The 17th Annual Shorebird Festival at Jamaica Bay took place on August 13, 2022. It was nice to see many old friends at there. The weather couldn’t have been better. Not too hot and with a brisk breeze at the East Pond to drive away the mosquitos.
A short trip to Jamaica bay netted these. It was great to see that the East Pond is once more accessible. This is thanks to the efforts of dedicated birders like Andrew Baksh, who worked with Gateway National Recreation Area to see to it the the pumps were repaired. The water levels are now maintained at a lower levels so that both shorebirds and birders may use the shores of the pond.
I had fun editing these images. I knew I wanted to create lots of atmosphere and a dark mood when I photographed these. The Snow Geese will be leaving soon. Read-winged Blackbirds are singing away as are the Song Sparrows. Ospreys are building their nests. And I saw 5 Black-bellied Plovers at Floyd Bennett Field.
Lightroom and mostly Photoshop in Windows 11 keeps randomly freezing. I wonder if anyone else is having trouble with it. I pushed Photoshop hard to make it freeze while I made these. I have a new super fast computer, an Alienware Aurora R213. Dell replaced the graphics card. Microsoft had me make a new profile. Adobe techs tried everything they could. 20 tech calls later and it is still no good.
While I tidy up my archives I paused to make this image.
We had a brief but rewarding trip out to Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, New York on the 15th of August. I added a few new odonates to my life list. I learned the word odonates from my fellow Linnaean NY members. September starts the new Zoom meetings and they are free. You may attend one from anywhere or view a recording of one if the timing isn’t right linnaeannewyork.org. The first one on September 14 will be about Bats.
On Januray 9th we went to Jamaica Bay very briefly. It was very cold and windy and I didn’t see many birds. I was feeling a bit moody and these images reflect that (click to view gallery).
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.
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.
Sherry Felix - port4u 