Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge 12 August Joe Giunta, Debbie Martin and I (Sy Schiff) birded the North end of the East Pond. The water level is to be brought down a few more inches, but for now, it is possible to walk on the west side with about, at most, 3 inches of mud in just a few spots. (They are going to put planks down for the weekend festival). Per "Google Earth", the distance from the NW entrance to the SW entrance is 1.33 miles and we covered approximately a half mile to the most southern point we could safely go. We did not bird going north from the south end.
A Peregrine Falcon had been coursing up and down the pond prior to our arrival and the shorebirds were extremely wary, so it was hard to get an estimate, but certainly 4-5,000 birds mostly in tight mixed species flocks, We saw 15 species of shorebirds with huge numbers of Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Sandpipers and Short-billed Dowitchers, but only one Red Knot, a few Ruddy Turnstones and Long-billed Dowitchers.. The more interesting birds were 3 WILSON'S PHALAROPE, 1 HUDSONIAN GODWIT and 1 MARBLED GODWIT, the latter seen from the most southern point of our walk. The godwits were on the east side of the pond and the phalaropes were close to or within shorebird groups constantly on the move. A good birding day. Sy -- 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/ --
