Went to Central Park yesterday to checkout a new model of hearing aids to see how they work on bird calls. We were amused to see a young Red-tailed Hawk trying to catch squirrels at the feeders. No luck!
It’s been a long time since I went to Jones Beach on a Linnaean Society of NY field trip. I enjoyed the trip. It was nice seeing old friends. I was unable to photograph the snowy owl because of a couple of unethical photographers who went closer than 100 feet and spooked the owl. We went in search of the vagrant Spotted Towhee at Baldwin Park but we didn’t find it. Because I was with a group of birders rather than photographers I didn’t get many photos.
The Common Eiders were diving for mussels at the Coast Guard Station. Monk Parakeets are colonizing New York. They are originally form Argentina.
My main goal at E. B. Forsythe NWR was to see some Snow Geese – mission accomplished. We also saw a Snowy Owl way off in the marsh and an immature Bald Eagle. It is so relaxing to drive around the loop with my scope and camera. The weather on Sunday was shirtsleeve warm.
A couple of days ago we went shopping by car. On the way on Horatio Street a robin was eating cherries. After shopping at Whole Foods we sat at a bench by the Gowanus Canal by the parking lot and ate lunch. It was fun watching the boats and drawbridge. Lastly, we drove to Red Hook (link to history) to briefly shop at the Food Bazaar.
A short trip to Central Park.
For Thanksgiving we took our friend Barbara with us to eat at Tatiana, a Russian restaurant, on the boardwalk at Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York for lunch. We all had red borscht, I had duck, and Barbara and I shared a huge Pavlova for desert. That was so good! After that we went to Jamaica Bay, part of Gateway NRA in Broad Channel for the sunset.
We took a walk up top pier 63, Hudson River Park. One of the new features in my Nikon Z 7 is something called Focus Shift Shooting. The camera will take up to 300 shots at sequential focus settings. This is good for macro photography. Then the images are stacked and merged in Photoshop. I took 20 focus shift shots for the first photo below. I look forward to experimenting with this feature.
Yesterday Marc, my friend Paula and I went to Brighton Beach and ate lunch at one of the the Russian Restaurants on the boardwalk. I love the OT decorations. The food was good. After that we drove to Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, part of Gateway NRA. It was late afternoon and very windy and atmospheric. A storm was brewing. No snow geese for me yet. I’ll try another time.
