Sharon and I travel down to Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge with our birding friend Joe in search of migrating shore birds. Generally a slow day, but there is always something to offer. We watched as a herring gull methodically worked at gaining a meal from within the hard shell of a clam. Repeatedly dropping the clam onto a hard rock slab which from the signs of the detritus had been used for this purpose before, the gull finally managed to get a small crack in the shell. From that point on, it was only a matter of time and the bird had won a fine lunch at the clam's expense. Earlier during the day, Joe and I found a nicely plumaged Green heron at "Big John's Pond". From behind a blind, we were able to get some nice shots of this bird as well as an immature Black-crowned night heron. Nice shots of both Yellowlegs and Semi-palmated sandpipers we found at the south end of East Pond rounded out the day. The surprise bird of the day, however, was a "Black swan" we spotted on the far side of the pond. We were to read later that the one spot we neglected to bird this day, the north end of the pond, had proved to be much more productive. Well, we'll start at that point on our next visit to the refuge.
