Lots of birds were on the move over the region last night, and many were still moving for the first few hours of the day. Common themes between most places I went were influxes in Fox Sparrow (~20 scattered around several locations), and Dark-eyed Junco, and a latish hit of Hermit Thrushes.
Brooklyn: Long-eared Owl - A fresh migrant at Coney Island Creek Park. Was still here the 2nd time I checked the area, later in the day, though on a slightly different perch. Looking very grumpy at the circumstances. Hopefully and presumably this bird will move on tonight to more appropriate habitat. Nelson's Sparrow - In the weedy fenced-in vacant lot between 35th and 36th St. in Coney Island, along the boardwalk. I also saw the continuing juv. Bonaparte's Gull on Prospect Park Lake after 4 PM, which is a very good bird (~1 every 3 years, on average, this being the ~20th record) for the park. Queens: In addition to 1 Vesper Sparrow at the ballfields at Fort Tilden, a stationary migration count (which I started ~1.5 hours after sunrise, unfortunately) yielded these notable counts of westbound birds: ~16,000 Red-winged Blackbird ~8,000 Common Grackle 51 Rusty Blackbird 285 American Goldfinch 21 Purple Finch 315 Cedar Waxwing 35 Snow Bunting 13 American Pipit 18 Eastern Bluebird Complete eBird list here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15661879 There also continues to be a huge swarm of gulls off of Breezy Point numbering several thousand, and there were many Northern Gannets passing to the west early on in my stay. Photos of the Long-eared Owl can be seen at the below link, and I may be posting other photos from today at some point: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29840397@N08/ Good Urban Birding! -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
