Yesterday Heydi Lopes and I spent the morning birding along parts of
Brooklyn's coast. The areas covered were Dreier-Offerman Park (aka
Calvert Vaux Park), Gravesend Bay, Shore Promenade Park, Narrows
Botanical Garden, Veterans Memorial Pier and Owl's Head Park. By late
morning a thick fog rolled into Gravesend Bay and the lower harbor. It
made for interesting photographs, but not productive bird finding. We
did, however, manage to find a few new Spring migrants.
Dreier-Offerman was not very birdy but we did find a few Laughing
Gulls along Coney Island Creek. In addition, several Tree Swallows
were seen flying in from the south or zig-zagging across the bay. Both
species were new for us for the Spring.
It was very strange watching the thick fog rolling in to Gravesend Bay
and enveloping the Verrazano Bridge. The warm, dry morning quickly
transformed into a damp, cold, winter-like walk. Along the rocky
shoreline, at least 14 Purple Sandpipers were still present. Gulls
were few and far between (or just impossible to see), but we did find
one Bonaparte's Gull. There were also still a few Common and Red-
throated Loons fairly close to shore. The large flock of overwintering
scaup has been reduced to a couple of dozen birds in a few scattered
groups. The Horned Grebes that are still present have transitioned to
breeding or near-breeding plumage.
The trees along the Shore Promenade were depressingly devoid of birds.
We found our first catbird of the season at a small park called
"Narrows Botanical Garden". The "park" is a couple of blocks south of
Owl's Head Park and next to the Veterans Memorial Pier.
Finally, at Owl's Head Park we sat down on the grass next to a very
obliging Pine Warbler that foraged for insects on the lawn. The
warbler seemed to be acting more like a pigeon than a wood-warbler. It
was a very nice way to end the morning.
Good birding and happy holidays,
Rob
The City Birder Weblog
http://citybirder.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/
--
