An Evening Walk at Breezy Point

I visited my friend at Breezy Point, Rockaways, Queens, NY. After dinner we walked along the beach for awhile. There was a beautiful sunset. Nice evening with a friend.

Baby, Babies Everywhere

In Maine, where I try to escape to as soon as school is over, we found a nesting Eastern Phoebe over the kitchen door. It is the perfect place; a small ledge under/protected by a porch. The first day there I could see two little beaks coming up when mom arrived, but mom was also still sitting. A couple days later I could make out three babies. On the last day as I took pictures there were four babies with open beaks!

Mom or dad on the look out for bugs, juicy bugs.

When I returned from Maine I went to Breezy Point to see Common Tern babies. I found babies of all sizes and ages. Those still under mom are 1-3 days old usually. They were so much fun to watch.

Fish please! Down here, don't you see us.

I don't want the grass, I want a fish, please!

Hope you are all enjoying the summer. Shore birds are coming back, Yeah!

Courtship Dance of Least Terns and Marsh Makers at Rocky Point

All right, it took me more than overnight to put these up. After my morning at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, I went to Breezy Point with my friend Andrea. First we walked along the ocean side of Breezy. There were several black bellied plovers, seagulls and willets. But the best were seeing the 3 American Oystercatcher chicks. Too cute!


After lunch we walked along the Bay from the  Bay House toward the bridge. It was a beautiful day. As we were walking along we came to the Marsh at Rocky Point. This was a favorite of ours last year. We would check on the willets that were nesting there. We didn't see any willets but through our binoculars we saw a young man who looked to be cleaning up the marsh: Our hint he was wearing waders, long rubber gloves and hauling wood junk. Now I had heard of a couple of days this spring when some groups helped out to clean up the marsh but I didn't have any idea that someone was volunteering to do this on an ongoing basis. Anyway the young man started toward us so we waited and greeted him. Shervin started the project of cleaning up the marsh in November of 2010. He has a blog that follows the progress of the marsh cleanup. This is very exciting and Andrea and I will be helping out at the next volunteer day you can bet. You can view Shervin's blog at marshmakers.blogspot.com

After meeting Shervan we continued our walk. We saw several Black-bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Great Egret, Green Heron, Least Terns, Brant Geese, Merganzer, Oystercatcher and Spotted Sandpipers.


Spotted Sandpiper (Actitus macularia)

    

Semipalmated plover



Herring Gulls (acting like the Doublemint Twins)

America Oystercatcher (Haematopus pallistus)

 

The best part of the walk was the courtship of least terns that we observed. I wish I had video for the first time, but I think you'll get the idea.

Breezy...at Breezy Point

I went with my friend out to Breezy Point last Saturday. It had been ages since I had been out birding or even out much. But boy was it breezy. We walked along the bay side for a bit but there weren't many birds about (they were smarter than us:). Then we walked for a sahorter time on the ocean side. Saw a few sanderlings. The wind was blowing sand which made for some pretty beach sand patterns. I waited for some crashing waves and shot a couple of pictures. Later we walked along the bay beach closest to the gate. I didn't take my camera that time. We saw some common mergansers, american black ducks and buffleheads. It was great to see birds!



Sanderling (Calidris alba)



Common Tern Study

Shore Birds: Eggs, Nests and Chicks

Had a wonderful walk at Breezy Point on Saturday with my friend Andrea.  Just to be walking on the beach on a sunny but cool day was so relaxing, and the birds were spectacular!
Nesting Tern

The greeting committee as you enter the beach! They actually are not shy about sh-- on you....

These two Black Skimmers could be  Football Refs: Score!!! 

Sanderling changing to breeding plumage

Oystercatcher parents and chicks

3 Oystercatcher chicks

The eggs were sometimes just laying on the beach, well out of the nesting restricted area, so you had to watch where you were walking.

Piping Plover

Black Skimmers