Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is a very special place for birds in New York City. In the summer and fall this year, this national park hosted some outstanding visitors on the East Pond.
Each year the water levels of the East Pond are lowered to reveal mudflats, allowing birders to walk along the edges in waders or boots, depending on the rainfall. If it is a good year, as 2024 was, we can walk from the south end to the north end in just our hiking shoes. Among the special birds I got to see this year were red-necked phalaropes, soras, avocets, pipits, and a white pelican, as well as regular visitors like greater and lesser yellowlegs, long- and short-billed dowitchers, least sandpipers, semipalmated sandpipers and plovers, black-bellied plovers, lots and lots of ducks, mute swans (the list goes on and on). (I will note that when I say “good year,” I mean it in terms of being able to walk the pond. This year’s lack of rainfall is not really “good,” as there have been many recent wildfires attributed to drought in our parks all over the area.)
I hope to post blogs on many of these birds in the next few weeks. Today’s entry features the sora, a very special rail that has eluded me for years. Soras (Porzana carolina) are somewhat secretive marsh rails that like to hide out in cattails and reeds. While they are not particularly rare in the New York area, they are not always easy to spot. While I have seen reports of soras before, the first time I was actually able to find and photograph one was at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in September.
Sora, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge East Pond, September 3
I took many, many photos of this bird on September 3 and 6, and of perhaps a second sora on September 14. These are some of the photos (more can be seen on the sora page).
There is a video of this sora (and maybe a second sora), featuring music based on Edvard Grieg compositions (added because the natural sound was mainly geese and the A train).
A note: While this is the first blog entry of 2024 featuring the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, I have posted photos and a video of two red-necked phalaropes seen on August 26 at the north end of the East Pond.
Red-necked phalaropes, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, August 26, 2024
I understand that Andrew Baksh, a fantastic birder and a leader of Linnaean walks on the East Pond, has been active in creating paths through the phragmites and removing poison ivy so that birders can more safely see these birds. While in the past I have unintentionally sat in the muck on the East Pond, his work made this year’s treks much safer and more enjoyable. My gratitude for everything he and his fellow volunteers have done to make this special place even more special.