Surf Scoter, Governor's Island

One thing about birding is, you never know what's going to turn up.

Saturday I went out to Governor's Island. I wanted to look for this year's Yellow-Crowned Night Heron nest, which I had a heck of a time finding, and check on how the Common Tern colony was doing, and see what else might be around.

I found a nest up a tree sort of in the area the Heron was supposed to be, and watched it for a half-hour or so. It turned out to be the wrong nest. Oh well. Since I was close to the west edge of the island, I took a break to see what might be on the water. I spotted some terns and Laughing Gulls down the shore and decided to stroll over there and try to get some photos of the birds fishing. I was interrupted by a couple who wanted me to take their picture.

It pays to be polite. It was only after I had finished that that I spotted an odd black duck swimming south maybe twenty yards out. I might have missed it if I had gone trotting off towards the gulls. It turned out to be a Scoter, which is unusual in this area in June--they should all be up around Hudson's Bay--and almost unheard of in New York County at any time. Almost all of the eBird sightings are from right after Hurricane Sandy--water birds often get blown great distances in storm systems.

This bird is a Surf Scoter, I believe--the bill is quite distinctive, though Surf Scoter males usually have big white patches on the forehead and nape of the neck (fishermen call them "skunk coots"). However, I think young males can show this all-dark plumage, and that black spot at the base of the bill really doesn't occur in other Scoters. This appears to be the first sighting of a Surf Scoter at Governor's Island. It's also probably the coolest bird I've ever found myself.

I eventually found the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron nest. I'll talk about that some other time, though.

Breaking News!

There's been a lot of stuff happening. Here's a quick rundown:

Fall migration has begun

first warbler of the Fall

I had my first warbler of the Fall migration season on Wednesday, A Yellow Warbler calling constantly and foraging in the trees beside the dock at Turtle Pond.

Also at Turtle Pond, a pair Kingbirds had nested above the dock, but I haven't seen any signs of fledglings, and today Junko Suzuki notices that they seemed to gathering more nesting material. I saw that as well, after she pointed it out. Do Kingbirds ever re-nest if they've had a nesting failure, or start a second brood after fledging the first? I've read that they only ever have one brood.

Tern festival!

TERN FESTIVAL

Elena and I went to Governor's Island on Sunday for the Audubon Tern Festival. It was too hot for us to do any of the bird walks, but we did have a nice look at the colony on Yankee Pier.

OMG baby terns

The fledgling terns are coming along nicely. Terns will re-nest if there's a problem with their first batch of eggs, so the baby terns range from these fuzzy globular chicks to well-plumaged adolescents.

Man, are they all noisy.

Governors Island Yellow-Crowned Night Heron update

we're a happy family

The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron nest on Governors Island has not just one, not two, not three, but four baby birds in it (you can see three in that photo). It was a 90-degree day, and the parents and nestlings were visibly panting. I had the impression that the adults were mostly standing there to shade the young ones.

They're about three weeks old (Ben Cacace first saw a nestling on July 2, and it was not more than a couple of days old at that point). They are supposed to take 30 to 42 days to leave the nest, so we're looking at the very end of July or the first week or two of August for the fledging.

There's also a second nest on the island--I don't know where, exactly--but the reports sound like the same male might be responsible for both. I have not heard about any nestlings there.

There's a very nice YouTube video of the nest, by Cathy (who is quoteny on YouTube and @Cathyewe on twitter).

Also on Governors Island, we saw a large number of Brown Cowbirds, none of them adult males; many seemed to be juveniles to my eyes. Anyone know what's up with that?

Governors Island

On Sunday I made my annual pilgrimage out to Governors Island. As always, I saw barn Swallows swooping around the lawn in front of Fort Jay as soon as I got off the Ferry. This year, there's a special attraction--a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron nest, apparently the first ever on the island.

I was able to find the nest due to excellent directions from Ben Cacace. Ben maintains a great set of pages about NYC-area birding hotspots. Here's the one about Governors Island

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron nest

The usual major attraction has always been the nest colonies of Common Terns on the piers of the east side of the island. Two of the piers are in the part of the island still closed to tourists, but the third is at Yankee Pier, where the ferry from Brooklyn arrives. I think this is the only Common Tern nesting area in the region.

Common Tern nesting area on Yankee Pier

Terns nest right out in the open, building a small cairn of pebbles and shells.

Tern on nest

I'm going to try to get out to the island again in July when the eggs hatch.

There are other breeding birds on Governors Island as well. At Ligget's Terrace, which is where the food trucks are, I stopped to watch this singing Mockingbird.

Sing out!

After he flew off, I noticed that a Herring Gull was repeatedly diving on a man walking by. It was quite a sight. He stopped to talk for a few minutes--the gull screaming and diving all though the conversation--and I directed him to the tern colony. It was only after he left that I spotted the baby gulls on a path nearby.

Even baby gulls are cute. Look, they're like little Kiwis!

There's a field nearby on the west edge of the island, slated for eventual development but currently home to several Herring Gull and Great Black-Backed Gull nests.

Before going back to the ferry, I visited the heron nest again. The bird was quite undisturbed by the many passers-by, or by the large number of crows (American and Fish Crow both). I suspect the crows do not want to deal with that massive sharp bill.

in command of the situation

Start of summer birding

Spring migration is over, and attention turns to unusual nesters and the occasional accidental sighting.

I went up to Inwood Hill Park Tuesday, following a report of Eastern Screech Owls (maybe transients, maybe taking up residence). I didn't find them, but I eventually made my way to Hudson River promenade, where there were quite a number of Mockingbirds and Song Sparrows.

Song Sparrow, singing

In between looking at them, I scanned the water--there was a goose family swimming across the river--and the Jersey cliffs. I caught sight of a tiny bright flash of white, and in my binoculars I saw a bird with a white head and tail, and an all-dark body and very long, all-dark wings. It could be nothing else but a Bald Eagle--as Peterson says, the bird is "all field mark".

I watched the eagle climb a thermal, high and higher, then glide north on flat wings and disappear in the haze. There were a couple of nesting pairs on the Palisades last year, perhaps this was one of them. It would certainly be very late for a migrating eagle.

No photo, alas. I could not get my camera to focus on such a small moving target so far away. I think it would have been about 20 pixels long even if I had snapped it.

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The next day, I went out to Governor's Island to look at the nesting colony of Common Terns. I really don'r recommend going there on a weekday. Many of the areas listed as being open to the public are in fact blocked by construction, including a lot of the shore. Yankee Pier, where the most accessible nesting colony is, is a ferry terminal on weekends, but during the week it is padlocked lest someone steal it. You can only get a distant view of the terns from the shore.

red-billed agents of the Common Tern

I did get a nice sculptural shot of some nearby cormorants resting.

sculptural seabirds

There were a lot of crows around. Some were silent, some cawed like American Crows, but several gave the distinctive nasal double call of the Fish Crow. (How do you tell a Fish Crow? Ask a crow it's an American Crow, and a Fish Crow will say "Nunh-unh! Nunh-unh!")

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The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is still on her nest at the Upper Lobe of Central Park Lake. The nest is now festooned with lichen, just like it says in the books.

hummingbird home decoration

The surrounding area is festooned with birders and photographers.

People are saying this is the first recorded hummingbird nest in Central Park. I don't know how it works with hummingbirds--if she has already laid the eggs, or if she is ready to lay but can hold them until the nest is ready, or if she's actually still in need of a male. In that last case, this may not turn out well--it's kind of late for hummingbirds to come through.

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I'm finding it as hard to write about identifying Empidonax flycatchers as it is ti identify them in the first place, so that post may be a while. For now, let me just count up: I had Acadian, Yellow-Bellied, and Alder flycatchers (in addition to Least), which got me to 164 species. The Bald Eagle, Common Tern, and Fish Crow make it 167 in the county. Last year, I got my 167th species in November (and was at 145 on this date), so it continues to be a busy year.