Sean Sime and I went out at first light this morning to Floyd Bennett Field and Gerrittsen Creek. We had some decent results.
With favorable winds last night we were hoping to find a golden-plover or Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Floyd Bennett Field. While the winds may have cooperated, those birds didn't. However, there was a decent amount of passerine activity in the area behind the baseball field (near the Environmental Study Center), with a couple of nice finds. The feeding flock around that vicinity consisted of several warbler species, a couple of flycatchers and a few Song Sparrows. We also had Bobolinks flyover several times. An unexpected early morning flyover in that area was a Pectoral Sandpiper. Working our way through an overgrown field towards the bay we had a CLAY-COLORED SPARROW pop up and show himself briefly. It was close to the spot where Heydi Lopes and I found a LeConte's Sparrow last year. A somewhat peculiar sighting was of a juvenile Bonaparte's Gull sitting among approximately 200 Laughing Gulls on the parking lot that faces Jamaica Bay. We continued to Marine Park to search for previously reported AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER, Lark Sparrow and Clay-colored Sparrow. The wind was blowing pretty hard in the "wildflower meadow" area, so predictably there was little activity. Most of the birds seemed to be feeding out of the wind and behind the tall, chainlink fence that borders the footpath from the bridge to the meadow. It wasn't until we were heading back towards the nature center that Sean spotted the golden-plover on the opposite side of the creek. It was hanging around with a Greater Yellowlegs. The bird remained along the shore long enough for us to walk up to Avenue U and down the path to the North-West corner of Gerrittsen Creek. The plover eventually flew back across to the shoreline adjacent to the small, green footbridge. Good birding, Rob ********** Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 Locations: Floyd Bennett Field and Gerritsen Creek Species: 56 Checklists: 2 Canada Goose Mallard Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Green Heron Osprey Northern Harrier Cooper's Hawk AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs PECTORAL SANDPIPER BONAPARTE'S GULL Laughing Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Forster's Tern Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Ruby-throated Hummingbird Northern Flicker American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon Eastern Wood-Pewee Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue-gray Gnatcatcher American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird European Starling Cedar Waxwing Northern Waterthrush Black-and-white Warbler Nashville Warbler Common Yellowthroat American Redstart Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow CLAY-COLORED SPARROW Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Scarlet Tanager Northern Cardinal Bobolink Red-winged Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Baltimore Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow http://citybirder.blogspot.com @thecitybirder -- 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/ --
