There was a mildly entertaining, though not as heavy as hoped for, flight of diurnal migrant passerines at Fort Tilden this morning. Some totals (in no particular order) of westbound birds tallied from 7:30-9:30 AM: Red-winged Blackbird- 830 Common Grackle- 355 Brown-headed Cowbird- 30 Rusty Blackbird- 5 Icterid sp.- 245 American Goldfinch- 135 Purple Finch- 3 House Finch- 8 Cedar Waxwing- 46 American Robin- 435 European Starling- 23 American Pipit- 14 Eastern Bluebird- 3 Yellow-rumped Warbler- 26 Northern Harrier- 1 male
Also of note off shore was a decent (for Tilden) westbound flight (40 in the first 8 minutes) of Red-throated Loons early on, and the continuing juvenile Glaucous Gull. The Ross's Goose continued in the fields in Floyd Bennett Field (seen around 10:30, at dusk, and 30 minutes after sunset). The evening staging group of Ring-billed Gulls at the boat ramp lot consisted of ~540 individuals, about 60 of those continuing south and never landing. Normal numbers the last couple of years during the peak have been over 2,000 birds. At Canarsie Beach Park in Brooklyn (On Seaview Ave., off Exit 13 of the Belt Parkway) there was a Nashville Warbler closely associating with an Orange-crowned Warbler. There are likely some other goodies at this very under-birded location, but since my visit was around 2 PM I found virtually no bird activity. There was also a small but noticeable late-season raptor movement, with 3 Red-shouldered Hawks, 8 Red-tailed Hawks, and 2-3 Turkey Vultures seen riding thermals around mid-day, mostly just north of Gravesend Bay (One of the Turkey Vultures was over Breezy Point though, an unusual sight there). Good 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/ --
