August 29, 2015 Jamaica Bay trip

Our fall weekend trip kickoff. We had eight folks on our warm Saturday walk at Jamaica Bay Wildlife refuge. As it happened there was the annual Shorebird Festival going on as well. The temperatures were getting warmer and little or no wind in the early morning, though it did pick up as I was leaving.We did see a smattering of shorebirds. I added four FOY birds to my list, two shorebirds and two terns. we saw a total of 33 species. As a side attraction we saw a Hummingbird Moth on the loosestrife

The pond was more drained than I am used to seeing. Walking was much easier. I had to leave early due to family/social obligations.

August 28, 2015 Heckscher & Timber

The coffee run produced some excitement today. A small flock of Eastern Kingbirds was near Field 7 and at Timber Point a Green Heron was close enough to take a picture of. The migration is migrating

August 27, 2015 FI Hawk watch

I did my shakedown cruise onthe hawk watch platform for the 2015 season. I need to add rubber bands to my clipboard to keep the pages from flying in the wind. Bob Kurtz was ther when I arrived, which gave me some hope for the day. Despite Bob being there the watch was slow. only four birds for the day, three osprey and one Merlin. I know it is early in the season, but one can get ones hopes up, can't one?

There were othe birds moving though. We had sixty plus Eastern Kingbirds, twenty plus Chimney Swifts and a whole potful of swallows.

The weather was really nice, too nice for raptor migration. Low humidity low temps and low winds made for an enjoyable day for sitting at the beach. When the wind shifted from North to Southwest we knew our day

was over.

August 25, 2015 Mosquitoes everywhere

I tried to to take a walk in Heckscher this morning. I didn't get far. the mosquitoes were every where and fierce. I never stopped slapping until I left the path. Even in the parking lot they were on me.  This could be a long end of summer season. On driving through lot 5 i did manage to see a pair of  Spotted Sandpipers.

Playing catch up

I guess i have to get better at this. I am not consistent in my blogging/posting. I have to admiy that during the slow dog days of August it is hard to find motivation. Never the less, i will try to get better.

Yesterday we had a surprise 90th birthday party for my buddy Bill. It was a great time, We had about seventeen folks show up and he really appreciated it. he is such a wonderful guy. During the later part of the party we did some incidental birding. There was a fly over Common Night Hawk and a perched Baltimore oriole and some others around.

This mornings ride through the parks produced some of the usual suspects and thats all.

August is here

Finally I got to timber Point to see the reported Stilt Sandpipers. Of course it helps to have Shai there to enlighten you about the identification criteria for the Stilts. He is a great teacher, I always learn something. As we ere watching for the Sandpipers and a possible Long-billed Dowitcher we spotted a couple of  blue claw crabs doing the hankypanky. making little crabs the Dowitcher never showed for me but I did help two other birders get on the stilts.