Ventured down to Gravesend Bay, Brooklyn (Kings Co.) yesterday afternoon and spend a few hours looking through the gulls. Unfortunately I did not connect with the COMMON GULL, although I ran into Shane "Gull Man" Blodgett who'd just seen it at the south end of the promenade, in front of the small parking lot next to the ball field. Although it was getting late, Shane generously offered to help me search some more but to no end.
I did have more luck with wing-tagged Ring-billed Gulls noting #A99 and #A366 in the roosting flock north of the pedestrian foot bridge and #A375 in the parking lot of the shopping area at the south end of the bay. A 1st-basic KUMLIEN'S (ICELAND) GULL made a brief appearance before drifting south towards Coney Island Creek. A handful of PURPLE SANDPIPERS were on the rocks. I also nipped across to Staten Island and entering the Verrazano Bridge tolls, glimpsed a BLACK VULTURE with 2 TURKEY VULTURES circling low over Fort Wadsworth; the Black appearing to land on the roof. I wonder if this could be the bird Doug Futuyma saw on 31 Jan? Black Vulture bred in the Fort this summer (1st breeding record for region 10), perhaps they are back? -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/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/ --
