Saturday, January 16, 2016

Midtown Birding (2)

In November I started a new job, which moved me away from the pocket park I wrote about before. By the way, recent reports from there say that some Swamp Sparrows, a Towhee, at least one Catbird, and two Brown Thrashers are all still there.

My new location, around Park and 51st, is unfortunately not so interesting, but there have been some birds.

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; Common Yellowthroat, 345 Park Avenue
office plaza bird

The first day, I spotted a Common Yellowthroat on the plaza outside the building. I saw that same bird around for several weeks, and other Yellowthroats in the churchyard of St. Bartholomew's Church across the street, and even hanging around a coffee cart near Lexington Avenue.

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; Common Yellowthroat, St. Bartholomew's Church
St. Bart's visitor

Most of the interesting birds were in the tiny St. Bartholomew's yards. A good part of the reason is that they had a water trickle running in the southern part of the yard, in a reasonably protected spot. That combined with a couple of trees and some shrubs, is enough to attract some birds.

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; Junco, St. Bartholomew's Church
just passing through

A few migrants appeared in the churchyard. Besides the Yellowthroats, there were Juncos, Song Sparrows, a Hermit Thrush, and one morning even a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. There are also the usual city residents--pigeons, starlings, House Sparrows--and the winter-ubiquitous White Throated Sparrows.

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; White-Throated sparrow, St. Bartholomew's Church
in town for the winter

There was a Gray Catbird around, but I haven't seen it since the trickle was shut off in mid-December. That's also when the last of the Yellowthroats departed.

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; Gray Catbird, St. Bartholomew's Church
like many New Yorkers, street food keeps the Catbird going

Finally, there's a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker who has been working trees all up and down 51st and 52nd Streets (at least), and also the tree in the St. Batholomew's southern yard.

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; Sapsucker and street, St. Bartholomew's Church
street scene, St. Bartholomew's Chruch

Since he seems to be teh only Sapsucker in this part of town, he's got a large number of trees to work on, which he does quite diligently. Hopefully, that will be enough to keep him going all winter.

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, St. Bartholomew's Church
diligent driller of holes

2 comments:

  1. You may have moved from your favorite bird watching park but, you still are coming across some really beautifully adorable little species of birds. =0)

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