Like a few other birders, I decided it was the kind of weather for Gulling which started at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. Sean Sime's earlier report pretty much covered the highlights there, save for 11 Bonaparte's Gulls which I happened upon at the boat launch. Unfortunately, just as quickly as I spotted them, they took off after a Coast Guard (?) cutter flushed them from the exposed flats.
Leaving Floyd, I headed over to Riis Park. A scan of the parking lot did not turn up much of a loafing gull flock. Scoping from the beach did not have much returns either. If you have not visited the area recently, please note that the area which some of us used for seawatching while staying out of the rain and wind is now fenced off with no access at the moment. Skipping Fort Tilden, I hurried over to Breezy Point where I decided to try and get in a Piping Plover survey since there was a break in the rain. In total, I documented 11 Piping Plovers with 10 birds apparently paired up. I spent some time observing their behavior and noted some nest scraping as well as territorial display. Other highlights from Breezy included: Common Raven, heard and observed in the median. It was heading towards the ocean but then doubled back and headed towards Coney Island. The Sanderling numbers seem to be holding steady and I had my first flagged Sanderling of the year which I managed to document. A few banded American Oystercatchers were also documented. One with the code U2. The Northern Gannet show continued with several hundred but nowhere near the numbers from a few weeks ago. Otherwise the ocean was quiet and there was none of the Scoter spectacle from a few weeks ago. Despite the good numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls being reported from Staten Island, I only had 2 in the 3 hours I spent at Breezy Tip. Leaving Breezy, I checked in at the Fort Tilden fisherman's lot and did a seawatch which was uneventful. Good numbers of Gannets but nothing else noteworthy. Leaving Fort Tilden, I again covered the Riis Parking lot and this time had a good number of gulls in the parking lot. However, they were all the usuals. Another seawatch from Riis beach did not turn up anything of note. I decided to wrap up the day at Gravesend in Brooklyn, thinking that maybe some of the Bonaparte's action might have drifted into that area. Unfortunately, that was not the case; nevertheless, I did enjoy nice looks at Gannets. Not a bad day of birding despite the weather. Now, if I could only master a transportation Jitsu it would be much easier getting around :-) Cheers, -------- "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." ~ Frederick Douglass 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu The Art of War > (__/) > (= '.'=) > (") _ (") > Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device! Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- 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/ --