Floyd Bennett Field birds today
From: Rob Jett Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 15:47:28
This morning I led a trip for the Brooklyn Bird Club to Floyd Bennett Field and the adjacent Dead Horse Bay. Our start at sunrise allowed us time to find a few good birds before the rain started. The highlight of the morning was a singing Eastern Meadowlark on the grasslands trying to outperform the dozens of Red-winged Blackbirds perched throughout all the fields. Also of note was a big increase in kestrels on the grasslands since last weekend. I counted 9 within two fields and I'm sure there were a few more. Shane mentioned to me that there were 16 on Thursday. Other changes since last weekend were 3 Osprey, a Greater Yellowlegs, a few more oystercatchers and lots of Killdeer.
There were still a couple of Red-necked Grebe spotted on the bay off Archery Road and some of the lingering Horned Grebes are transitioning to breeding plumage. The raft of thousands of overwintering scaup on Dead Horse Bay have been reduced to just several hundred. I think that this will be the first weekend since my sighting on November 27th of last year that Snowy Owl will NOT be on my Brooklyn list. I suppose it was inevitable. :`( Good birding, Rob
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Date: Saturday, March 29, 2014
Locations: Dead Horse Bay, Floyd Bennett Field
Species: 42
Notes: 9 observers; heavy cloud cover with rain eventually starting by 10:30am.
Brant
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal (2, Return a Gift Pond.)
Greater Scaup
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Ring-necked Pheasant
Common Loon (4.)
Horned Grebe (12.)
Red-necked Grebe (2, bay off Archery Rd.)
Double-crested Cormorant
Osprey (3.)
Red-tailed Hawk (1.)
American Oystercatcher (4.)
Killdeer (11.)
Greater Yellowlegs (1, Raptor Point Pond.)
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel (9.)
Tree Swallow (2 .)
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Eastern Meadowlark (1, singing in Field "G".)
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
Other common species seen (or heard):
Canada Goose, Mute Swan, American Black Duck, Mallard, Ring-billed Gull , Herring Gull , Great Black-backed Gull , Rock Pigeon, crow sp., Carolina Wren, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, House Sparrow
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