Mokka mit Schlag » Birding

2012 is looking like an irruptive winter. Two days ago I had the best day I’ve had in Prospect Park in years with a life bird and city-first-of-season White-winged Crossbill and Common Redpoll. But the birds are still coming in. Yesterday a pair of Evening Grosbeaks were reported in Central Park near the Great Hill, so before work I took the A-train uptown to look for them. Fortuitously I ran into Lenore Swenson who took me right to the birds. #850! and it’s extra fun to get a life bird so near home instead of traveling far and wide.

I don’t have any trips planned for the remainder of the year, except for Louisiana at Christmas, so I won’t make 900 in 2012; but all I need is one good neotropics trip to cross 900 or even 1000 in 2013. My brother and I are going to Costa Rica with New York Audubon for a week in February, and I should be able to squeeze in at least one more international trip somewhere. I just haven’t decided where yet.

Wow! What a day! Best day in Prospect Park in years! After being cooped up for so long from Sandy and with all parks annoyingly closed, it was great to finally get out and there were birds everywhere! and great birds in great light! Perhaps I should have taken my camera, but I was just enjoying the pleasant weather and a relaxing walk through the woods.

It was an excellent fall day, but things really kicked up when I got to the Binnen Bridge near the Pagoda Swamp. A small bird, a House Finch? associating with a couple of American Goldfinches hopped down onto the falls, and then the bird popped up into a nearby sapling.
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My previously scheduled talk for tomorrow night, Thursday, November 1, on Birding Cuba for the Brooklyn Bird Club has been cancelled due to transit issues and the continuing closure of Prospect Park where we usually hold meetings. It will likely be rescheduled in early December.

Update: The new date is Thursday, December 6 at the Litchfield Villa in Prospect Park. See you there!

Despite watching this bird for about an hour last week, and taking many photos, it took me a really long time to decide what it was. I’m not going to name it because I’m still only 90% sure:

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OK. This is the second to last day at Bugshot and a hurricane is coming. I’m staying at the Archbold Biological Station, home to one of the major, possibly the largest breeding colony of the endangered Florida Scrubjay. I’m told they come to the parking lot here but I still haven’t seen one. So this morning early I took off across the railroad tracks before breakfast and promised myself I wasn’t turning around until I found a scrub jay. And I was not disappointed:

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My wife and I picked Bermuda for our July 4th vacation because it was reasonably close, had nice weather, spoke English, and we’d never been there. Oh, yes, it only had one possible life bird for me to find so I wouldn’t spend the entire trip looking for birds instead of sightseeing with her.

That bird is the White-tailed Tropicbird, locally known as the Longtail. The Bermuda Petrel or Cahow is out at sea at this time of year. However the White-tailed Tropicbird is common. You can also see these from East Coast pelagics in the United States, sometimes even from New York shores if there’s a hurricane; but they’re far easier to find here. They’re like looking for Laughing Gulls at Coney Island.

I’m reasonably sure I saw some from the cab from the airport, but I couldn’t be quite certain. However as we had lunch on the hotel veranda while waiting to check into our room, several definitive White-tailed Tropicbirds flew along the ocean parallel to the beach. #847! Now we can see sight-see at a leisurely pace for the rest of the trip. :-)
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