2016: A Great Year for Life Birds, Part 3

It took far too long for us to discover Jamaica Bay. We finally went there one blustery but very sunny day in March, and of course added a life bird to my list. To OUR lists.But I failed to get any photos of the American Oystercatchers we saw.

The rest of the water birds we saw that day weren't anything new: Brant, Canada Goose, Black Duck, Mute Swan, Ring-billed and Herring Gull, Double-crested Cormorant. The land birds were similarly familiar late winter New Yorkers: Robin, Song Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird. A pair of Ospreys were making nookie on their nesting platform.

The unexpected were at least 50 Boat-tailed Grackles. They were a noisy lot. We hadn't realized they we'd see more of them in Brooklyn/Queens than we did in Florida a month earlier.

Ed returned to J Bay without me a couple of times, then we finally went there together with friends in the early summer. The Black Skimmers were breathtaking.

The East Pond treasures were, for me, a long line of Oystercatchers.

And this very concerned Swan:

So many lovely birds! The terns were in fine form, fluttering and plunging into the water. So many gulls, so many swallows. So many Yellow Warblers! But it would be a year before I returned.