It’s (almost) always a good time when you can spend the day chasing a few rarities around your area. I had that chance yesterday when I was back in NY for a bit. On Staten Island, 2 rarities made their way from the south this past week: the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck and the Purple Gallinule. Both species are very much not common in the Northeast, and on Staten Island in particular. The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck seems to show up every year and change on the Island, with much more common sightings in the tri-state area and beyond. The Purple Gallinule is Staten Island’s first record.
The Black-bellied Whistling-Duck was up first. I headed to a pond/watershed runoff area in the Northeast of the Island. It is the first time that I have been to this area and surprisingly, it is a pretty solid place to bird, barring it’s not 90 degrees out, which was the luck yesterday. After about 20 minutes walking around the pond and adjoining area, the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck showed its face. It was swimming, feeding, and doing its thing. While I have seen Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks a few times before, it’s always a bit special to see a bird outside of its normal range. I spent about 10 minutes with the bird before leaving. Easy, quick, and uneventful chasing experience. A real 2/10 compared to what came after.
The Purple Gallinule, on the other hand, was a different story. It is now about 11:30 am when I made it to Sharrotts Pond on the Southwest part of the Island. I haven’t been to this location before, and similarly to the pond earlier in the day, this was somewhere I’d consider returning in a non-birding chasing scenario. Off the bat, more folks were cycling in and out of the area looking for the bird. To paint a picture of the pond, it is not an insignificant size, but it also is not necessarily massive. The sides of the pond are covered in reeds, and 60% of the square footage of the pond itself was covered in Lily pads. Not only was there a decent area to cover looking for this bird, but there were certainly some blind spots. One hour goes past nothing. Two hours go past nothing. More folks come and go. After the third hour, the heat got the best of me and I had to call it a day,
These types of days are bittersweet. It’s less than ideal to wait around all afternoon in the sun and get no views of what you came to see in return. However, seeing the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck was great, and as for the Purple Gallinule, it is the thrill of the chase that makes this exciting. It would not be as gratifying when you can see something you came a ways for without the possibility of dipping on it.
You win some, you lose some.
Some compensation views:
