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Any day of birding in New York State that includes a sighting of a Vesper Sparrow is a better-then-average day. Between the two breeding bird atlases in the state – one done in the early ’80s and one in the early ’00s – the number of atlas blocks with Vesper Sparrows declined 49%, a decline [...]

Though it was pretty warm for an October morning when I spotted this bird at Fort Tilden, Queens, it was fluffed up as if it was suffering from extreme cold.  Maybe it was trying to be a big tough guy considering the volume of sparrows in the vicinity of where it was foraging?  Somehow, I [...]

Despite regularly hearing their bubbling song emanating from undergrowth and the fact that they are widespread and common I have never managed to get a really good picture of a House Wren.  Whenever one would show itself to me at close range I wouldn’t have my camera or the light would be bad or a stick would [...]

It was surprisingly easy.  There were four of us birding the edges at Fort Tilden when I saw a flash of extremely bright yellow out of the corner of my eye.  My bins were at my eyes in a second and I was focusing on a mostly dull green bird with a bright yellow chest [...]

On a recent visit to Fort Tilden I couldn’t help noticing Northern Mockingbirds everywhere.  They either sang or scolded from every clump of bushes and trees and the white patches in their wings and tails flashed from every direction as they chased each other and other birds.  Despite their ubiquity, sharp appearance, and many-tongued vocabulary [...]

After Mike and I did a thorough job birding Fort Tilden last Saturday morning I was surprised when Daisy agreed to let me out of the house for another morning’s birding at the same spot on Sunday.  The company was different, with Seth and I, both Queens birders, being joined by Isaac and Tom, two [...]

Saturday was to be a day during which I would help Mike gain a species on me in our neck-and-neck battle for supremacy on our ABA-area life lists.  Our goal was to be Nelson’s Sparrow because, well, as readers here might recall, there is a good spot to see them nearby and Mike had managed [...]

A Nashville Warbler Vermivora ruficapilla (below) and a Tennessee Warbler Vermivora peregrina (above) at the Fort Tilden Community Garden.

After each of my recent visits to the Fort Tilden hawkwatch platform I have paid a visit to the very busy butterfly bush near the community garden there.  The species breakdown tends to be like that at Floyd Bennett Field, but because there is only one butterfly bush the butterflies are much more concentrated.  Recent [...]

Somehow, despite having lived in Queens for over two-and-a-half years, and despite being a birder, I had never been to the one and only hawkwatch site in my fine borough.  I recently rectified that error of omission and am I ever glad I did.  In fact, my visit to Fort Tilden’s fine hawkwatch platform was [...]

After spending all day birding exhaustion was setting in as we, that is, Doug, Heydi, and I, made our way to the coast in the hopes of getting some good coastal species somewhere out in the southwesternmost portion of Queens, the barrier beach peninsula, Breezy Point.  Doug had scouted the area the day before and [...]

At Fort Tilden on Sunday the most cooperative Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens) entertained us birders who were there in search of rarities for at least ten minutes.  We could have stayed longer, and would have, under almost any other circumstances, but we had rarities to chase and really, considering the looks and pictures we [...]

This past weekend was so full of birding excursions and great birds that I am having a very difficult time deciding what post to write first.  I know, I know, it’s a horribly difficult life to live, but somehow I manage to muddle through.  Anyway, after birding Alley Pond Park on Sunday morning and seeing [...]

Saturday I was down in New York City once again and because Daisy has law school finals to study for I had plenty of free time so I went shopping at the mall. Ha! Of course I didn’t go shopping: I went birding. Because I had promised Daisy a ride to her group study session [...]

After adding an Ash-throated Flycatcher to my year list I stuck around Jamaica Bay for awhile hoping to see it again and to get a picture. As you know from yesterday’s post I didn’t. And there were other birds I wanted to see so I headed across the Cross Bay Bridge and drove east to [...]

When I posted my pelagic preview last week I was hoping that I would manage to see my four-hundredth bird at sea on Sunday. I didn’t anticipate birding that would result in a lifer prior to the pelagic, as Daisy had put her foot down about my doing any birding this past weekend other than [...]