Although the shorebirds have been in small numbers, I keep checking the
East Pond at Jamaica Bay to see if anything new or noteworthy would drop in. It so happened, that yesterday I happened upon the first Godwit of the year that I am aware of on the pond. A
Marbled Godwit, just happened to be hanging out amongst the several hundred Double Crested Cormorants that have invaded the pond and took off flying right by me just as I spotted it.
Later on, I came upon a nice looking
Western Sandpiper feeding among the
Semipalmated Sandpipers, which provided a good comparison of the two species.
A Juvenile
Stilt Sandpiper added to the diversity on the pond and provided very nice looks. But the surprise of the day was a
Wilson's Phalarope that was feeding actively. This bird had a band and the first such documented bird for me.
Overall, there was not a lot of shorebirds but the diversity of the number of species seen was not too bad. In total I saw 17 species of shorebirds and that is not a shabby number for this time of the year at all. On the non shorebirding front, I had very nice looks at a
Black-billed Cuckoo with a birder named Jonathan.
Tags:
Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge,
Wilson's Phalarope,
Shorebird,
Western Sandpiper,
Marbled Godwit
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