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You poor suffering souls who come back repeatedly to read the dreck that I write about my assorted birding adventures will recall that last summer, when we were both still expectant fathers rather than actual fathers, I suspected Patrick Belardo from The Hawk Owl’s Nest and all other birders from New Jersey were cursed when [...]

Having a borrowed car for a week is much less fun when a blizzard hits and one has to dig said car out of about a foot a snow plus what the plows pile on top.  Daisy knew I was a bit bummed about having a car for a week and only managing to take [...]

A recent trip to Jamaica Bay in the wind and cold was not very birdy and what birds I did see were mostly frantically feeding on whatever they could find.  A large flock of European Starlings Sturnus vulgaris was no exception and I watched and digiscoped quite a few starlings feeding on Winged Sumac Rhus [...]

Saturday was one of those all-day birding days that I think are going to pretty rare occurrences before too long.  Will of The Nightjar, with whom I haven’t birded in, well, way too long, finally made the much anticipated trip down to Queens for some Jamaica Bay shorebirding, and we had a grand old time [...]

WARNING!  GRAPHIC BLOODY WOUND PHOTO IN THIS POST!  IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE IT CLICK HERE FOR SOME CUTESY-TYPE STUFF! As I was walking through the very dark Forest Park yesterday morning at half past five so I could get to the Q53 Limited bus to take me to Jamaica Bay by the time [...]

Some of you who regularly read this blog will recall my recent outing with Patrick after which I surmised that New Jersey birders coming to bird in New York were cursed.  You may also recall that in that same post I mentioned that we would have a chance to break the dreaded Jersey Curse in [...]

On Saturday I met up with Patrick, that nice guy from The Hawk Owl’s Nest, at Jamaica Bay for some birding.  Unfortunately, the birds seemed to have missed the memo or something, because they were not there to meet up with us.  That actually is not quite true: I am just a spoiled birder who [...]

As promised, it is time for the answers to A Diabolical Quick Quiz which was posted way back on Sunday.  I must say that it was far more diabolical than I thought it would be, with only one of the three questions being answered completely correctly, though one could argue that the third was also [...]

Last year at the end of July I wrote a post about birding Jamaica Bay in which I complained about the bugs, the heat, the mud and the difficulty inherent in identifying shorebirds.  This year, so far, Jamaica Bay has been a much more pleasant place, mostly because water levels on the East Pond have [...]

All of the pictures here were taken at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge today.  Please leave your guesses as to what species are depicted in the first two shots in the comments.  For the third picture I am just asking for the total number of species in the picture but if you want to list them, [...]

One tends to think of birding as an idyllic pastime.  One goes into the field, sees gorgeous creatures, identifies them, and then brags to one’s birding friends about what wonderful creatures one saw.  Sometimes one sees one of the gorgeous creatures do something interesting and one tells one’s birding friends about it but with less [...]

Though Queens, especially Jamaica Bay, is known for the fabulous numbers and variety of shorebirds that come through in fall migration there are often quite a few shorebirds to be seen in the spring as well.  Sure, Siberian vagrants are pretty unlikely in spring but the lack of rarity is made up for by the [...]

After the Scarlet Tanager and host of other birds at Jamaica Bay on Sunday I thought I would wander across Cross Bay Boulevard and see what was happening on the East Pond and at Big John’s Pond.  Upon my arrival at Big John’s Pond there was one other person in the blind and he kindly [...]

This past Monday was President’s Day in the United States.  For me, it meant a day off of work and for Daisy it meant a day off of school.  And what better way to spend an extra day off than to go for a walk around the West Pond of Jamaica Bay?  Of course, with [...]

Though we don’t get the sheer volume of Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens) that one might find in more westerly regions of North America we here in New York are often blessed with decently-sized flocks of the marvelous white geese with black wing tips.  They are a welcome departure from the wildly honking Canada Geese and [...]

When the sun is shining and it is in the fifties on the Fahrenheit scale on a Sunday  in November I’ll be birding.  Of course.  Jamaica Bay was where I wanted to be, mostly because I wanted to get some shots of the waterfowl flying from the West Pond to the bay with the sun [...]

The sun was shining at Jamaica Bay Saturday morning, there was almost no wind, and plenty of birds to see.  Waterbirds, whether they be dabbling or diving ducks, grebes or geese, coots or cormorants were the main attraction, but some passerines were still thick in the trees and bushes.  Kinglets with both ruby and golden [...]

Saturday morning I arose before dawn, brewed and drank some coffee, got my gear together, and headed to Jamaica Bay.  When dawn came it was anticlimactic: the cloud cover was complete and what little light filtered through was barely enough for photography.  And when I got off the bus at the entrance to Jamaica Bay [...]

Last weekend, as I have mentioned already, was loaded with birds and birding.  Saturday morning at Jamaica Bay was absolutely wonderful, with winter residents starting to arrive, some lingering breeders still sticking around, and plenty of migrants moving through.  I could tell it was going to be a good morning’s birding when, at the bus [...]

It was while watching flocks of shorebirds on Friday on Cape Cod (an adventure I will soon describe) that I first heard of a Red-necked Stint being found at Jamaica Bay.  I got back-to-back calls that I let go to voicemail from Jory and Will, my upstate birding buddies, and when I checked my voicemail [...]