Hey all, One of my favorite, and one of the most generally overlooked relative to accessibility for birders, winter birding activity in Brooklyn is watching the gulls come in to roost at Brooklyn Bridge Park. One could (and I may...) argue that this roost has one of the most awesome backdrops of any gull roost in the country (with the full acceptance that I don't know the settings of a good many), with the lower Manhattan skyline, Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, and often-gorgeous sunset. Watching 4,000+ gulls fly in around dusk in this setting is a one-of-a-kind juxtaposition, and one I never tire of (despite how numb my fingers may get in the cold on some evenings).
I took the Painted Bunting that Heather Wolf found recently at the park as an incentive to get to the gull roost a bit earlier than usual on Thursday, and after seeing the greenie (as well as the Field Sparrows and a pile of White-throated Sparrows- the habitat at the park is really getting better by all the time!), turned my attention to the gulls. While I didn't find any unusual species amid the ~4,000 Ring-billed Gulls roosting in the marina between Piers 3 & 5, a couple of different visits to the pilings just west of Pier 1 turned up first an adult BLACK-HEADED GULL, and then later, when it was positively nighttime, a juvenile ICELAND GULL. One of the great things about this roost is that you can continue to observe and scrutinize the birds well past dusk--while the light does get progressively worse past dusk, it never gets un-birdable. It's a very fun experience that I recommend for those who haven't seen it. If you find yourself chasing the Painted Bunting in the afternoon this winter, stick around to dusk and watch the gulls stream in! On a different note, after twitching the HARLEQUIN DUCK found in Sheepshead Bay by Daisy Lane Paul this morning, I hung around for a while (in another oft-overlooked place, given how many birds concentrate here in winter), and a very crisp-looking, and cooperative, juvenile ICELAND GULL appeared, and delighted the folks who were still lingering and those arriving to see the duck. As for said duck: Despite being an annual winter visitor to various jetties and breakwaters of the southern shore of Long Island, it is very rarely observed in Brooklyn. This is only the 4th record in the county in the last 20+ years, as far as I am aware. eBird checklist with a couple of context photos of the BBP gull roost: https://ebird.org/checklist/S62934732 eBird list from Daisy's duck at Sheepshead today: https://ebird.org/checklist/S63051166 Good Urban Birding! -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. -- 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/ --
