Re: [nysbirds-l] 10/10- Queens: Diverse migration, Greater White-fronted Goose, Cackling Goose, BLACK TERN etc.

2016-10-11 Thread Timothy Healy 
Thanks for the report from further west, Doug! I always appreciate the
opportunity to view a migration event through a wider lens of observations.
Surely, your Cackling Goose was the same individual some of us were lucky
enough to spot at Jones Beach. It, too, was seen in a flock with 13 Canada
Geese, passing westward over the coast guard station at 9:42 AM. With your
observation time of 10:39, there's a potential math problem there for
calculating goose airspeed based on wind direction and strength. The
"low-density" migrants were less numerous but also more conspicuous than
usual at Jones, with plenty of Purple Finches and the typically-uncommon
Rusty Blackbirds outnumbering Red-wings and cowbirds even without counting
distantly seen birds that were only likely candidates. Definitely an
interesting day of movement along the south shore, hopefully with many more
to come!

Cheers!
-Tim H

On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 12:09 PM, Doug Gochfeld 
wrote:

> Yesterday morning, Shai Mitra, Shane Blodgett, and I watched birds from
> the platform on Battery Harris at Fort Tilden for several hours.
>
> Since it is still early in the season for huge numbers of things like
> blackbirds, robins etc., we traded the large numbers that are
> characteristic of this site later in the season for good diversity, a
> couple of rarities, and strong flights of some of the lower density coastal
> migrants.
>
> Several species were represented by very substantial numbers for the first
> time this season, including Canada Geese, Brant, Song, Swamp, and
> White-throated Sparrows, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Eastern Phoebes. The
> latter few species had been present in small quantities in the area
> recently, but the numbers really exploded yesterday.
>
> Low density late-fall migrants put on a good showing, with at least *55* 
> *Rusty
> Blackbirds*, and *63 Purple Finches* heading westbound. This is a good
> proportion of Rusties, given that we only tallied 325 Red-winged Blackbirds
> (~15% of our Blackbirds were Rusty).
>
> In among the migrating skeins of Canada Geese were a couple of fun
> oddities: *1 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE*, in a flock of ~24 Canada Geese
> at 7:55 AM, and a *"Richardson's" CACKLING GOOSE* with a flock of 13
> Canada Geese at 10:39 AM. The flock with the White-fronted Goose ended up
> cutting north after going over the platform and we lost it somewhere over
> Rockaway Inlet as it headed towards Coney Island or Staten Island. The
> flock containing the Cackling Goose kept motoring west along the north
> shore of the barrier beach until we stopped tracking it when it was well
> over Breezy Point.
>
> While we were tracking the Cackling Goose coming in from the east, Shane
> spotted what turned out to be a *BLACK TERN* flying perpendicular to the
> goose flock in the same field of view. This bird was undoubtedly the most
> bizarre and unexpected bird of the day for us, and it actually continued
> north over Rockaway Inlet/Jamaica Bay, adjacent to the Gil Hodges Bridge
> and Floyd Bennett Field.
>
> Other miscellany was an Eastern Meadowlark flying north having possibly
> just come in off the water, a spizella sparrow flying by that could well
> have been a Clay-colored, a somewhat late Blackburnian Warbler, a
> chattering Winter Wren, 2 Chimney Swifts, 2 *Pectoral Sandpipers*, and
> one *American Golden-Plover*.
>
> As for diurnal raptors, *2 *juvenile *Broad-winged Hawks, *and *4 Bald
> Eagles* were the species highlights, and there was a moderate but decent
> for this day in age flight of Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels,
> and at least 17 Merlins, several of which were adult males.
>
> Noticeably not detected from Fort Tilden were any Nuthatches.
>
> The eBird checklist from Battery Harris can be found here:
>
> http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31983462
>
>
> Other stops after we finished the stationary count atop the platform
> turned up a couple of nice birds as well:
> 1 *Nelson's Sparrow (subvirgatus)* at the SW corner of the Riis Park golf
> course
> 2 *Lincoln's Sparrows*, 3 White-breasted Nuthatches (not a breeder at
> that site, so undoubtedly migrants/dispersers), and 3 Yellow-bellied
> Sapsuckers at the Floyd Bennett Field community garden.
> Also, several White-crowned Sparrows scattered around Fort Tilden, Riis
> Park, and the community garden.
>
>
> Good Birding
> -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY.
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[nysbirds-l] 10/10- Queens: Diverse migration, Greater White-fronted Goose, Cackling Goose, BLACK TERN etc.

2016-10-11 Thread Doug Gochfeld 
Yesterday morning, Shai Mitra, Shane Blodgett, and I watched birds from the
platform on Battery Harris at Fort Tilden for several hours.

Since it is still early in the season for huge numbers of things like
blackbirds, robins etc., we traded the large numbers that are
characteristic of this site later in the season for good diversity, a
couple of rarities, and strong flights of some of the lower density coastal
migrants.

Several species were represented by very substantial numbers for the first
time this season, including Canada Geese, Brant, Song, Swamp, and
White-throated Sparrows, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Eastern Phoebes. The
latter few species had been present in small quantities in the area
recently, but the numbers really exploded yesterday.

Low density late-fall migrants put on a good showing, with at least *55* *Rusty
Blackbirds*, and *63 Purple Finches* heading westbound. This is a good
proportion of Rusties, given that we only tallied 325 Red-winged Blackbirds
(~15% of our Blackbirds were Rusty).

In among the migrating skeins of Canada Geese were a couple of fun
oddities: *1 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE*, in a flock of ~24 Canada Geese
at 7:55 AM, and a *"Richardson's" CACKLING GOOSE* with a flock of 13 Canada
Geese at 10:39 AM. The flock with the White-fronted Goose ended up cutting
north after going over the platform and we lost it somewhere over Rockaway
Inlet as it headed towards Coney Island or Staten Island. The flock
containing the Cackling Goose kept motoring west along the north shore of
the barrier beach until we stopped tracking it when it was well over Breezy
Point.

While we were tracking the Cackling Goose coming in from the east, Shane
spotted what turned out to be a *BLACK TERN* flying perpendicular to the
goose flock in the same field of view. This bird was undoubtedly the most
bizarre and unexpected bird of the day for us, and it actually continued
north over Rockaway Inlet/Jamaica Bay, adjacent to the Gil Hodges Bridge
and Floyd Bennett Field.

Other miscellany was an Eastern Meadowlark flying north having possibly
just come in off the water, a spizella sparrow flying by that could well
have been a Clay-colored, a somewhat late Blackburnian Warbler, a
chattering Winter Wren, 2 Chimney Swifts, 2 *Pectoral Sandpipers*, and
one *American
Golden-Plover*.

As for diurnal raptors, *2 *juvenile *Broad-winged Hawks, *and *4 Bald
Eagles* were the species highlights, and there was a moderate but decent
for this day in age flight of Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels,
and at least 17 Merlins, several of which were adult males.

Noticeably not detected from Fort Tilden were any Nuthatches.

The eBird checklist from Battery Harris can be found here:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31983462


Other stops after we finished the stationary count atop the platform turned
up a couple of nice birds as well:
1 *Nelson's Sparrow (subvirgatus)* at the SW corner of the Riis Park golf
course
2 *Lincoln's Sparrows*, 3 White-breasted Nuthatches (not a breeder at that
site, so undoubtedly migrants/dispersers), and 3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers
at the Floyd Bennett Field community garden.
Also, several White-crowned Sparrows scattered around Fort Tilden, Riis
Park, and the community garden.


Good Birding
-Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY.

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