Sunday, June 7, 2009

Sunday hike at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Queens NY...

It was around 8:15 AM, when I pulled into the parking lot at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens NY. A flash of yellow immediately caught my eye and I observed a couple of Yellow Warblers chasing each other through the Bayberry Shrubs around the visitor’s center. Ah…Spring love. Gathering my gear, I headed to the West Pond trail, briefly stopping to check the log book to see what had been reported. There was already an entry for the day indicating the presence of a Mourning Warbler and Gull Billed Terns. As I walked along the trail, I heard the sounds of “fitz-bew” indicating Willow Flycatchers were about. Around bench 1, I heard a Clapper Rail, but could not see over the overgrown shrubs to track the location. Out on the West pond were the familiar assortment of birds; I carefully scanned the far shores looking for anything unusual, but came up empty. As I rounded bench 3, I heard the sounds of peeps and observed a nice congregation assembling around the mud flats off of Terrapin trail. I headed in that direction and once there, I scanned the flock and found, Semipalmated Sandpipers, with a few Dunlins and about 6-8 White-rumped Sandpipers. Further around the point of Terrapin trail, I found a few Ruddy Turnstones. Out on one of the Islands in Pumpkin Channel, I counted at least 32 Snowy Egrets…quite a number gathered in one location. After spending some time scanning the flocks of peeps that kept coming and going, I finally moved on, satisfied that there was nothing else at the moment that I was overlooking. The rest of the walk around the West Pond was uneventful with most of the usual species at this time of the year. The gardens did not yield much either and I did not hear or see the Mourning Warbler. I continued on over to Big John’s and the East Pond where I saw again, most of the usual species. I was a bit bothered by the large number of Mute Swans; I counted 78 and that does not bode well for other water fowl due to the Mute Swans aggressive behavior. I called it a day around 12:30 PM. Tags: ,

Total species seen: 41
  1. American Crow
  2. American Redstart
  3. American Robin
  4. Black-crowned Night Heron
  5. Brandt
  6. Brown Thrasher
  7. Canada Goose
  8. Clapper Rail (Heard)
  9. Common Yellow-throat
  10. Cowbird
  11. Double Crested Cormorant
  12. Dunlin
  13. European Starling
  14. Forster's Tern
  15. Glossy Ibis
  16. Gray Catbird
  17. Great Egret
  18. Greater Black-backed Gull
  19. Green Heron
  20. Herring Gull
  21. House Sparrow
  22. House Wren
  23. Laughing Gull
  24. Little-blue Heron
  25. Mallard
  26. Mourning Dove
  27. Mute Sawn
  28. Northern Mockingbird
  29. Northern Shoveler
  30. Osprey
  31. Oystercatcher
  32. Red-winged Blackbird
  33. Rudy Turnstone
  34. Semipalmated Sandpiper
  35. Snowy Egret
  36. Song Sparrow
  37. Tree Swallow
  38. White-rumped Sandpiper
  39. Willet
  40. Yellow Warbler
  41. Yellow-crowned Night Heron
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6 comments:

Peregrine's Bird Blog said...

I have only seen a White Rumped Sandpiper once fortunately a few miles from my house. They are pretty rare on this side of the Atlantic!!!

BIRDINGDUDE said...

Thanks for visiting. The White-Rumpeds were a nice find and not too many folks have noticed them so far at the Refuge. They are not easy identified among the Semi's and it takes some patience when looking way out in the mudflats to find them. The image that I posted was digiscoped and I was lucky to get a shot that showed the comparison between a Semipalmated and a White-rumped.

Anonymous said...

Hi Andrew, Thanks for a great trip. Realized I don't have your e-mail address. Does the fact that I signed up as a follower of your blog give you mine? Did you see someone else reporting a Fish Crow in 'The Gunks?' That will teach us to be skeptical.
Debbie

BIRDINGDUDE said...

Hi Debbie - it was nice having you on this trip. I am glad you made it. You could e-mail me using the e-mail in my profile.

As far as the Fish Crow...well, I was not giving up on that call at all. 4 of us saw that bird and heard the call.

Dawn Fine said...

yeahh..everyone says go to Jamaica bay, man. Ok maybe they dont say man..but I was thinking kinda Reggae..lol
must go there someday as well!

BIRDINGDUDE said...

Hi Dawn - thanks for visiting and leaving a comment. It is nice to have your support. Jamaica Bay is my home away from home; I love the place and that is why I do what I could to care for it.