In Broad Channel, between Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and the A train, I was gagging on the astroturf a garden supply, of all things, had laid down in the space between unimaginative plantings, when I came upon this sight for sore eyes:
A Purple Marin colony! Turns out there’s a five-year-old record of this on iNat, but it looks like it could be older.
Anyway, voila! The female coming in for a landing is banded; wonder where that happened? Ah, but if you look closely,
in most of these pictures, you can see one of the birds with its head through the railing on the right. I didn’t notice this while taking pictures–there are very limited sightlines though fences. It looks like this one got stuck and died. What a terrible design!
Earlier at West Pond, amid the many Tree Swallows,
one Martin was dipping in for a spot of drinking.
Backyard and Beyond 
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