Birding the Beaches ....

Small Scraps of Birding Time on Long Island in June

Saturday, June 3 - Brooklyn and Queens Counties

The day actually didn't start in Brooklyn or Queens, but rather in Somerset County, New Jersey where I chased, and disastrously dipped a LESSER NIGHTHAWK.  I don't often leave New York State when I'm birding locally but if I do it's usually because a bird catches my interest and sticks in my mind.  This bird did just that, originally identified as a Common Nighthawk and posted on-line, then re-identified as (New Jersey's Second ever record of) a Lesser Nighthawk by Ben Barkley, the bird was subsequently found to have been picked-up and re-habbed locally a few days earlier, before being released nearby.  Once free though, it settled into a nice pattern of sitting on a rail fence or along a gravel path at Lord Sterling Park allowing lots and lots of local birders to see and photograph it during its week long stay.  I got there early on Saturday after a rough drive where the Land Rover's navigation system was totally overwhelmed by the road-spaghetti that is Northern New Jersey, sending me the wrong way several times and even directing down a one-way street the wrong way at one point.  Oh and it was raining when I got there, and oh, the bird seemed to have departed during the night never to be seen again.  Not a good start to the day.

Nelson's Sparrow

So back to New York where my first stop, Plumb Beach in Brooklyn, improved my day immeasurably.  There had been reports of a very unseasonal NELSON'S SPARROW singing in the marsh here (not unusual in the Fall, but rare in the Spring) and as soon as I hiked out to the East end of the beach I could hear it singing loudly and see it sitting up in plain view.  This tiny marsh also had Seaside Sparrow and Clapper Rail (both King's County birds for me) so I felt that returning to New York was clearly the right strategy and pushed on to Jamaica Bay in Queens.

As I pulled into the reserve parking lot I picked up and email saying that Tim Healy had just had a Least Bittern at Big John's Pond, so off I went, hoping for the Bittern and perhaps a glimpse of the resident Barn Owls ... I saw neither.  Back to the West Pond where my spirits picked up when two year birds - a Gull-billed Tern and a Tricolored Heron flew into view within minutes of each other.  Back to being in a good mood and, after checking some other local coastal spots, I called it a day.

Tricolored Heron

Sunday, June 4 - New York County

The long anticipated Pelagic Trip out to the Hudson Canyon was cancelled due to weather.  No South Polar Skua for my New York list this year.

Saturday, June 10 - Suffolk County

Cupsogue again at dawn and I opted to take the shorter, calf-deep stinky mud route out to the flats .... just as gross as I remembered it.  The morning did produce a nice clutch of year birds though with Black Tern, Royal Tern, and Seaside Sparrow all joining the year list.

I also checked Mecox Inlet twice that day, hoping for a recently seen Black-necked Stilt.  While that bird was a no show, I did see four Lesser Black-backed Gulls, more Royal Terns and a nice mix of terns and shorebirds.

Common Tern, one of 7 species of terns seen over the weekend and the only
one close enough for a decent photo ...

Sunday, June 11 - Suffolk County

Back at Cupsogue again for the early tide but this time a quick sea-watch proved productive with four Wilson's Storm-Petrels close to shore (I know, Brian Patterson had a Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel in North Carolina this weekend, but I was still happy to see any Storm-Petrel given that our boat trip got cancelled).  The flats were also lively with more Royal Terns, Roseate Terns and some nice scope views of an adult Arctic Tern.  When I first moved to New York, Arctic Terns were almost never reported from the state other than on pelagic trips; now they are seen annually at various tern loafing spots along Long Island.  This doesn't seem to be a case of a change of distribution as much as a case of more observers being better at picking them up - better birders, better optics.  This bird was of course the reason I went to Cupsogue three times, so I was glad to finally get one.  Now the focus shifts to finding a Sandwich Tern!

Great and Snowy Egrets at Three-Mile Harbor in East Hampton

In addition to Cupsogue, I also hit Mecox a few more times and checked out a bunch of the local sites like Three-Mile Harbor, etc.  Nothing amazing there - a Saltmarsh Sparrow was the best bird at Sammy's Beach - but a nice local mix of breeding birds.  A very nice weekend of local birding.

Thursday, June 15 - Nassau County

There had been two Black-necked Stilts at Jones Beach for the previous two weeks ... a bit of a rarity in New York and a county bird (and state year bird) for me.  I was there at 6:00am, just in time to see a helicopter spray the area for mosquitos and flush every bird for miles around, and again at 3:00pm.  Not a stilt to be seen ....  hopefully not slipping back into a dipping phase ....

Saturday, June 17 - Western New York State

And while I was out of town, a BROWN BOOBY was found at Nickerson Beach in Nassau County .... argh!  This species is now a good candidate for my official New York State nemesis bird given the number of times I've missed it in the state (it's either this species or Mew Gull).  I was 450 miles to the West when it was found and briefly considered driving back overnight to be there at dawn to see it.  In the end I was just too tired to do that safely so gave up, and was glad I did as the bird was found dead the next morning.  To drive eight hours to see a dead Booby would not have been a fun thing.....

The reason I was out of town was a good thing though.  One of my goals this year was to have a life list in each of New York's 62 counties.  I was close to this goal, but given a quiet, free weekend, decided to finish it off with a 1,000 mile drive through the West of New York State, filling in the last of the counties.  The birds weren't very exciting, but the birding was pleasant and I got to see some new places and bird some new habitats.  A nice outdoorsy, if very introverted, weekend ... sometimes us introverts need quiet time.

All done.  Now I just have to keep adding to the lists.

Saturday, June 24 - Suffolk County (The Hamptons)

Started the day with a sea-watch from Amagansett and royally messed up.  I had a lot of stuff to schlepp out to the house on Friday so I opted to leave my camera behind .... NEVER leave your camera behind!  As soon as I walked on to the beach I saw two birds that I would really have liked to photograph ... big, dark skua/jaeger types of the sort that could have been big, dark, (rare) Pomarine Jaegers or (much rarer) South Polar Skuas.  In sea-watching you don't get a lot of time as birds hurtle past so, if I'd had my camera, I could have taken a few shots to study later at leisure and work on the ID.  So in the end I had to report these birds as Skua/Jaeger sp. a real lost opportunity.

The day did get better though when I had some friends from the city, some local fishing friends and some of the local hotshot young Long Island birders over for dinner.  Cooked Paella and made Olive Oil Cake ... yes, I can cook ... a very pleasant evening.

My Paella - my giant Paella Pan is one of my prize possessions ....

Sunday, June 25 - (local) East Hampton Spots

Hit a half dozen local spots.  Saw nothing remarkable, but felt good about putting in some local coverage time.

Overall a good June.  Saw a lot of birds, none terribly rare, but I did feel like I spent time with New York's breeding birds for the first time in a few years.  And so on to more adventures in July ....

Early January on Long Island

A few days of Year-Birding to start 2017

Sunday, January 1 - Montauk and Shinecock

I think by now I can categorize it as a ritual.  I have started my year list in perhaps 7 of the last 15 years with a sunrise sea-swatch at Montauk Point, and it never disappoints as a great way to start a year of birding.  This year was relatively mild, and after a quick stop en-route to add Great Horned Owl, the day started there with a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic as it got light enough to distinguish the birds.  And there were plenty of birds ... highlights including thousands of scoters of all three species, hundreds of Common Eider and a scattering of other sea-ducks, loons and grebes.  Specialty birds also put in an appearance with a couple of Black-legged Kittiwakes, a Red-Necked Grebe, nearly 75 Razorbills and a fly-by DOVEKIE (plus a Gray Seal).  Not a bad start.  23 species in all, and the year-list 2017 was officially on it's way.

After Montauk I worked my way back West, stopping at a number of local spots picking up more species at each of them.  Highlight for me was a GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE at Further Lane Fields in East Hampton (it's hard to tell but the picture below is a mansion lawn, not a  grassy field ... it's a big lawn and a big mansion).

Greater White-fronted Goose in a Canada Goose Flock

By lunch time I'd worked my way to Shinecock Inlet where a couple of Harlequin Ducks and a Glaucous Gull were both good close views.  The local Snow Buntings were also quite confiding, but unfortunately, the only Snowy Owl of the day stayed at a very respectable distance.

Harlequin Ducks

Can you spot the Snowy Owl?

Glaucous Gull

I finished the day off back at the house in Northwest Harbor watching my feeders and drinking wine on the deck, coming out again just after dark to hear my local Eastern Screech Owl become Owl species number three for the year.  Not a bad way to start 2017.

Monday, January 2 - Robert Moses State Park and Cammann's Pond

Up early, but unfortunately I had to head back to the City with the dogs in the car, allowing me only two or three quick stops on the way back in.  Stop one was Robert Moses State Park where I managed to dip a couple of Ross's Geese that had been present for several days but had apparently moved on.  There was a nice consolation though in the form of a single Lapland Longspur, a bird I rarely see more than one or two of in New York in the average year.

Lapland Longspur

Last stop of the day was Cammann's Pond in Nassau County, where I'd dipped a BLACK-HEADED GULL a few days earlier.  No problems this time though as the bird was on the water near the parking lot and I saw it before I'd even turned off the engine.  A new species for me for Nassau County (#214) and a bird I missed altogether in New York in 2016, so I was happy to call it a day and had back to the city with a nice haul of 92 species on the year list.

Black-headed Gull

Not a bad start to the year ....

Asian Urban Birding (Part 1) - Tokyo

A Day Off in Central Tokyo

Just back from a business trip to Asia which included visits to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore.  The trip was spread over several weeks so I was able to grab at least part of one day in each city to go birding.

Sunday February 28th - Meiji Shrine / Imperial Palace Moat

I have a tradition in Tokyo - fly on Friday night, arrive on Saturday night, and take the Sunday off to recover from jet-lag before heading to the office on Monday morning.  I've been to Tokyo 19 times in all, and I've quite often done the same thing on my free Sunday mornings.  I like to start my trip with a visit to the Meiji Shrine, an active temple set in a beautiful block of mature woodland in Central Tokyo.  The locals go for religious reasons or to view the iris garden in season, I got for the birds.

Arriving at the shrine, I started to re-familiarize myself with the local birds and bird calls.  In Tokyo, two species are absolutely ubiquitous and their calls are constantly heard in or near any patch of green.  Large-billed Crows and Brown-eared Bulbuls are the 'sounds of Tokyo' for me and sure enough, with were creating quite a racket as I came into the park.  Putting them aside though, I started to work my way around the paths looking for the good variety of woodland birds that Winter there and soon started to pick out some better things.

Among the regular birds at the Meiji Shrine, Japanese Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Japanese Pygmy-Woodpecker, and the local specialty Varied Tit work the canopy while Dusky and Pale Thrushes shuffle around in the leaf-litter.  I was also able to pick out a Japanese Brush-Warbler, a Red-flanked Bluetail, a Brown-headed Thrush, and four different individual Hawfinches, a personal favorite.  In all I saw 24 species of birds in a couple of hours of wandering the trails.  Not a huge list, but some nice things and a very pleasant start to my Asia birding adventure.

Hawfinches are quiet and easy to overlook

Varied Tit is a bit of a speciality bird in Tokyo, I think many Western birders
got their life Varied Tit here

Dusky Thrush, the most common of perhaps a half-dozen thrush species possible
at the Shrine.

 Perhaps the best bird of the day took me a while to log on to.  As I walked the paths I kept hearing a loud 'key-kek-kek-kek' call and couldn't for the life of me think of what it might be.  Some sort of woodpecker perhaps, it just didn't sound right, and yet the call was oddly familiar - I knew I'd heard it before somewhere.  The mystery was solved after about half an hour when a male Northern Goshawk flew in front of me and perched, somewhat backlit, above the path.  Felt a bit slow for not realizing sooner, but it was a real pleasure to get up close and personal with a species that I usually see only as a 'zoom-past' in the North woods.

Northern Goshawk

Finishing up at the garden mid-morning, and really enjoying a beautiful Spring day outdoors I decided to keep birding and walked several miles, doing a complete circuit of the Imperial Palace Moat.  Another beautiful spot, this one with picturesque stone fortifications, sculptural pine trees and a shallow moat stuffed with waterfowl.

The majority of the ducks were familiar Eurasian Wigeon, Common (Green-winged) Teal, Tufted Ducks, etc.  but there was a distinct Asian feel from species like Eastern Spot-billed Duck and Falcated Duck.

Eastern Spot-billed Duck (above) and Falcated Duck (below)

Given the amount of time I spent there I also bumped into a few land birds, perhaps the best of which was a soaring Eastern Buzzard and a surprise Bull-headed Shrike feeding on the grassy banks of the moat.  A beautiful day and a really nice mix of birds, although my feet were killing me by the time I got back to the hotel that evening.  Worth it for the great birds though ...

Tuesday March 1st - Hibeki Park

On this trip, the office and the hotel (Palace Hotel, Tokyo) were actually both right next to good birding spots, and given the odd routine of an Asia  business trip (which often involves being on conference calls in the middle of the night) I was able to grab a half hour in one of the local parks on the way to and from the office.

Hibeki Park is a very typical Japanese urban park in that every square inch of the place is used.  The park isn't large but it contains several restaurants, children's play areas, sports areas, tennis courts, etc.  On the plus side though, it also contains several ornamental ponds and some garden areas that seem good for birds.  Even on a quick visit I was able to add Little Egret, Common Kingfisher, another Red-flanked Bluetail and a Daurian Redstart, all good urban birds.

Japanese Cormorant

Wednesday March 2nd - Hamarikyu Gardens

Another odd morning with conference calls at 4am and 5am but then no scheduled meetings until 9am.  Making the most of the gap, I grabbed a cab and rushed over to the Hamarikyu Gardens (a former Imperial duck-hunting preserve) only to find that it didn't open until 9am (argh!).  With an hour to kill though, and no cabs in sight, I wandered over to some nearby piers that gave me a view of Tokyo Bay.  This oversight on my part actually produced the best bird of the Tokyo visit as, while scanning the bay for grebes and ducks, I came across a gull roost that had a really great mix of species at close range.  There were probably about 100 gulls on this little breakwater, about 80 of them were Black-headed Gulls but there were also Herring (including some 'Vega' Gulls), Mew, Slaty-backed and Black-tailed Gulls in the mix.  There was also a very small gull sitting in a row of Black-headed Gulls.  At fist I thought this bird was a Little Gull, just based on the size difference, but it didn't look quite right somehow not 'cute' enough, the black bill seemed too big as well.  The plumage, absent the bill looked just like the Black-headed Gulls around it, but the size was so obviously different.  As I walked away to head back for my meetings I was still thinking Little Gull, but then the 'penny dropped' ... Saunders's Gull!  A life bird for me, and something I just wasn't expecting to see.  A great way to end the Tokyo portion of the trip.

First Snow of the Season and White Birds Arriving in Suffolk County

Snowy Owls and White-winged Gulls Out East

Saturday, January 16 - Dune Road and Calverton

I had to stay in the City on Friday night but forced myself to get up early on Saturday and run out to East Hampton with a plan to drop off the dogs, fill the feeders, then double back and do some Winter birding. The temperatures had started to drop Out East, with the threat of snow later in the weekend, so it seemed like a good chance to round up some recently reported, and newly arrived, Northern birds.

The weather was not really cooperating, it was cold, windy and wet, but I stuck with the plan and forced myself over to Dune Road in Hampton Bays by mid-morning.  Shinecock Inlet was unpleasant but I did get out of the car and scanned the gulls in the rain, adding a Lesser Black-backed Gull to the year-list.  I got soaked though so decided to do some car birding along Dune Road in the hope of seeing a recently reported Snowy Owl or American Bittern.  The Owl was a no-show but I did get the Bittern near Triton Lane where it was feeding in a ditch, inches from the road, and flushed before I could get a photo.  Still, this bird isn't going anywhere, it'll be around all Winter, so I'm sure I'll see it again.

Field Sparrow - EPCAL, Suffolk County, NY

Given the weather, I decided to head inland so ran up to the Calverton area in search of sparrows for the year-list.  Got a good haul of those, with Field, American Tree and White-crowned Sparrows quickly joining the list.  I then went over to McKay Lake where I relocated a Golden-crowned Kinglet I'd seen in November and got a real bonus when the continuing, but elusive, Common Gallinule put in an appearance.  This bird showed up in the Fall, seems to have a broken wing, but somehow has managed to cling on, spending its time with a single Mallard on this shallow pond.  Have to feel a bit sorry for it, but I hope it manages to survive the Winter somehow, seems to be a plucky little chap.

Feeling better about my quick haul of year-birds and now that the weather seemed to be improving, I decided to head back down to the barrier beach and this time worked my way out to Cupsogue County Park.  It's a long, slow, drive through the beach houses to get there, and the speed limits are rigorously enforced by the quaintly named 'Bay Constables' who must make a good amount of revenue off visitors breaking the 25-mile-an-hour limit (yes, they still ticket even in the Winter and I saw one poor soul contributing to the town budget as I drove out).  When you get there though, Cupsogue is a pretty neat place.  The location if famous as a Seal haul-out with up to 60 Harbor Seals and occasionally other species coming out of the water to loaf and socialize at low tide.  Now that the weather had brightened up, there were actually quite a few locals taking a Saturday walk to see the seals, but I had birds on my mind, found a high vantage point and started a big circle-scan across the whole bay area.  First up shorebirds, where I picked out 5 Red Knot among the hundreds of Dunlin and Sanderlings.  Then I checked the duck, picked up my first Belted Kingfisher of the year and, after walking a little further down the road, got what I came here for - a flock of 33 Snow Buntings.  All good stuff, but running out of time, I had to head back to the house, so reluctantly left and started to work my way back East.

As I got to my turn at the Ponquogue Bridge, on a whim I decided to go a little further and check the dunes to the East.  Finding nothing of note I turned to go home, but just as I started back, a curious lump stood out on top of a Dune.  No question what this was .... my first Snowy Owl of the season!  A couple of quick shots from the car, and back home.  Despite the cold, wet, start to the day it actually turned out to be a really nice day of birding.

Snowy Owl - Ponquogue Beach, Suffolk County, NY

Sunday, January 17 - Montauk

Up early and out to Montauk Point to meet Menachem Goldstein (another of the seemingly infinite number of Cornell University undergraduate birders) for some sea-watching.  I couldn't stay long but we covered the Point area fairly thoroughly, picking up quite a few Razorbills, several thousand assorted sea-duck, the continuing drake King Eider, and Menachem's lifer Black-legged Kittiwake.  Then on to the West Jetty at Montauk Inlet (stopping briefly for 4 Snow Geese in keeping with the snow theme) in the hope of more 'white birds', in this case White-winged Gulls.  The Inlet didn't disappoint, and we soon had good views of a 1st-cycle Glaucous Gull with a 1st-cycle Iceland Gull for a close comparison,  There were also two 'Kumlien's' Iceland Gull in the same group of birds along with some Bonaparte's Gulls and a 1st-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Eight species of gulls at Montauk ... Winter is definitely coming.

Adult 'Kumlien's' Iceland Gull (bottom left) and 1st-cycle Iceland Gull (right).  Almost all of our Iceland Gulls are 'Kumlien's' but you can't really tell with the 1st-cycle birds so we just call them 'Iceland Gulls''- Same species - Montauk Inlet, Suffolk County, NY

'Kumlien's' Iceland Gull - one of two at Montauk Inlet, Suffolk County, NY 

Glaucous Gull - Montauk Inlet, Suffolk County, NY

With time running out, and dinner plans back in the City, we decided to make one last stop to see if the Virginia Rails found during the Christmas Bird Count at Big Reed's Pond were still willing to make a little noise.  A quick hike into the pond until we found some likely habitat, and I played a couple of blasts of 'tape" (I know, I know, but in this case where multiple Rails are wintering at the pond and calling to each other anyway, I don't think there's any harm done) which started two of the rails clicking and grunting back to us, and each other, from the cat-tails.  That was enough for the year-list so we let them be and, after stopping and failing once again to see the Napeague Snowy Owl, I called it a day.

As a postscript, the snow did in fact come that afternoon and coated East Hampton and the City with a light covering.  The ride back to the City was a bit interesting too, in that I narrowly missed a multiple car collision when some oblivious driver plowed into the rear-end of another (while texting?) and started a chain reaction involving at least 5 cars in the lane next to me.  Ah the joys on Winter ....

The Big Dipper

Two big misses in New York State

One of the truisms of birding is that the more you look the more you see, and conversely, if you don't go birding you don't see very much.  Recently my schedule has kept me tied to the City with occasional trips to East Hampton and, not-surprisingly, I've ended up missing some good birds as a result.

On May 16th Shai Mitra and Pat Lindsay found a BAR-TAILED GODWIT at Jamaica Bay (and not the bird previously reported from New Jersey).  They stumbled into the bird right next to the main trail on the West Pond and got the word out quickly allowing a handful of first responders to get distant looks at the bird before it flew off a short-time later (other birders were still en route and missed it).  I had birded the morning in Central Park and then headed to the office, getting word of the bird's arrival and departure simultaneously when I checked my email in the afternoon.  It would have been an ABA bird for me so I spent 7 hours there the next day, birding the rising tide in the hope of a repeat performance, but lightening did not strike twice.

The next week, during the week, a LITTLE EGRET was found at Gardiner County Park in Suffolk County.  Another potential ABA bird but this time I knew I had no chance of chasing it until Sunday - a combination of work and house guests meant that I couldn't possibly get away until that day so nothing to do except hope that the bird stuck around.  The signs were good when the egret remained loyal to the same site a second day but, perhaps inevitably, it didn't stick around for the weekend (as least as far as we know).

My consolation that weekend was some nice local birding, enjoying breeding birds and some late migrants near my house in NorthWest Harbor.  I did see breeding Least Terns and Piping Plovers with young, the full-suite of 30-or-so species that breed in and around the yard, and two new birds for my yard list, a WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW and a surprise BROAD-WINGED HAWK.  Very pleasant local stuff and for the record I did, as always, check each of the 5 Snowy Egrets at the local marsh very carefully ....

White-crowned Sparrow - new for the yard list and
Scarlet Tanager - two males singing close to the yard this year 

Convinced that my bad luck had settled in, I really debated whether I should chase the next good bird that came along.  When Deborah Allen found a FRANKLIN'S GULL at Plum Beach in Brooklyn this week I wondered if I'd even try to go and see it, especially after my 5 failed attempts at the Mew Gull in Brooklyn this Winter.  The signs looked better for this one though as the Franklin's Gull seemed to have paired with a Laughing Gull and was being seen regularly during the week.  Plus I'd seen the species before in New York State - a good bird but not one I desperately needed so I figured my chances might be better.

As it turned out, this twitch was easy.  I walked up to the site, saw a group of birders with scopes, walked over and was soon on the bird.  It was a bit distant for good photos but I was able to grab a few record shots and had a nice chance to study Laughing and Franklin's Gulls side by side.  All very pleasant, and even though it took me over an hour to drive the 5 miles back to the City (gotta love New York in Summer), it was a nice trip and hopefully a sign that my luck is turning.


My photos were distant and not really very good but for some better photos check out Andrew Baksh's blog post here.

Urban Birding: In the Rain in Central Park.

Today was not meant to be a good day, I'd put off a whole bunch of unpleasant things until I couldn't avoid them any longer, and then I ended up having to deal with them all at once.  My morning was filled with hassles with the DMV, tax issues, then a couple of hours at the dentist (the perfect morning!).  I was supposed to go to lunch afterwards but, when I left the dentist I decided I needed to be outside so I grabbed some bins, cancelled lunch, and headed to Central Park.  There were a few good birds reported recently and, even the forecast promised rain, I thought I might look for some of them.  Mostly though, I just needed to spend some time outdoors.

Heading to the Ramble I wandered over to the feeders and decided I was going to stake it out until I saw a redpoll.  Other birders had seen redpolls recently but my visits to the Ramble had produced neither redpolls nor siskins and I was feeling like I was missing out.  Almost as soon as I arrived it started to rain but I figured I'd jut ignore it and was soon joined by a birder (Allison Rea?) so at least had I had some company while I waited.  We chatted as we stood in the rain and I kept a basic scan pattern where once every minute I put bins to each of the feeders, left to right.  There was plenty of action at the feeders with lots of American Goldfinches, a Brown Creeper, and even a few Red-winged Blackbirds giving hope for an early Spring.  Then after about 20 minutes of the same routine, and "as if by magic", there was a female Common Redpoll on one of the sock feeders.  I hadn't seen the bird come in, it had simply appeared silently at a feeder while I was looking elsewhere.   Luckily I able to quickly get Allison on to it and it turned out that it was a life bird for her, seemingly making her day.  It always feels good to get a fledgeling birder a life bird, but I was also pretty happy to see a redpoll in New York City as I think it's been years since I last saw one here.  So mission accomplished I left the feeders with a smile on my face as I wandered off into the rain in search of the next thing.

Buoyed by the redpoll I walked the Gill hoping for a Rusty Blackbird (no luck) then headed over to the Shakespeare Garden to look for a Saw-whet Owl.

Northern Saw-whet Owl in the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park
Photo: Brian Padden (used with permission).

There had apparently been one, or perhaps two, Saw-whet Owls in this area for the past few days.  Many local birders had seen this (these) birds so I was hopeful of bumping into one, even despite my horrible owl karma.  Some people have good owl karma and seem to find them easily, and others (like me) just can't seem to find them for love nor money.  I'm not sure what it is that separates these two species of birders, it could be a pattern-recognition thing, patience, past sins, or just dumb luck but I am definitely in the subset of birders that simply can't find roosting owls.  I diligently searched all the yew and cedar trees, peered into the hollies, and scanned the pines in the area but today fit the usual pattern ... an hour of careful searching .... and no owl.

While I wasn't seeing an owl I got an email that Tom Fiore was seeing a Black-headed Gull up at the Reservoir so, after admitting defeat on the owl I headed up there to look for that bird.  I got there perhaps an hour or so after Tom had seen the bird and, although I scanned the gulls for thirty minutes in the pouring rain, I couldn't pick out a Black-headed Gull from the hundreds of Ring-billed and Herring Gulls on the causeway.  I did bump into Tom though who showed me some excellent photos of the bird that he'd taken that morning, a little disappointing but enough incentive to ensure I'll be back to look for it another day.

And so with time marching on I had to start heading back South.  Tom, who I'd hoped had good owl karma, went back to look for the owl, but even though we saw lots of whitewash, and met a nice French birder who showed us where it was a few days ago, we still couldn't come up with it.  Some things are just not meant to be I guess so I gave up and went to look for the Iceland Gull that had been reliable on the Lake for the past few days.

Iceland Gull, Central Park Lake.  Photo: Brian Padden (used with permission).

Needless to say there was no Iceland Gull either, sometimes luck is with you, and sometimes it isn't.  I summed up my visit as having got one of the five species I'd tried for  ... but at least it was raining (!).   But even though I'd missed most of what I was searching for I actually really enjoyed my visit to the park.  I didn't get my target birds, and the weather was awful, but I was happy I guess because I just needed to have some outdoors time, and I got it.  Central Park does wonderful things to bad days ....

Photospot: Kumlien's Gull at Montauk.

Hopefully this bird will spend another Winter at Montauk Inlet.  One of two Iceland Gulls at Montauk right now.

Kumlien's (Iceland) Gull (5 shots)