August 27 - Pine Island

Out with Simon K. today for some birding before the rain. At Skinners Lane we had a half-dozen American Golden Plovers, a Wilson's Snipe, and sandpipers of Least, Semi-Palmated, Spotted, Killdeer, and Lesser Yellowlegs.

Later at Oil City Road we had the White Ibis flyover both NY and NJ territories

August 21 - Booby time

Today brought upon a successful chase, although it got off to a tough start when I overslept. This meant my buddy Simon had to wait at our meeting spot for an extra 30 minutes. Sorry friend!
Once we got back on track it was smooth sailing. Just before reaching Cape May we caught up with our other friends' car, so we were all able to get on the Brown Booby together  !

Since these views were fine for a scope but we desired more, the group took a boat ride on the Osprey to get closer looks, and we were rewarded handsomely.

Here's the motley looking crew after getting the closeup views:

Finally we visited Brigantine and had the following sightings:  Black-Bellied Whistling-Duck, Marbled Godwits, Terns of Least, Forsters, Black, Gull-Billed, and Caspian, Sandpipers of Least, Semi-Palmated, Western, White-Rumped, Stilt, Pectoral, Turnstone, both Yellowlegs, both Dowitchers, Whimbrel, Semi-Plover, Oystercatcher, Black-Bellied Plover.

August 6 - Beach Haven for the Hooded Crow

Since I missed out on the Hooded Crow when it was on Staten Island, NY in June, I took the fact that it had been re-found in Beach Haven, NJ as my second chance..and I did not want to miss it.  Fortunately I was able to see the bird after a half-hour or so of looking for it.

 This photo was taken by Sam Galick.

It was nice to see some long-time friends here too, and I enjoyed the beach walk with Ed B. of Bayonne.  As luck would have it I ran into him a bit later at Brigantine and got to spend more time with him while we took a drive on the auto-tour along with Jim Z. who regaled me with stories of his past rarity chases.  It always interesting for me to listen to those with more experiences than I do.
Unfortunately Brigantine did not yield any of it's recent rarities, so I'll have to hope that more roll in later this month!

July 31 - Kings & Queens...

With friends Andy, Jen, and Bill we made a trip out to Coney Island today and the target was the Gray-Hooded Gull. This species is typically a South American and African bird, yet there was a prior record for North America in Florida back in 1998.

We were very lucky as we expected to wait awhile for the bird, but today it was seen at 6:40 am and we got it right away as we arrived.

Here's a video taken by Bill:


For some fine photos of this bird visit Andrew Baksh's blog

We then made a quick stop at Jamaica Bay and got a look at the Hudsonian Godwit.

July 17 - Orange County Rarities continue

Out with  Bill E. today and we were able to get fine looks at the Sedge Wren.

Later we had great close looks at the Sandhill Crane before it flew out of the pond and to the north of the hunter's stand.

We also got to briefly see the juv. White Ibis as it took a short flight before returning to its favored pond that is out of sight from the roadway & hunter's stand

July 15 - White Ibis at Walkill NWR

After reading a report of a juvenile White Ibis being seen about 45 minutes from my house I decided to give it a go.  The bird was reported at Oil City Road which is just a few hundred yards north of the New Jersey border.  When I first arrived the bird was not i sight, but Rich K. and I used a hunter's blind to get some more elevation.  Shortly thereafter the ibis took flight for about 15 seconds before dropping back into the marsh and out of sight.
 This is my first sighting of this bird in New York.

See John Haas' website for an image of this bird

July 9 - Cupsogue Beach terns

Out with friend Simon K. today at the Suffolk County, Long Island park at Cupsogue Beach.  Our targets today were seabirds and terns.  We started out just after 8 a.m with a seawatch from the boardwalk.  Here we met Tom B. and Gail B., along with Doug F.

Immediately we wee able to see quite a few Cory's Shearwaters as they worked the wakes left by the fishing trawlers. Along with the shearwaters we were able to get distant views of several Wilson's Storm Petrels.

Next we headed into the back bay and its sandbars to view the terns.  There we of course many Common Terns and it was nice to see them in their full summer colors.  Also seen were a few Forster's Terns, and Least Terns, along with up to 4 Black Terns ranging in variations of all breeding plumages.  The bird of the day was undoubtedly the first-summer plumaged Arctic Tern.  We saw this bird as soon as we got out onto the sandbars, thanks to Brent B. who had already located the bird.  The Arctic Tern was a life bird, # 614, for me so I was quite happy.

click images to enlarge

Visit Andrew's blog for superb shots of the bird.

Later we had fine views of a breeding plumaged Roseate Tern, and subsequently a first-summer Roseate Tern was also seen here. Note the black bill and orange legs on the leftmost bird.

Other birds seen were Black Skimmers, Little Blue Heron, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, SB Dowitchers, Pectoral Sandpiper, Dunlin. Least Sandpiper and several of the more common species.

Later that afternoon we drove a bit farther east to Shinnecock Inlet, and there too we had a few Cory's Shearwaters, and Simon picked out yet another Roseate Tern amongst the flock of Commons feeding in the inlet.  A great day to be out with friends and to make some new ones.