A morning seawatch at the boardwalk at 35th Street in Coney Island was fairly interesting, although there wasn't a ton of diversity. The recent influx of Long-tailed Ducks continued, as I watched ~350 fly west towards Gravesend Bay, and saw many others in the water and flying around more aimlessly. Also, Bonaparte's Gulls put on a strong showing, and I tallied 334 flying west towards Gravesend Bay, mostly in small groups ranging in size between 5 and 20. This flight took place over about 45 minutes, as it didn't start until at least half an hour after I arrived. I also had 2 separate Razorbills fly by close to shore, heading west.
A bit later, checking Coney Island Creek from the dead end of 23rd street off of Neptune Ave., I had 2 brief views of an actively diving Dovekie, but I wasn't able to re-find it for the next 20 minutes of my vigil there, nor was I able to find it in the afternoon from another vantage point. Checks of other marinas, docks, and sheltered inlets in Brooklyn came up alcid-less, and the only thing of note in Sheepshead Bay (other than the egregious number of Mute Swans, 118) was a Greatm Black-backed Gull feasting on a male Lesser Scaup. Back at Gravesend Bay, while I did not run into the Black-headed Gull that both Keir Randall and Shane Blodgett saw in different locations yesterday, I found a young Iceland Gull, but it soon disappeared to the east. I went over to Leon Kaiser Park because there were several hundred gulls on the beach, and lo and behold, there was an Iceland Gull (presumably, but not certainly, the same one) on the beach that allowed close approach and photographs. This bird (maybe a 2CY) was clearly a different individual than the bird on nearby Coney Island Beach two days ago, so there are at least 2 young Iceland Gulls in the area. Also on the beach were 2 young Black Skimmers, which were presumably 2 of the 3 individuals that Shane Blodgett had been seeing for the first half of December, and have been around, but undetected, since then (they were, unfortunately, missed for the CBC and count period). 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/ --
