Coastal Brooklyn saw an impressive movement of diurnal migrants this morning. The below numbers are a composite of diurnal migrant passerines I observed while birding several locations (Coney Island Creek Park, Coney Island Pier, Six Diamonds ballfields, and Calvert Vaux Park, mostly) from 8:20 AM-11:40 AM. During much of this time I was not performing any dedicated skywatching, and at some points was looking offshore in a scope while the migration continued behind me, so I think about double the overall numbers would be a truer represetation of the actual passage of migrants this morning. I did not pick any Rusty Blackbirds out of the mass of icterids moving through.
All migrants were headed west, unless otherwise noted Common Grackle- ~6,500 (Mostly in pure COGR flocks very high, generally headed WSW over NY Bay towards New Jersey. Some were also scattered into mixed icterid flocks. Largest single flock was ~1,300 individuals). American Robin- ~1,000 Red-winged Blackbird- ~800 Eastern Bluebird- 27 (26 in one flock over Calvert Vaux Park) American Goldfinch- 21 (Largest flock was 11. These are the first numbers of AMGO I have seen moving this fall.) Cedar Waxwing- 15 (This number seems surprisingly low to me) American Pipit- 2 (1 @ Coney Island Creek Park, 1 @ Calvert Vaux Park) Snow Bunting- 1 (Flying by Coney Island Creek Park) Other sightings of note were 3 "Red" Fox Sparrows together behind the Home Depot at 6 Diamonds, still a good number (~55 estimated) of Laughing Gull (mostly adults) off of Coney Island, and a flock of 40 Slate-colored Juncos at Coney Island Creek Park. Good Birding -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
