Fort Tilden & Jamaica Bay!

Queens, NY

Saturday 20 October 2018 64 °F

Today, I birded Fort Tilden in search of three life birds: Black Scoter, Parasitic Jaeger, and Black-legged Kittiwake, all of which have been recently reported from this serene location in the Far Rockaways. I would later head to Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge to see what I could find there, too.

On the way to the beach at Fort Tilden to search for my life birds (all of which are marine species), I found this cute (one of many) YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER beside the trail:

As soon as I got to the beach - BOOM! - a flock of black diving ducks flew by and I quickly zoomed in on them. They were all-black with bright orange bills, and proved to be my hoped-for life bird BLACK SCOTERS!!! How cool!

A flock of DUNLIN flew by:

And settled close to me on the beach a little later:

This NORTHERN HARRIER flew in from off the ocean:

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER:

Another scoter species, a WHITE-WINGED SCOTER this time, was observed flying away — note its conspicuous white wing patches which quickly identify the bird.

LAUGHING GULL:

On the walk back to the bus after the beach there were some CHIPPING SPARROWS around:

And a cool MERLIN falcon flew over!

Then, my next stop was Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge for the remainder of the afternoon. My first location I birded there was the West Pond, where I found this raft of LESSER SCAUP, BUFFLEHEAD, & RUDDY DUCKS:

BRANT geese, only a fraction of the thousands I saw today:

SAVANNAH SPARROW:

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

GREATER YELLOWLEGS flyover:

Then, I walked over to the East Pond where I found this perched SHARP-SHINNED HAWK:

Bye!

AMERICAN WIGEON, GADWALL, NORTHERN SHOVELERS, & AMERICAN BLACK DUCK:

MUTE SWAN:

GADWALL with RUDDY DUCKS:

NORTHERN SHOVELER & GADWALL:

SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER & LESSER YELLOWLEGS:

A noteworthy bird seen but not photographed here was a GREAT CORMORANT. Heard but not seen was a COMMON GALLINULE.

Then, within a large flock of mainly Lesser Yellowlegs, I photographed a much larger, more brownish shorebird with a very long bill. Pretty soon, I identified it as a MARLBED GODWIT, also a species I have only ever seen once before! This is an annual migrant through New York but it is still noteworthy enough that it comes up on the eBird Rare Bird Alert — so cool!!!

What a great day! Bird-of-the-day to my life bird BLACK SCOTERS, with runner-up to the MARBLED GODWIT. I attached the full species list for the day below — the waterfowl department really delivered today with fourteen species.

Happy birding!
Henry
World Life List: 956 Species (1 life bird today: Black Scoter)

Day list: 62 species!
Brant
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
American Black Duck
Lesser Scaup
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Common Loon
Double-created Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Great Egret
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Merlin
Common Gallinule
American Oystercatcher
Marbled Godwit
Sanderling
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Lesser Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow