Registrar: Amanda Bielskas
Weather: Cloudy with a little rain, clearing in the afternoon, in the 50s, winds NW
Participants: 14
Bird Species: 53
On a cool and cloudy fall morning with some light rain to begin the day, our group of 14 birders were able to see 53 species, including several late migrants and rarities. We met at the entrance parking lot but quickly moved to park near the grass nursery, where we looked for our first target species—the Vesper Sparrow. None were visible then, but we did get a quick look at a fly-by Bobolink along with some other sparrows. We continued to walk through the Ecology Village, where we saw many Yellow-rumped Warblers and a female Black-and-white Warbler.
We timed our visit to the beach at the end of Archery Road with the high tide around 10 am. We were greeted there by a fly-by Belted Kingfisher and over 100 Brant. We quickly walked down the beach to the pilings where the Brooklyn Bird Club had spotted an American Golden-Plover. With some patience, we got the American Golden-Plover, along with lots of Black-bellied Plovers, many Forster’s Terns, one Royal Tern, a few Dunlin and some Red Knots. The group also spotted one Great Cormorant when we first got to the area, but it was not re-found on further looks among the Double-crested Cormorants. A Prairie Warbler was also spotted along the fence.
From there we headed over to the plastic bucket forest in search of an American Woodcock, but left the area unsatisfied. We went next to the runway, where we saw several American Kestrels on their hunting grounds. We took a drive over to the Community Gardens and added several more species to the day list. As the day was wrapping up, those with stamina decided to swing by the grass nursery one more time and were rewarded with good looks at three Vesper Sparrows!
Species Lists
Birds
Brant
Canada Goose
Mourning Dove
Black-bellied Plover
American Golden-Plover
Killdeer
Red Knot
Dunlin
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
Great Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Brown Creeper
Winter Wren
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Brown Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
House Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Field Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Black-and-white Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Mammals
Eastern Cottontail
Eastern Gray Squirrel
Butterflies & Moths
Cabbage White
Orange Sulphur
Monarch
Clover Looper