Highlights below: Almost easily overlooked was a HUGE flight of Brant coming in off the Atlantic Ocean and mostly continuing north over Brooklyn and Queens. Flocks of generally between 50-~300 were constantly pouring over from the south. 1500 migrating Brant (in addition to the several hundred to a thousand still present in Rockaway Inlet and Jamaica Bay) would be a conservative count. This migration was especially evident from Floyd Bennett and Plum Beach.
Passerine-wise there was a noticeable drop-off in Yellow-rumped Warbler #s, while Yellow Warblers, Baltimore Orioles, and Gray Catbirds were in much higher numbers than have been evident over the last few days. Blackpoll Warblers also continue their unusually early incursion into the region in numbers. Plum Beach: 11 species of shorebird, including: WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER - 1 (My personal earliest date by over two weeks) Short-billed Dowitcher- 19 Semipalmated Sandpiper- 12 Least Sandpiper- 5 Dunlin- 1 Black-bellied Plover- 1 Lesser Yellowlegs- 2 Greater Yellowlegs- 3 Saltmarsh (Sharp-tailed) Sparrow- 1 (in dunes near parking area surprisingly) Marsh Wren- 1 Clapper Rail- 1+ Floyd Bennett Field: Bobolink- 1 male (Cricket Field, was chased off to the north by a Red-winged Blackbird) Cuckoo sp.- 1 (flyover near Return-a-Gift-Pond) White-eyed Vireo- 1 7 Warbler Species Bergen Beach: Blue-winged Teal- 3 Solitary Sandpiper- 5 Marsh Wren- 1 Clapper Rail- 2 Greater Yellowlegs- 16 Lesser Yellowlegs- 7 Yellow-crowned Night Heron- 2 Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge: Barn Owl- (downy young inside Big John's Pond nest box) Bank Swallow- 2 (East Pond) Merlin- 1 (East Pond flyby) Clapper Rail- 1 (South Marsh) 12 Warbler species including: Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia Lingering Waterfowl: 3 Greater Scaup, 6 Bufflehead, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, ~85 Ruddy Ducks Good Birding -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
