Migrating Shorebirds on Raritan Bay

Yesterday morning I was out on Middlesex County's Raritan Bay coastline to see what sorts of waterbirds might be moving through. Even though it was not as hot as a few weeks ago, the heat affected me more than I expected, so that I felt a little sick at times. As a result, I did not spend as much time on the beaches as I otherwise might have and probably saw fewer bird species.

The first stop was the mudflats at Cliff Avenue in South Amboy. As usual, the spit was lined with birds, most of which turned out to be common gulls (Laughing, Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed). A few terns, mostly Least and Common, rounded out the numbers. Two Black Skimmers skimmed just offshore, sometimes in tandem and sometimes separately. A few shorebirds were about, particularly Willets and Greater Yellowlegs. Two Spotted Sandpipers were working the high tide line on the beach. The most impressive sight, though, was the large aggregation of egrets. At least fifteen Great Egrets were perched in a grove of trees; a few are shown above. A similar number of Snowy Egrets worked the shallow water just off the beach. Among them were two Little Blue Herons (a new county bird for me) and one Great Blue Heron.

The second stop was Pirate's Cove in Cliffwood Beach. I was no sooner in the parking lot than I saw a stocky heron fly up out of the near side of the creek, over the road, and land on the other side. Immediately sensing what it was, I crossed the road and found the bird standing on the west side of the creek – a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, my second county bird for the day.

The beach itself had a similar assortment of species as the South Amboy mudflats. One new species for the day was Boat-tailed Grackle; a few were out on one of the sandbars. Pirate's Cove provided a better viewing distance of Common Terns and Willets than South Amboy did. Flocks of terns right now show a mixture of adults and juveniles. One juvenile yesterday was begging nonstop, letting anyone who would listen know about how hungry it was. Most of the terns around it just kept preening or resting. Its parents were out catching fish and brought back an occasional morsel to feed it.

Loose Feathers #302

Common tern preening at Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex / USFWS Photo

Birds and birding news

• Green Woodhoopoes give each other massage-like grooming sessions. The grooming seems to reinforce social bonds within a flock.
• Tricolored Blackbirds in California have declined by about a third over the past three years despite conservation efforts.
• A federal court this week heard arguments in a case concerning grazing rights in Greater Sage-Grouse feeding areas.
• Federal officials are investigating the deaths of six Golden Eagles at the Pine Tree Wind Project in California's Tehachapi Mountains. Overall bird mortality at that site was high compared to other wind farms around the country, with an average of 1,595 birds killed each year.
• Human disturbance in one area can cause problems for animals in nearby areas, according to a study of Short-toed Eagles and Long-legged Buzzards in the Judean foothills.
• Great Tits in the U.K. are increasingly affected by avian pox, which can be transmitted between birds and through bird feeders. 
• Male birds with the showiest plumage and most complex courtship displays tend to age more quickly than other males.
• Madagascar is well known for its endemic species; one endemic bird is the Velvet Asity.
• A locally famous Bald Eagle in Seattle was struck and killed by a bus on one of the city's bridges.

Nature blogging

• eBird News: eBird and the Gray-hooded Gull
• Anything Larus: The Coney Island Gray-hooded Gull
• The Thoughtful Animal: Humans Aren’t The Only Ones Who Need To Avoid The Heat: How Birds Avoid Scrambled Eggs
• Birding in Maine: Fight of the Hummingbirds
• Sibley Guides: The mystery of the Orange-throated hummingbirds
• Round Robin: Science at work: How many kinds of Red Crossbills are there, anyway?
• The House and other Arctic musings: A long time coming
• 10,000 Birds: Common Tern Chicks Walk to the Water
• Coffee and Conservation: What does “organic” really mean?
• Honey Bee Suite: Fifteen ways to attract pollinators to your yard 
• Beetles In The Bush: Cylindera cursitans (Ant-like Tiger Beetle) in Arkansas
• The Way of the Sparrow: Leucistic European Starling
• Rob's Idaho Perspective: Plucking the data for the verdict

Environment and biodiversity

• A study in the United Kingdom found that urban bees tend to have better survival rates than rural ones. The authors suggest that crop monoculture is responsible for the shorter lives of rural bees, which have little to feed on once the predominant crops are done blooming. Meanwhile urban bees can forage almost year-round on the plantings in parks and gardens.
• The Mount Charleston Blue has become increasingly difficult to find.
• Scientists in New York City are studying how animals in and around the city are evolving to cope with the challenges of living in an urban area. For example, most of the city's parks are separated enough from each other that the white-footed mouse populations in each park are reproductively isolated. Bottom-dwelling fish in the Hudson have become resistant to the effects of PCBs.
• A new study finds that protected areas, while important, are insufficient to save Earth's biodiversity.
• Somerset County in New Jersey plans to expand its urban power generation project by installing solar panels at an additional 31 locations.

Carnivals

• Berry Go Round #42
• Festival of the Trees #62

Backyard Predators

A walk around a backyard can show plenty of predators, even without hawks or large mammals around. It just means looking down at the flowers or ground for invertebrates instead of up. The wasp above appears to be in genus Isodontia, probably I. apicalis or I. mexicana.

Despite their fearsome appearance (and more fearsome stingers), wasps are useful to have around. Most wasps and hornets prey on other insects and help control garden pests. Wasps in genus Isodontia have been recorded preying on tree crickets and related insects, many of which feed on leaves and fruit. Wasps also assist in pollination (though not to the same extent as bees), like this wasp is doing.

Another insect predator was this robber fly (possibly Efferia aestuans or a related species). I am not sure what its prey is.

This crab spider was lurking in plain sight on top of a flower. Crab spiders have a remarkable ability to blend into their surroundings so that they can strike when an unwary insect comes close. Because of their stealthy approach, crab spiders sometimes take prey much larger than themselves.

Gray-hooded Gull at Coney Island

Over the past week, I have been watching reports of a vagrant Gray-hooded Gull, from happy birders who saw it and frustrated birders who missed it. The gull has been present at Coney Island since at least July 24; whether it arrived earlier than that is unknown. However, its presence was only reported publicly several days later, after an eBird reviewer figured out that the Black-headed Gull reported to eBird was really a Gray-hooded Gull. That set birders in motion, both New York birders who wanted to see the gull for their state and county lists and birders from other states who wanted the potential life bird. Andrew, Corey, and Rob have all seen it, and even The New York Times and New York took notice.

The reason for all this fuss is that the Gray-hooded Gull (Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus) is very rare in North America. The species is called Gray-hooded Gull by the A.O.U., but elsewhere it is known as Gray-headed Gull. Only one other individual has been documented in the United States, in Florida in 1998 (pdf). Peter Harrison's Seabirds: An Identification Guide shows two populations: one in central South America, ranging from the southeastern coast of Brazil to the Pacific coast, and the other in Africa south of the Sahara. According to Howell and Dunn's Gulls of the Americas, the South American population is slightly larger and has paler uppersides and head markings. There has been some discussion over which population this bird came from. To me, South America makes the most sense since a lot of birds migrate between North and South America anyway; it could have joined a northbound flock this spring and wandered around. Then again, we get an occasional bird from Africa on the East Coast, so that may not be ruled out completely.

Anyway, yesterday I went to Coney Island to try to see the bird myself. As I rode the trains, first NJ Transit and then a series of subway lines, I hoped that the Gray-hooded Gull would make an appearance that afternoon. When I arrived, I found a cluster of birders on the boardwalk. They had not seen it yet, but soon enough another birder walked past and indicated that the gull was a little way down the beach. Sure enough, it was sitting on top of a yellow metal pole, with a group of birders clustered around it. The poles were out on the beach, somewhere between 10th and 12th Streets. If you click through the photo and click on the map in the right column, you can see the approximate location.

The gull seemed fairly tolerant of people; I imagine that a bird would have to be pretty tolerant in order to take up residence at a place as busy as Coney Island. (Even on a weekday, the beach was crowded with sunbathers and swimmers.) The gull stood still as several people walked by, but then a woman with a clipboard walked right up to the pole, and the gull flushed. It flushed a few times as I stood on the beach watching it. Each time it picked a pole that had a Laughing Gull on it and made the Laughing Gull vacate the pole so that it could take its perch.

When I was satisfied with my looks at the Gray-hooded Gull, I walked a bit down the boardwalk to see what other birds might be around. I walked out the long fishing pier and found some Common Terns, Barn Swallows, and a mix of gulls on the water. Including the Gray-headed Gull, I added six species to my Brooklyn list.

If you have not seen the Gray-hooded Gull yet, and have the time this week to do it, I recommend going to see it. The location is easy to reach both by car and by public transportation, and it is easy to find the bird once you get there. The gull has been appearing pretty reliably in the area around the 12th Street entrance, especially in the afternoons. This is a great find and one that may not be repeated for a long time.

Leafhopper

Some buzzing insects drew my attention to this leafhopper, which was perched on a blade of grass. This insect is so tiny that I would have walked right past it if I had not stopped to look for the source of the sound. (I never did find the insects making the sound, by the way.) I think this belongs to genus Draeculacephala, which are recognized by their pointed snouts. The species in it are all very similar; perhaps someone with more experience could narrow it down. Leafhoppers in that genus are known as "sharpshooters" and dwell in grassy areas.