First of this year’s “saturday series!”

This first installment of my “weekly saturday adventures” for this 2022-23 school year includes a half-day birding Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge and Jacob Riis Park Beach — both in Queens, NY. Target birds for the day were all uncommon birds to “regular rarities,” including at Jamaica Bay: Black-headed Gull, Hudsonian Godwit, Stilt & Baird’s Sandpiper, and Sora (believe it or not yes, Sora is a local rarity), and at Jacob Riis I was simply hoping to catch whatever may be flying by at the moment such as terns and waterfowl, but maybe jaegers or shearwaters if the conditions would be perfect!

The A train was delayed along the way but I was able to spot a decent bird from the train: an adult YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON:

On the walk to Jamaica Bay I did a bit of scoping off of Cross Bay Blvd and found FORSTER’S TERN:

GREAT BLUE HERON:

And here is the YC Night-Heron pictures this time with two SNOWY EGRETS — note their yellow feet:

AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER:

LAUGHING GULLS with a RING-BILLED:

At about 1pm, I arrived the south lookout of Jamaica Bay’s East Pond to search for a Sora that had recently been hanging out with a group of Short-billed Dowitchers. I did immediately spy a nearby flock of shorebirds including this SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER:

And the many SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, granting me my best-ever looks at this wonderful migrant species!

BLUE-WINGED TEAL among others showing off its namesake blue scapulars — I also got a high count of these today:

SNOWY EGRET with RING-BILLED & LAUGHING GULLS and a CANADA GOOSE:

And more close-ups of this beautiful Egret. Will be tough to see them leave for the winter once again — they are one of my favorite breeding birds here and I only get a few weeks of each season to see the summer species of NY.

This NORTHERN HARRIER flew by:

LESSER YELLOWLEGS with Dowitchers in the background:

To my absolute delight, this flock of 10+ WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS (along with a pair of smaller Semipalmated, see if you can distinguish them) flew in, allowing for brief but close looks. Super cool! A pretty uncommon bird for the area and certainly a NY lifer as I don’t even get to see this bird every year overall. Note their overall frosty bluish-gray appearance that is always their most noticeable fieldmark to me.

Along with a cute SEMIPALMATED PLOVER:

Then, another birder motioned me back over to my original spot and I got my NY lifer SORA! Awesome! They are a bunch more rare here than back home or in Idaho. It gave brief views preening then ducked back into the shade:

I was very grateful to have a friendly birder named Jason give me a lift up to the North end of the pond which greatly streamlined my birding time. Then, we birded the pond a bit together — great to meet you Jason!

MUTE SWAN:

The air force taking off from JFK nearby:

GREAT BLACK-BACKED & RING-BILLED GULLS with GADWALL and MALLARDS in the background:

Then, I spotted the BLACK-HEADED GULL with its pure-white appearance and classic reddish bill — extremely cool!! I believe this is my Queens lifer and only the second or third I’ve seen, ever. This is one I would definitely describe as a “regular rarity” as they are a traditionally European species that does tend to wander over here with isolated sightings here and there.

Look at that pure white back!

Then, Jason spotted probably my main target for Jamaica Bay which was HUDSONIAN GODWIT! Amazing New York lifer and another one that I have maybe only seen once or twice before.

OSPREY:

CASPIAN TERN:

More Semipalmated Plovers:

This MERLIN was hauling absolute ass overhead:

LESSER YELLOWLEGS:

This is one of those “you gotta trust me” moments: this BAIRD’S SANDPIPER, another wonderful New York bird, streamed overhead and this is the best shot I could manage — though you can still get that “perfectly toasted marshmallow” vibe from the underside of this bird, as was taught to me by Will S. It was also calling “Kreep!” which helped greatly in the ID.

A couple GREAT presiding over a number of SNOWY EGRETS.

NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH abounded at the edges of the phragmites:

LEAST SANDPIPER:

Begging immature with adult CASPIAN TERNS:

And a PALM WARBLER on the walk back to the bus stop.

Next stop: Jacob Riis Park at Beach 169th St for seawatching! I made this decision due to the forecast of southerly winds — southerly or southeasterly winds are the only conditions one should seawatch on Long Island so that the birds are forced closer to shore in general. It was a gorgeous evening at the beach, and I even saw a few (unphotographed) dolphins too!

A bit out of focus, but you get the idea — GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULLS streaming overhead to roost at Breezy Point:

A couple distant ROYAL TERNS made appearances throughout my watch — always a good bird with which to trip the rare bird alert:

4 distant AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS and a gull:

The Carnival Magic was leaving NYC this evening.

And I ended my seawatch after watching the last of a few waves of COMMON TERNS flyby. I made sure to check for Blacks and Roseates, but that was to no avail.

What a great day to start the school year! Bird-of-the-day goes to the Hudsonian Godwits with runners-up to the Black-headed Gull, Sora, Baird’s Sandpiper, and Royal Terns. Stay tuned: more migration birding is to come (despite an incredibly busy school year already), including the Queens County BIG SIT on October 8 for which I am out of my mind excited!

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1139 Species