Summer Tanager is a bird of the southeast US, rare up here, and though the picture is grainy you can see that it was singing. Singing up a storm, literally, as this was just before a big one whipped up; perhaps the bird was weather-inspired?
Green Heron
As landbird migration slows down I’ve spent some time closer to home at Calvert Vaux Park on Gravesend Bay at the Coney Island Creek outlet, where spawning Horseshoe Crabs attract shorebirds like this Willet.
With Semipalmated Plover
Vaux Park also provided my most surprising bird of the spring, this Seaside Sparrow.
A drab and skulky member of the shy Ammodramus genus, Seaside is rarely seen outside of its saltmarsh nesting colonies. There are a few of these nearby, along the Long Island coast and on Staten Island, but for me it was a new species, and a highlight of the season.
That season is drawing to a close. Most of the migrants are now passed through, and local birds are on the nest. Summer is a few weeks off, but the merry month of May (when birds do sing) is quickly passing away; only so many in a lifetime…
Hey ding-a-ding-a-ding…
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Summer Tanager is a bird of the southeast US, rare up here, and though the picture is grainy you can see that it was singing. Singing up a storm, literally, as this was just before a big one whipped up; perhaps the bird was weather-inspired?
Green Heron
As landbird migration slows down I’ve spent some time closer to home at Calvert Vaux Park on Gravesend Bay at the Coney Island Creek outlet, where spawning Horseshoe Crabs attract shorebirds like this Willet.
With Semipalmated Plover
Vaux Park also provided my most surprising bird of the spring, this Seaside Sparrow.
A drab and skulky member of the shy Ammodramus genus, Seaside is rarely seen outside of its saltmarsh nesting colonies. There are a few of these nearby, along the Long Island coast and on Staten Island, but for me it was a new species, and a highlight of the season.
That season is drawing to a close. Most of the migrants are now passed through, and local birds are on the nest. Summer is a few weeks off, but the merry month of May (when birds do sing) is quickly passing away; only so many in a lifetime…
Hey ding-a-ding-a-ding…
- alex 5-29-2007 3:42 pm