This afternoon Heydi Lopes and I went out to Coney Island to look for
the Western Grebe. We started at the Coney Island pier and planned to
walk east until we found the grebe or ran out of beach, whichever came
first. At approximately 2:15pm we were at Brighton 5th Street (in
Brighton Beach) when I spotted a Thick-billed Murre in the water. The
bird was ridiculously close to shore, probably no more than a few
yards. We watched it as it gradually made its way west, in the
direction of the pier. We had run into Starr Saphir and Lenore Swenson
earlier in our walk and contacted them about the murre. Heydi and I
then continued east looking for the grebe (which we did not locate).
On our return walk we spotted the murre again near the aquarium. Starr
and Lenore were on the bird. We caught up with them and the four of us
watched the bird which, at this point, was off the jetty at West 2nd
Street. Using the pier as reference, I'm guessing that the bird was
about 200 yards from the shore. When Heydi and I left at about 3:45pm
the bird was still present. Heydi was able to take quite a few photos
when we first located the bird at Brighton Beach. A link will follow
shortly.
Big thanks to Jean Loscalzo for getting the word out for us.
Good birding,
Rob
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