10,000 Birds

AUGUST 6, 2012

When you live in Queens and you only have one morning of an August weekend to go birding there is only one place to go – the East Pond of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Get out to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge’s East Pond and enjoy those shorebirds. What makes it so good? Shorebirds! Was it worth it? Well, it is. … a.

Jamaica 178

Jamaica Wildlife New York City Falcons 178

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2017

And it is even less frequent in New York City where we only have one species of hummingbird, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird , and they don’t nest very often. How many species can you identify singing in the background? It is not every day that you get the chance to see a hummingbird’s nest. She sits tight in this video.

Jamaica 100

Jamaica Wildlife New York City New York 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2020

A weekend that included well north of a hundred species is a difficult weekend for which to decide what is the Best Bird of the Weekend and Corey had that enviable task this weekend. Mourning Warblers are never a guaranteed bird in Queens and seeing one at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge was a real treat. How about you?

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2020 Jamaica New York Birds 352

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 14, 2023

This post is not a twitch, but it is much more fun to read if you first dwell upon the sentiments from the last picture of Corey’s post from East Pond, Jamaica Bay, 2015 It would be a bold birder that calls a Common Ringed Plover , Charadrius hiaticula where Semi-palmated Plover , C. semipalmatus is also an option.

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Iceland Stray Breeders Canada 209

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 31, 2015

Late morning this past Thursday, 27 August, I was on the East Pond of Jamaica Bay. Phalaropes of any species are a good bird in Queens and this was only my fourth Red-necked Phalarope sighting in my home borough, my first since May of 2011. In fact, it didn’t look like a peep at all.

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Jamaica Wildlife 2011 Rights 155

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 2, 2021

Corey went out onto the East Pond at Jamaica Bay both mornings this weekend and saw bunches of great birds. Normally, one of the two species that were new for him for the year (in this case, Least Bittern and Western Sandpiper ) would be his Best Bird of the Weekend.

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Jamaica Birds Experience Experiments 255

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 26, 2020

But his Best Bird of the Weekend was one he saw with his family on a visit to Jamaica Bay on Saturday evening. A distant American White Pelican on the East Pond was Corey’s 264th species in Queens this year, which tops his previous best by three species. Corey enjoyed some good birding on both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

2020 240

2020 Rabbits Jamaica Pelicans 240

10,000 Birds

JULY 2, 2024

Taking inspiration from Matthiessen’s 1967 book (long out of print), which combined his natural history essays with species accounts by Ralph S. Species Profile, Black-necked Stilt, p. 57; © 2024 by Pete Dunne and Kevin T.

North America 259

North America America 2006 Delaware 259

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 28, 2021

At least that’s where I added this species to my New York list. Corey went for a walk at Jamaica Bay with his family on Saturday evening, after the rain had stopped in New York City and went out again, alone, on Sunday morning before the rain picked back up.

Charlotte 244

Charlotte New York City New York Jamaica 244

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2020

Learn to read the signs, and you’ll be able to tell the time of year just by which species cross your path… I had the chance to observe some interesting avian activity along the lakeshore this weekend, but the Eastern Bluebirds down in rural Pennsylvania were most distinctively colorful, which counts for a lot with me.

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2020 Pennsylvania Jamaica Birds 163

10,000 Birds

APRIL 30, 2021

So, as I cracked open a can of Parula Pilsner this week, I decided to have a look back at my own history with this species. Since the trippy can art by Boston artist Ian Tartasky is a bit too visually ambiguous for a solid call between Northern and Tropical Parula, we can just pretend it’s whatever species we want.

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Jamaica Boston New York Peru 165

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2020

There are 17 species of Becard. One occurs only in Central America and Mexico, and another occurs only on the island of Jamaica. Just one species of Becard spills across the border into the U.S., I don’t see this species all that often, but when I do, it could be almost anywhere. Species seen? Not quite yet.

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South America Mexico America Panama 263

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2021

Of the 113 species they spotted it was hard to pick a single Best Bird of the Weekend, but the Common Nighthawk perched in the north garden at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge rose to the top of the heap. Corey got out for a not-very-big Big Day in Queens with some pals on Saturday. How can a goatsucker not be Best Bird of the Weekend?

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Soreing Jamaica Birds Collecting 153

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 25, 2014

Sunday morning was a perfect morning to get out on the East Pond of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. We saw a total of fifteen species of shorebirds but four stole the show – the peeps! It apparently derives from the typical call notes of the species which, broadly speaking, can sound like “peep.”

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Jamaica Wildlife Species Rights 179

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2014

Over three hundred species of birds have crossed my field of view in Queens in that time including thirty-eight thirty-nine species of shorebird. Now if only someone would find me a Whimbrel … Trips Buff-breasted Sandpiper county listing Jamaica Bay Queens shorebirds' I’ve lived in Queens since March of 2008.

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Jamaica 2008 Killing Wildlife 196

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2011

But, as with so many other species, these birds have been left to do their own whistle blowing. West Indian Whistling Ducks are the largest of the eight different whistling duck species. They are found in the Bahamas, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos, Antigua, Barbuda and Jamaica.

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Antigua and Barbuda Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Jamaica 219

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 11, 2014

Every single summer when I am out experiencing the mud and heat and shorebirds on the the East Pond of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge I find myself getting into the same silent argument with myself. Then, invariably,shortly thereafter I spot the other species and decide that it is better. … Birds Jamaica Bay shorebirds'

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Jamaica Wildlife Birds Species 165

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2021

Fascinated with New York’s Jamaica Bay, I started dreaming about creating a similar wetland reserve on the Danube inside Belgrade, the very area I explored. It is a spacious floodplain between the River Danube and the levee, 2.1 mi at its widest point and some 9 km2 / 3.5

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Serbia Boars Deer Otters 274

10,000 Birds

APRIL 21, 2012

On a recent walk around Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge I took the following picture. Here, let me zoom in for you… It’s a Gray Tree Frog , Hyla versicolor , a common species at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Why is it interesting? What if I give you a clue? Do you see it now? And do you know what it is?

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Jamaica Wildlife Species 155

10,000 Birds

JUNE 9, 2019

Of what he did see, a pair of Bald Eagles at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge was the highlight, a species that didn’t used to be around in June in Queens at all. The Blue-winged Warblers I always look forward to seeing were heard-only, but those beauteous blue buntings made the trip a success. How about you?

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2019 Bald Eagle Jamaica Eagles 115

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2015

He yelled a relatively unintelligible explanation as he ran to the car, abandoning his family, and sped to Jamaica Bay where he parked and ran out to the breach of the West Pond where he relied upon the kindness of other birders, who let him use their scopes while he got his breath back. How about you? What was your best bird of the weekend?

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Jamaica 2015 Abandoning Abandonment 162

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 31, 2019

I saw 863 species of birds, bringing my life list to 1,820. Such travel brings a lot of birds and the 863 species I saw this year is the most species I have ever seen. How can I narrow down the eight-hundred-sixty-three species to ten? How can I, by listing only ten, call eight-hundred-fifty-three species not worthy?

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2019 Barbados Uganda Costa Rica 138

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 29, 2018

The focus of the trip was ducks and we hit a couple of hotspots in central Queens, Baisley Pond Park and Willow Lake Preserve, and then we took a quick stop at World’s Fair Marina to track down a few more species. That led me to wonder just how many species of waterfowl can be found in a day’s birding in Queens.

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Geese New York City Ducks Jamaica 111

10,000 Birds

MAY 22, 2019

Finding more birds won out and I took the short ride to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge where I enjoyed a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at the feeders, the singing Yellow Warblers , and the generally expected birds at Jamaica Bay in May. Wait, what about other thrasher species? That individual was also at Jamaica Bay.)

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Jamaica New York Owls Eggs 113

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

It was almost a month ago that I wondered how many species of ducks, geese, and swans could be found in my home borough of Queens in a single day this winter if I really put forth the effort. If I could just find all three scoters, an eider, and a couple good geese I could make it to twenty-nine species! Gadwall at Baisley Pond Park.

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Geese Jamaica Ducks Barn Owls 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 19, 2018

It divides countries into categories, where the next category has 200 more species. In some cases the data are outdated, e.g. Costa Rica has 900 and not 800 species, but I made no corrections, remaining faithful to the original map data. Shown as a list, it looks like this: Less than 200 bird species: Antarctica; oceanic islands.

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Equatorial Guinea Costa Rica Central African Republic Guyana 193

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2011

“Jah Man (pronounced Jamon )&# is something you will hear often when visiting Jamaica. When our local driver asked me in Patois, an English-lexified creole language unique to Jamaica, if we would like to go and see Jamaican Owl , I had no idea what he was talking about. “Yu wan cu pan da patoo wid dem big eyes?

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Owls Jamaica Cats Rights 179

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2019

beats have still managed to share 82 checklists and accounted for 737 species. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. Jamaica Bay, Big Egg Marsh. 01 Jun 2019.

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2019 Jamaica Eggs Woodpeckers 119

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2015

With migration about to kick into gear all over the world, birders might want to think about what species to keep eyes out for week by week. Corey, on the other hand, will probably be doting over dowitchers at Jamaica Bay. Curious about the first Birdcast of the season? Check out the 14-21 August 2015 Regional Migration Forecast.

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2015 North America Jamaica America 154

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2011

That is until a recent Nikon’s BATV film trip to Jamaica revealed a unique avian femme fatale, the Crested Quail-dove -- also known colloquially as the mountain witch. A Crested Quail-dove by Biswarup Satpati Crested Quail-doves are found in limited habitat in the Blue Mountains and John Crow Mountains of eastern Jamaica.

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Hunting Jamaica Blackbirds Transported 209

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

I am shocked to be writing this post already, and doubly shocked that I’ve seen six new species for Queens since I guessed what my next five Queens birds would be just eight months ago, back in March. Eastern Whip-Poor-Will : It’s kind of amazing how rarely this species is reported in Queens. I’ll make it three!

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New York City Birds New York Blackbirds 151

10,000 Birds

MAY 13, 2013

I decided to spend my day Friday birding the heck out of my home borough to see how many species I could track down for the day. Nonetheless, I ended up with 124 species of birds in Queens in the just-over-twelve-hours I spent birding. Still, any day in New York City with 124 species is a day well worth experiencing!

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Jamaica Oakland New York City Bats 149

10,000 Birds

APRIL 5, 2015

Corey had quite a few species to choose from this weekend but decided that his Best Bird of the Weekend was the simple Tree Swallow. In particular, he picked one of the many that has already staked out a claim to a nest box at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. This time, we spotted two shaggy cranes flying across the wetlands.

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2015 Jamaica New York Birds 182

10,000 Birds

MARCH 23, 2020

Sedge Wren – There are records of this species in Queens, generally along the coast in fall. Great Shearwater – At this point, seabirds are my weakest family in Queens with the most species having reported in the borough that I have not seen. It leaves Barnacle Goose as the last remotely possible goose species for me to add. (0

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2018 2019 2015 Kansas City 158

10,000 Birds

MARCH 10, 2012

Sometimes a species just stops you in your tracks. So it was with a superlative, breeding-plumaged, male Scarlet Tanager today at Jamaica Bay. The particular Scarlet Tanager that caused my jaw to hit the ground today was found foraging in small trees on the west side of the West Pond at Jamaica Bay.

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Jamaica Collecting 2009 Breeding 168

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 13, 2017

For example, I saw all kinds of special species this weekend, but nothing impressed me more than displays of the tyranny of tiny birds. Corey enjoyed visits to the East Pond of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge on both Saturday and Sunday. First, I witnessed Ruby-throated Hummingbirds haranguing a Cedar Waxwing in suburban Rochester.

2017 113

2017 Jamaica Birds Wildlife 113

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 2, 2011

10,000 Birds writers have previously featured 2 of the 7 species (Renato’s post on Rufous Potoo and Corey’s post on Great Potoo ) and now you’ll meet a third, the “Patoo with the long bill&# as it is called by the Jamaicans or the Northern Potoo , Nyctibius jamaicensis. “Whhhaaaaaaa, whu whu whu whu whu whu&#.

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Costa Rica Jamaica Eggs Cooking 237