Field Notes: Jamaica Bay and Nassau County 8-10

Field Notes: Jamaica Bay and Nassau County 8-10 – 8-13…

On August 10th, while studying shorebirds at Jamaica Bay on the one area that was available for the smaller peeps, “the raunt”, I found 2 Marbled Godwits north of where I was. The birds provided outstanding views and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them calling back and forth to each other. In addition, to the 2 Marbled Godwits, I had one Hudsonian Godwit also north of the raunt, this was presumed to be the same bird that Bobby Kurtz and I had found on July 24th. That bird had been reported sporadically since it was found, so it was a guess that it was the same one. The Marbled Godwits sighting was late in the evening and I put out a post online with plans to get out the next day with better light to see what else might have blown in.

The next day I was held up from hitting the East Pond as scheduled by taking a call on my cell that went on for too long (thanks Gary). While on the phone, a call came in from birder Doug Gochfeld who hung up before I could pick up the line and he did not leave a message. Minutes later as I got into my car, I picked up a message on the list serve that Shane Blodgett had found 2 immature White Ibis on the East Pond. That was a pretty good sighting and it would have been a county bird, had I made it in time. Unfortunately, I made it to the East Pond a couple of minutes after the birds had taken off heading south. Later, Shane, Doug and I did search another area for the birds, but they were not relocated and not found after that morning. It was a terrific day for Shane, who not only found the 2 White Ibis, but also found the 2 Marbled Godwits and also 2 Hudsonian Godwits. I enjoyed looks at the Marbled and Hudsonian Godwits, but missed out on the White Ibis. Here is a link to some of Shane’s White Ibis photos. Later in the week, I made it out to Jones Beach on the 13th where I also connected with another Hudsonain Godwit that was hanging out on the spit by the Coast Guard Station. It was a Nassau County first for me and my third Hudsonian Godwit for the year. Here are some photos.