Since there are a few walks scheduled for the East Pond in the coming days, I figured I would post a report after checking in on the pond for a few days.
The recent rainfall dumped a few inches of rain in the pond and so the water level is back up and the shoreline is mucky. While I have no issues navigating the pond, I encourage visitors to wear the proper gear *(knee high boots)* and exercise extreme caution when walking in soft spots. Now for the birds. The last few days saw a massive turn over of shorebirds, with more birds departing than arriving. This once again coincided with the arrival of cooler weather. On Wednesday, there were decent numbers of shorebirds *(16 species)* with a noticeable jump in some species. For example,* STILT SANDPIPERS* were up to 39, which is my highest count this year on the East Pond. Today, there were fewer birds. I had a total of 5 Stilt Sandpipers and it was evident that many birds had left. In non shorebirding news, an adult *CASPIAN TERN* dropped in on the pond on Wednesday briefly, but then left and was not seen today. The arrival today of Northern Shoveler, is a signal that waterfowl may be on the move. The high number of juvenile Laughing Gulls, seem to indicate they have done well in the surrounding islands of Jamaica Bay, where they are known to have large nesting colonies. Check the blog for more details on the shorebird numbers and species in the last few days. For those you interested, I have posted a few photos of the Pelagic trip birds on my blog here. It includes not so good photos of the *FEA'S PETREL* and *WHITE-FACED STORM-PETREL*, see here - http://birdingdude.blogspot.com/2014/08/see-life-paulagics-new-york-trip-nets.html Cheers, -- 風 Swift as the wind 林 Quiet as the forest 火 Conquer like the fire 山 Steady as the mountain Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> *The Art of War* <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com -- 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/ --
