Registrar: Debbie Mullins
Participants: 7
Weather: 72 F, partly cloudy, NW winds at 11 mph
Bird Species: 25
Insect Species: 20
It was a surprisingly cool but windy day when we traveled to Staten Island in search of birds and insects. Many thanks to Seth Wollney, excellent all-around naturalist, for sharing his knowledge about the many species that inhabit Brookfield Park, a remediated landfill that borders Richmond Creek on the north. It has hills covered with low-growing vegetation, as well as marshes along the creek. Many native plants grow here, but unfortunately, phragmites are also starting to invade the habitat.
Despite the wind, we saw a good variety of beautiful insects and birds, including a pair of Bald Eagles and many Great and Snowy Egrets. A flock of nearly 100 confiding Semipalmated Sandpipers seemed to be following us as we walked through the fields.
Species Lists
Insects
American Sand Wasp
Ant sp.
Black Swallowtail
Blue Dasher
Broad-winged Skipper
Cabbage White
Carolina Grasshopper
Carolina Saddlebags
Black Saddlebags
Common Green Darner
Dog-day Cicada (aka Swamp Cicada)
Horace’s Duskywing
Eastern Tailed-blue
Monarch
Orange Sulphur
Pearl Crescent
Red Milkweed Beetle
Seven-spotted Ladybug
Spot-winged Glider
Spotted Lanternfly
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Viceroy
Wasp sp.
Birds
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Clapper Rail
Virginia Rail
Semipalmated Plover
Lesser Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Double-crested Cormorant
Black-crowned Night Heron
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
American Goldfinch
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
