Oh, Those Golden Slippers!

The yellow "slippers" on the snowy egrets set them apart from other herons like the great egret. I saw my first snowy egrets in July 2015 at Marine Park in Brooklyn, and spent much of the summer of 2017 watching these beautiful birds with great personalities at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, Wolfe's Pond and Lemon Creek Park on Staten Island, Marine Park, and Pelham Bay Park, near Orchard Beach, in the Bronx.

Snowy egret, Wolfe's Pond, Staten Island, September 1, 2017

Snowy egret, October 19, 2017, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

These beautiful birds were so much fun to film. I have posted two videos in the Filming the Feathers series, the first covering July 25, 2015, to September 21, 2017, and Part II from September 29 to October 21, 2017. You can watch them catch and eat fish, and run around, sometimes looking as if they haven't a clue where they're going!

I took loads of pictures of these photogenic herons. Here are some taken in 2017, and you can see more on the Snowy Egrets page.

A Rare Visitor on the Watch List

Hudsonian godwits (Limosa haemastica) breed in remote areas of the Arctic and spend the winter in South America, and thus are not seen all that often even when they are migrating. When a Hudsonian godwit visited Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in early October, it was a great opportunity to film this long-billed, long-legged shorebird. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, "Hudsonian Godwit is on the 2016 State of North America's Birds' Watch List, which includes bird species that are most at risk of extinction without significant conservation actions to reverse declines and reduce threats." 

Hudsonian godwit, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, October 11

I was able to watch this shorebird forage for insects with that long bill and run around the mudflats on the East Pond on October 7 and 11. The music is by Mozart, arranged for recorders and performed by Papalin.

The upturned bill and the red at the base of the bill distinguish this shorebird from the numerous greater yellowlegs I have seen at Jamaica Bay (I will post more shorebirds soon). The photos below were all taken on October 11. The last photo, next to a Canada goose, gives you an idea of the size of this godwit.

Feathered Rattlers

I often hear the belted kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) before I see them. I hear the rattle, then spot the bird zipping over the water, often smacking down to catch a fish or crayfish. These colorful, big-headed birds hang out along rivers and shorelines — including the water areas of Central Park, Mount Loretto Unique Area and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, where I filmed them for the Filming the Feathers video. The females are the colorful ones in this bird species, having a blue "belt" and a rusty colored "belt" (the male has a blue belt).

Belted kingfisher, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, September 30, 2017

The video is accompanied by harpsichord music, and features kingfishers filmed at Central Park, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Mount Loretto Unique Area.

Usually the belted kingfishers are pretty far away, so my photos are generally not that crisp and clear. I did have a nice opportunity on September 30 to see a kingfisher up close at Jamaica Bay, though, so you get more of these photos. The first three photos were taken in Central Park, the fourth at Mount Loretto and the last, close-up shots at Jamaica Bay.