This morning Heydi Lopes and I birded at Brooklyn's Plum(b) Beach from 5am until about 8am. Low-tide was at 4:35am and we had hoped to find some shorebirds on one of Brooklyn's few remaining mudflats. We were also looking for wading birds, rails and marsh sparrows on the small marsh that lies between the dunes to the south and parkway to the north. It was a pretty good morning with one nice surprise.
With only moonlight illuminating the beach when we first arrived, it was difficult to identify most of the birds within a fairly decent sized flock of shorebirds roosting close to shore. As the sky lightened we eventually figured out that they were mostly Sanderling, Least Sandpiper and Semipalmated Sandpiper. There was also a single Ruddy Turnstone in the mix. A few Black-bellied Plover were much farther from the shore, as were the ubiquitous oystercatchers and a couple of Willets. Along our walk towards the east end of this peninsula we encountered a couple of hundred overturned horseshoe crabs and spent a good 30 minutes flipping them back over to protect them from the hungry gulls. I'm not sure how or why they always end up this way here, but horseshoe crabs need all the help they can get, so if you ever see them struggling to right themselves, please lend a hand. They'll appreciate it, as will the shorebirds. Anyway, we ended up spending most of our time at the marsh side of Plum(b) Beach where there were lots of noisy Clapper Rails and a few singing Seaside Sparrows. A Little Blue Heron was seen mostly at the far west side of the marsh. Several terns circled the area and a large flock of Black Skimmers flew in and settled down on the beach at around 6am. With the morning's extremely low-tide we were able to walk a ways into the center of the marsh, mostly looking and listening for Saltmarsh Sparrow. At one point Heydi inadvertently flushed up a Least Bittern, which flew a short distance into the north side of the marsh. Our friends Keir and Tom were making there way down the beach, so we waited for them before attempting to look for this tiny heron. Cautiously approaching the far side of the marsh to check the edges of one channel, we still managed to flush the bird again and it flew deeper into the marsh. I felt really bad for stressing the bird and we didn't pursue it again, instead we scanned with our scopes from the opposite side of the marsh. Not surprisingly, this small, secretive bird had vanished into the grass. If you plan to chase this bird, you might do better going before dawn and listening for it. Good birding, Rob http://citybirder.blogspot.com @thecitybirder ********* Location: Plumb Beach, Kings, US-NY Date: May 17, 2014 5:00 AM - 8:00 AM Species: 47 Brant Mute Swan Mallard Common Loon Double-crested Cormorant Least Bittern Great Blue Heron Great Egret Little Blue Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Clapper Rail American Oystercatcher Black-bellied Plover Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Willet Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher Laughing Gull Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Least Tern Common Tern Forster's Tern Black Skimmer (approx. 200) Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) Chimney Swift Eastern Kingbird Warbling Vireo Fish Crow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Marsh Wren Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird European Starling Yellow Warbler Eastern Towhee Seaside Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Boat-tailed Grackle House Sparrow -- 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/ --
