Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

Greater Antillean Grackle (Quiscalus niger brachypterus)
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This morning I refound the banded Canada Goose NA49 that I first saw in September and that’s been hanging out at least since January, 2009. I don’t see it often though so it may spend most of its time somewhere else outside the park.

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This morning I took a Zipcar out to do some targeted birding on Long Island. First stop was the Timber Point Golf Course West Marina for the Dovekie. However the marina had frozen over and it left overnight. Damn. Should have gone yesterday. And the pictures others got were so cute! These are adorable birds, and you usually have to take a pelagic to get even a quick glimpse of one flying by half a klick away.

Then 30 miles northeast to Upper Lake in Yaphank for my life Trumpeter Swans. The lake had also frozen over, but there was a little water in the far north corner of the lake, and there they were:

Only it turns out to due to captive breeding and release programs Trumpeter Swans aren’t accepted as countable in New York. Double Damn. This is actually the 5th swan species for my list (after Mute, Black, Whooper and Tundra) but only 2–Mute and Tundra–are countable where I saw them.
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The USGS has identified both of the tagged Ring-billed Gulls I found recently. As expected, both were tagged by Dr. Tom French in Massachusetts.

A99 from Gravesend Bay was banded at the Upper Blackstone Wastewater Treatment Plant in Worcester, Massachusetts on November 5, 2008. Sex unknown and born in 2005 or earlier.

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Here’s a weird duck I found in Prospect Park this morning while looking for Friday’s Australasian Shoveler:

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This morning I walked around Prospect Park for a few hours. Nothing majorly new, except for one Cooper’s Hawk in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. The feeders were shockingly quiet. Not a bird to be seen. I look for the American Pipit that’s been reported repeatedly on the Long Meadow over the last couple of weeks, but wiffed again even though another birder found it later. However, I did find another wing tagged Ring-billed Gull on Prospect Lake, this one a first winter bird. As best I can make out its number is A288:

Likely all the wing tagged gulls that are showing up lately are coming from Massachusetts where Dr. Tom French has been banding gulls. I should know more shortly. Multiple birders have been reporting them around the city. This is possibly the fourth from Prospect Lake alone.
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