The picture of this vagrant American White Pelican was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.The American White Pelican occurs mainly in western and southern portions of North America, breeding inland in colonies on remote islands and wintering along warm southern coasts. Since this one American White Pelican has been spending the last few weeks at the East Pond of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, he has obviously lost his way which is called a vagrant bird in the birding vernacular. This is a male breeding American Pelican as indicated by the notch on the center of the beak.
This picture was taken with the CANON EOS7D and the CANON 100-400mm lens. I finally was able to get close enough to the American White Pelican to get a decent shot. I had been seeing it from the south side of the East Pond but I finally walked up to the “Raunch” through the fragmites in order to get as close as I could to this beautiful bird.

The picture of these Greater Yellowlegs in flight was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. I took this picture with the CANON EOS7D with a CANON 100-400mm lens.

This was taken at the north side of the East Pond at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in the evening light. The East Pond water was lowered for the Shorebird Migration making it easier to enter though the north part of the pond. It is a beautiful vantage point to see the pond and taken advantage of the setting sun.

The picture of this Semipalmated Plover was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge during the Fall Shorebird migration. This picture was taken with the CANON EOS7D with the CANON 100-400 lens.

The picture of these Wilson’s Phalaropes was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge during Fall Shorebird Migration. The Wilson’s Phalarope is a pretty shorebird with distinctive features–both physical and behavioral. Female phalaropes court males, display colorful plumage, and fight off rivals. A semi-colonial nester, this aquatic shorebird breeds in northern prairie wetlands, and winters on South American salt lakes. With fringes on their toes, they swim well, often whirling in circles as they feed.
I took the picture with the CANON EOS7D and the CANON 100-400mm lens. The 5th Annual Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Shorebird Festival attracted over 100 people. There were wonderful leaders who generously shared their knowledge about shorebird ID and behavior. To top off the day Kevin Karlson gave a talk and slide presentation of his wonderful photographs of shorebirds and his “impression” technique for id’ing birds

The picture of this Least Sandpiper was taken at Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge during Fall migration. I used the CANON EOS 7D with the CANON 100-400mm lens. It was taken at the south end of the East Pond at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge where there were hundreds of Least Sandpipers among other shorebirds resting and feeding for the next leg of their long journey to Northeastern South America.

The picture of this juvenile Forster’s Tern was taken at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. The Shore Bird migration is in full swing at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. I am looking forward to the annual Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Shorebird Festival August 14, 2010

The picture of this Forster’s Tern (juvenile) was taken with the CANON EOS7D with the CANON 100-400mm lens.
At the time, this appeared to be the only juvenile Forster’s Tern on the south side of the East Pond at Jamaica Bay. It looked very lost to me espeically among the flocks of sandpipers that were abundant that day.