Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge
Date: Sunday, August 3, 2025
Leader: Gabriel Willow
Transportation: Carpool Trip: Drivers willing to provide rides are encouraged to attend. The Registrar will work with participants without a vehicle to organize rides and share the suggested carpool fee for the driver. This usually works out, but we can not guarantee a ride unless there are enough enough volunteer drivers.
Meeting Point: After your registration is confirmed, the Registrar will share directions, the exact meeting place, and time with attendees.
Schedule: Timed with favorable tides, half-day trip.
Relative Difficulty: The terrain will be flat but may be slippery in spots. There can be mosquitoes. Please wear mud boots.
Trip Description: The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge includes over 12,600 acres of salt marshes, freshwater and brackish-water ponds, upland fields and woods, an open bay, and islands. It is one of the most significant bird habitats in the northeastern United States and a great place to observe seasonal bird migration and resident species.
Every spring and summer, the water levels in the East Pond are mechanically lowered to create mudflats where shorebirds can forage. When the tides are high, shorebirds gravitate to the exposed mudflats of the East Pond. Shorebirds such as Black-bellied Plovers, Sanderlings, Semi-palmated Sandpipers, White-rumped Sandpipers, and Least Sandpipers have been seen; we will also look for Ruddy Turnstones. The marshes often include Seaside Sparrows and Saltmarsh Sparrows, and we might even find a Clapper Rail. Terns might include Caspian, Gull-billed, Forster’s, Common and Least Terns.
This walk is scheduled for peak shorebird concentrations at Jamaica Bay and will likely require mud boots to navigate comfortably.
Please read The Linnaean Society of New York COVID-19 Field Trip Guidelines before registering.
Registration: Registration opens at 9 am on Monday, July 21. After that time, click here to register. Registration closes at 6 pm on Wednesday, July 30. Members (and those who have applied for membership) will be prioritized over non-members.
Please read the About Our Trips page, if you’re going on a field trip for the first time. It details our field trip policies, recommends what to bring on a trip, and offers other useful information, pro tips, and tricks.
If after visiting the About Our Trips page, you still have questions, feel free to contact the Registrar via email.