January 24 - Jamaica Bay & Bensonhurst Park

With just a half-day of free time today I joined friends John W. & Rob F. for an ealry morning ride to Jamaica Bay's West Pond. Here we were able to get very nice views of both Goldeneye species, including the rare male Barrow's.

Here is the Common Goldeneye, with its circular white spot, sloped head, and back which is more white than black.

While here we also saw Snow Geese, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Great Cormorants, Red-Breasted Mergansers, and Greater Scaup.

Next we headed back west to Brooklyn's Bensonhurst Park on Gravesend Bay. After more than 90 minutes the sought-after Mew Gull appeared. For John this was a Life Bird, and for Rob it was his first in the US. Regular readers will recall that I lifed this bird here just two Sundays ago.


Then the raindrops started misting and we headed back home to watch some football...