They used to be an expected sight over Alley Marsh and Alley Pond Park (and over my house in between) in late August. Although it's been many years, I tried this evening and succeeded in seeing a group of 4 COMMON NIGHTHAWKS over Alley Pond Environmental Center, off Northern Blvd. in Queens. A few minutes later, I spotted a group of 3 similarly sized birds flying south over Alley Creek. As I got on them and heard an unusual call, I was surprised to see that these were BLACK TERNS, a species I have never seen on the north shore of Queens. They continued out of sight, apparently just migrating through. Two SOLITARY SANDPIPERS were another non-every day species for APEC.
This was my third visit of the day to some section of Alley. Before work and for a lunch break, I enjoyed a bit of a warbler fallout in the southern portions. I don't get to say this often - Chesnut-sided Warbler figured prominently in the activity (but of course behind Redstarts in numbers). Others included Black-and-white, Blue-winged, Canada, Blackburnian, Magnolia, and Co. Yellowthroat. Not a great variety, but I was just working edges where photography could be possible. Steve Walter Bayside, NY -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
