This morning on my way out to Jamaica Bay I checked in on Floyd Bennett Field and the Brooklyn Golf driving range, however there were not many shorebirds around (5 Black-bellied Plovers flying around the driving range). As they say though, one is all it takes, and I was shocked to see an extremely rare for Brooklyn UPLAND SANDPIPER on one of the runways at Floyd Bennett Field. It was a very skittish bird, and shortly after I got some excellent looks it flew down from the runway and disappeared out of sight towards the shore adjacent to where it was. I couldn't find it after that. This was around 6:45 AM. The location was here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=40.604142,-73.883743&sll=40.604142,-73.883743&sspn=0.00301,0.006968&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=15
Ken Feustel covered most of what was seen at Jamaica Bay, although a half loop around the West Pond also revealed a juvenile Western Sandpiper from the shore at the first cove of the West Pond (the one with 3 or 4 benches in front of it), as well as 1-2 Tricolored Herons. After many people had left the Pond and even the refuge (in my case) Peter Dorosh started a minor stampede back out to Bench 6 by finding a roosting Marbled Godwit on the shore of the West Pond there (~1:45 PM and it was still there at around 2:15 PM). Thanks very much to Peter for the quick text message which allowed several people to get back out there and view this bird. Incidentally the Black Tern was a fresh juvenile seen very briefly (~9:00 AM) by a decent number of people before it disappeared from the area? in an unknown direction. Good birding -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. http://picasaweb.google.com/fresha2411/2009# -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Temporary archive: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
