Joe Giunta and I (Sy Schiff) went to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge to access the conditions in advance of several walks Joe is leading this weekend. The East Pond water level is HIGH, HIGH, HIGH. So high that the North end is inaccessible without very high boots and there is no edge. The entire north end of the pond is covered by a thick mat of algae, something I have never seen before.
The South end has a sparse area of flat which held some shorebirds, but access was too close and they flushed when we came out of the reeds. The fence is clearly a "spite" fence as it appears to have no purpose other to obstruct passage It's a pain, but you can walk around it. To finish, there were shorebirds in the raunt area but too far off to view. There is no way one can bring a group to view shorebirds. I believe the walks will be cancelled. From my experience over the years, the "Shorebird Festival in a few weeks may not be a sure thing. I doubt the place can be put in shape in the short time till then. We'll see. But we did ID a few, namely: Semipalmated Plover, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated and Least Sandpiper. There was a flyby Glossy Ibis and a white Little Blue and Great Blue Heron. A Willow Flycatcher was near the Center. Sy -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
