FRIDAY, 28 March, 2014 - Queens County, NY (NO "rarities"!) I spent virtually all of Friday in southern Queens (N.Y. City) and starting with Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, where I spent relatively little time as it appeared there was not (yet) tremendous variety. On the north marsh side of the W. Pond trail, & (in addition) looking a bit later out at the other side of the bay from the southmost end of Broad Channel (looking n.) there were at least several thousand Snow Geese. On the E. Pond there were some additional Snows; and not a whole lot more - Lesser Scaup being among the rather scant species of waterfowl (for the date). NO egrets or herons, although of course a few may have been scrunched down somewhere. Note: it was not very windy at the early hour, thus wind wasn't a factor keeping any birds hidden. I went in the "gardens" area at the refuge and that also was rather quiet. 2 Osprey, a N. Harrier, & a very few wintered-over sparrows such as Am. Tree, White-throated & of course Song made up the bulk of scant passerine numbers. American Robins were seen throughout the day but not in any great numbers. A couple of Killdeer were among very few shorebirds noted.
I then covered the Atlantic ocean side of the Rockaway peninsula from around Beach 80th St. all the way west to the Breezy Point jetty, and much of the accessible bay side at Breezy. A post-winter-molt Lesser Black-backed Gull was near Beach 84th St. Two (& these were all that I saw all thru in 8 more hours) Bonaparte's Gulls in basic plumage were at Riis beach (on the beach). In all there seemed to be rather few gulls. I did see a concentration very distantly in the direction of Coney Island, & from Breezy these could not be ID'd other than that they were not Bonaparte's, & not likely any smaller gull species. It was a concentration but still not a huge flock. The birds which were in numbers to impress were ducks of 2 or 3 species in particular: Long-tailed Duck were clearly on the move, with at least 8,000 (that's eight-thousand) going past from s.w. to n.e. in the 3 hrs. that I was at or near Breezy Point, that is right by the jetty. Most were not close in, although occasional small groups came right by. I would not be surprised if many more were actually going past, as additional extremely distant ducks were also moving in that general direction & time-frame. Almost all kept moving in the same direction, and I did not notice more than perhaps 0.5% going the other way in that time. The other ducks similarly on the move at the same location were scoters, with Surf looking a bit more common than Black, & virtually no White-winged noted. Again there were also very distant ducks moving, at least some of which were scoters as well, but only taking in those relatively closer the scoters totaled over 5,000 - with Surf seeming to predominate, in the hours I observed them. Also seen more generally & in far lower numbers were Red-breasted Merganser, the total being perhaps 1,000+ in all places visited, all day. I saw very few scaup or goldeneye, a few Greaters & a few Commons respectively, in a few locations only. At Breezy Point (and all the beach and back bay areas taking in many miles altogether), were at least 4 Piping Plover, 30+ American Oystercatchers (with a few of them also seen at Jamaica Bay area), & at least 500 Sanderlings (likely double that as I could see distant additional pipers down the way looking east & there were scattered flocks all along the Rockaways beaches), with no Dunlin at all seen. Right near the jetty, 50+ Tree Swallows were hawking bugs, & also resting at times on the sand or low vegetation by the nearest dune. The swallows also were seen in single-digit numbers by Fort Tilden, & yet I noticed none at J. Bay refuge. E. Phoebe: 2 at Breezy Point, one ON the jetty in the wind & yet catching some insect prey while using the top of the wet rocks as a perching platform, & a couple more in Fort Tilden, also one noted at J. Bay refuge. A single Brown Creeper at J. Bay refuge's "gardens" may have been a spring migrant. Buffleheads on the surf and bays were in the hundreds; at J. Bay refuge I saw really few species of ducks, although a couple of Wood at Big John's Pond, a smattering of Green-winged Teal, and some rafts of Ruddy Ducks at least kept it from being a Mallard-Am. Black Duck-only situation. The pestilential & really horrid Mute Swans were still in numbers at J. Bay Refuge. And speaking of pestilential, at Riis park, there was a single flock of 300+ Brown-headed Cowbirds, enjoying their time alone at the golf course there. A combo of Great, & a few Double- crested, Cormorants graced the bay & jetty areas at Breezy Pt. Just one Horned Grebe was noted off the Rockaways, although more may have been present in a few spots where they can be fairly regular. A modest number of Common (& not one Red-throated) Loon were seen off the shores, most still in basic and early-molt plumages. A very obliging (for photos) young Peregrine was sitting in a spot out on the beach. I scanned a little as well as walking my 7 mile route, & saw NO Snowy - although there's a good deal of habitat off-limits to the public. End of day was actually at Prospect Park, Brooklyn/ Kings Co., but I came up with nothing that Prospect-ers are not well aware of and would long since have reported on this or other lists & such. But Prospect was nice to see with even a few rays of sun (that semi-mythical orb that is said to appear in the daytime!) at the very end of that day. ......... There were some fresh arrivals in Central Park today (Sat.) & will report a bit after the weekend, unless some "rarity" is around by Sunday... which seems a little unlikely in the current weather scenario. good birding, Tom Fiore Manhattan -- 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/ --
