Today I hopped the A-train to Broad Channel to see if I could add Boat-tailed Grackle to the GBBC results for New York state; and I was successful. In fact, I found my first grackle before I’d even reached Crossbay Blvd. Eventually I counted six of these majestic (and noisy) birds:
Yesterday Steve Nanz led a Brooklyn Bird Trip to the coast; that is, the end of Flatbush Ave. (People sometimes forget New York is a coastal city). We started about 8:15 A.M. at Breezy Point, where I was hoping for Purple Sandpiper. So was a birder from Iowa we happened to run into out there. The Jetty at Breezy is one of the best places in New York City to find them.
Friday I spotted H7H6 in Prospect Lake again. As you may recall, H7H6 is the banded goose I first saw in Prospect Lake on January 29, over two weeks earlier. I hadn’t seen it again since, though I had looked for it. I assumed it had flown on. Now it’s back.
Where was it for two weeks? Was it simply hiding in the phragmites? Had it crossed the road to the Parade Grounds where I rarely go? Flown a few blocks to Greenwood Cemetery? or out to the coast and Jamaica Bay? or even further? Why did it leave (if it did) and why did it return? I don’t know, but these are the sorts of questions bird banding is intended to answer.
I’ve been scanning the list of birds reported so far for New York State in the Great Backyard Bird Count. We’re two days in, and there are some missing birds that might be gettable within the greater New York City area. These include:
Of that list, Boat-tailed Grackle is by far the easiest. I’m surprised it hasn’t been reported yet. I think I’m going to have to hop an A train out to Jamaica Bay to try for it. I’ll probably look for American Bittern while I’m out there too; but that’s a long shot. Purple Sandpiper shouldn’t be that hard, but it’s eluded me repeatedly.
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This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count. Like many Brooklynites, my backyard is the wall of the next building.
House sparrows are regulars there, along with an occasional European Starling or Rock Pigeon. Two or three times I’ve even had Mourning Doves perch on my air conditioner, but otherwise I normally count in local parks. I wasn’t sure if I was going out today, but most of my work was blocked waiting for other people. When I walked Shayna this morning, the weather proved exceptionally warm and sunny for February in New York so I decided to walk over to Prospect Park and see what I could find.
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Yesterday I went on my first pelagic trip. It was led by Paul Guris of See Life Paulagics. The Captain Lou VII left out of Freeport, New York bound for Chicken Canyon and the Glory Hole (I don’t know how these undersea features got their names; possibly the same way the Grand Tetons did.) around 6:20 A.M. I hadn’t been on an extended boat trip for 25 years; and the last ones I went on made me horribly seasick, so I was more than a little nervous. However the seas were calm and so was my stomach. The trip was full with 50 or so people, but I only noticed one person chumming over the side of the boat the whole day.
