniles, 1 adult) Semipalmated Sandpiper (3 adults) Lesser Yellowlegs (1 juvenile) Killdeer (3 adults) I'll post some photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/fresha2411/2009# Good shorebirding -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. ? -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Temporary archive: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
