Fall Trip to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

 

October 11 was a bit of a gloomy Saturday but we wanted to go on an outing before several days of predicted rain. The great egrets and other birds didn't mind the clouds, and we enjoyed looking back at Lower Manhattan  through the mist.  

There were still a couple of ospreys fishing around the bay, but the nest was empty and they will be going south soon. 

Osprey

The mallards will mostly stay around for the winter.

Mallard male

And so will the American black ducks. 

The Canada Geese might go south, or maybe stick around instead.

Over at the East Pond by the subway tracks, there were clusters of migrating egrets along the shoreline. 

Further north in the east pond there were packs of beautiful but invasive European mute swans. 

In the water, there were many groups of ducks in drab non-breeding plumage. In this group I believe the larger back one is a Northern shoveler, the middle two are blue-winged teals, and the front two are green-winged teals.  

Here is a pair of ruddy ducks. I didn't recognize them at first because I am used to seeing the male with a bright blue bill (as well as a big white cheek spot). 

All of a sudden a whole bunch of birds, many of them gulls, seemed to get spooked and decided to fly up. When I looked closely at the photo I wondered what the striped looking bird was on the upper left. 

I'm pretty sure it was an American Wigeon, which I found among a group in the water in another photo. 

On land, as we walked around the Wildlife Refuge path we didn't see many birds in the trees, until we suddenly came to a group of yellow-rumped warblers eating berries, bittersweet I think. 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

The main bird activity was definitely by the water.