Jones Beach, TOBAY, Massapequa Preserve

 There was a report of a Marbled Godwit yesterday at Field 10 so I tried to find it but didn't have any luck.  The Coast Guard Station didn't have many sandpipers anymore - assuming shorebird season is over - there were some Oystercatchers, Yellowlegs, Semi Palmated Plovers.  I noticed some spider crabs were beached up on the dock, so I kicked them (gently) back into the water so feel like my visit wasn't wasted.  I stopped by Massapequa Preserve - not as many warblers as yesterday but did see Parulas, one unidentified one that I'm guessing was a female Black Throated Blue (still not sure), Great Crested Flycatchers, Warbling and Red Eyed Vireos and Redstarts.

Massapequa Preserve Warblers, Red Eyed Vireo

 Although the radar wasn't strong recently, I heard birds flying over my house at night the other day and had a feeling some birds had moved into the area - I wasn't disappointed when I went to the preserve early and saw lots of warblers - most were female Redstarts, lots of Chestnut sided. Also saw a male Redstart, Least Flycatchers, a Pewee, Canada Warbler, Parulas, Warbling Vireos, Blue Winged Warbler, Common Yellowthroats, Chimney Swifts, Wood Ducks and oddly my first Red Eyed Vireos for the year.

Curacao

My wife and I took a trip to Curacao without the kids this time.  The original plan was to stay there a few days and enjoy the beaches and tropical weather however we didn't make our flight because the uber driver had something really whacky going on.  We called a different Uber driver who got us to our destination really fast.  We were going to fly out of Newark.  We got to the airport just a few minutes under the hour that's needed to pre-board - the airline was very stubborn/ unreasonable and would not check us in. We missed the flight.  The next flight was later on that day but we would need to go over night and transfer at Meddelin, Colombia - how nice.  While waiting at the Colombia airport it was just around sunrise so I decided to make the best of it and try to bird from the airport - the only bird I might have seen could have been a Cattle Egret.  We were not aware that it was cold by the airport since it's at a high eleveation - who knew?  We finally made it to Curacao and the first bird I saw was actually in the airport - a Carib Grackle.  We got our rental, went to the hotel and stopped by the beach and hung out at the hotel.  Beautiful, fun time, but I was beginning to worry since I haven't seen many birds and was wondering if I would get to see any lifers.  The next day I went out for a while but got caught in the rain - I did see Brown Throated Parrots which I have seen before in Aruba, but I learned that Curacao has it's own subspecies called "Prikichi" locally. We drove far from the hotel the first day with the plan that we would stop at as many places we could on the way back.  We reached a beached on the far side of the island that was in between 2 cliffs - I started seeing some birds - Swallows, Yellow Orioles, Saffron Finches - nice to get some lifers without trying too hard.  We stopped at another beach that has pigs walking around - let's just say the pigs were being pigs on the beach.  On the way back we passed a "salina" type area and I could have sworn I saw a bird that sure looked like a Reddish Egret - I convinced my wife we should drive back because Reddish Egret had been on my wish list for some years now.  Sure enough I saw a beautiful Reddish Egret but my camera died!!! I managed to get some bad iphone pics just to say I photographed one.

 The next and last day, my wife and I decided we would "do our own thing".  She was going to the beach and I was going to go birding, then we would meet up later.  I started out by checking out the salinas where I found a white morph Reddish Egret up close and got nice pics to make up for yesterday.  I also saw some Flamingos in the salina across the street - they were somewhat distant but that was ok.  Within a short time, a nice regualr morph Reddish Egret flew in and was able to get some good pics of that also.  I also saw a Tri-colored Heron near it.  Before heading back to the hotel, I stopped at the Curcao Rig Mangrove Park.  Nice place - saw some cool wildlife and found a lifer Scaly Necked Pigeon.

I was done with birding for the trip and it was time to head to the airport.  I was happy to get some lifers which I wasn't sure was going to happen at the beginning of the trip, but was bummed out that I didn't get to see a Groove Billed Ani which was one of my target birds for the trip - can't have everything.

While waiting at the airport, I enjoyed some Juan Valdez coffee and decided to take out the bins and scan the airport runways for any last minute birds.  I saw a black bird pop up from a ditch and perch on a pole - I couldn't believe it...it was a Groove Billed Ani!

These are the birds I saw on my trip:

American Flamingo

Pigeon

Scaly-naped Pigeon

Bare-eyed Pigeon

White-tipped Dove

Eared Dove

Common Ground Dove

Groove Billed Ani 

Blue-tailed Emerald

Killdeer

Southern Lapwing 

Greater Yellowlegs

Willet

Laughing Gull

Royal Tern

Magnificent Frigatebird 

Brown Pelican

Tricolored Heron

Reddish Egret

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Green Heron 

Great Blue Heron 

Osprey

White-tailed Hawk (possible, but could have been an Osprey)

Crested Caracara

American Kestrel 

Brown-throated Parakeet (endemic Curacao subspecies)

Barn Swallow 

Tropical Mockingbird

House Sparrow

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Venezuelan Troupial

Yellow Oriole

Carib Grackle 

Yellow Warbler

Saffron Finch

Bananaquit

Black Faced Grassquit 

Smith Point Beach

 My family and I stopped by Smith Point to enjoy the beach - of course I had my bins with me.  There were some Royal Terns and a few Shearwater species that were too far away to identify - I would assume they were Cory's.  I might be making a thing of it, but I too notice that the Great Black Backed Gulls that were flying over the ocean seemed to be flying in groups of around 4.