Big weekend

I started my weekend by taking Friday off from work. There had been a lot of rarities reported in Central Park on Thursday--Blue Grosbeak, Red-Headed Woodpecker, both kinds of Cuckoo--but I was responsible adult and went to work.

They were all gone Friday, but I quietly got a total of 49 species anyway. A lot of migrating warblers were in.

I'm on my way

And a lot of resident birds were going about their business--establishing territory

I am wren, hear me roar

bathing

Orchard Oriole and a Yellow-Rumped Warbler at the bird spa

and foraging.

yum!

It was a splendid day. I had 46 species by noon, and then went off to look for the Mourning Warbler seen between Balcony Bridge and Triplets Bridge. I found it--along with dozens of other people--and had some good views, but I spent the rest of the day trying to get a good photo of it. It was too wily for me, though.

Saturday was the Global Big Day, organized by the Cornell Ornithology Lab as a conservation-awareness and fundraising initiative. The idea was to get a lot of people out in the field and see how many species they could see. The Lab hoped to record 4500 of the 10000+ species--they got almost 6000.

But it was a bit slow in New York. I had only twenty species in the Ramble, so I went up to Inwood Hill Park. The tide was rushing in when I arrived, but I was lucky enough to see the previously-reported Greater Yellowlegs

skinny legs and all

which was a life New York City bird for me, and as a bonus there were a pair of Snowy Egrets--

Egrets, I've had a few

--first of the year for me, and a very good bird for Inwood Hill.

Since I was there, I decide to look for the Wild Turkey that had been reported recently, and on the way up the hill I met Nadir Sourigi, a really fine birder who leads walks for Audubon and so on, and we went off to look for her and for Cuckoos. No luck on either, but I highly recommend the experience of birding with someone who's massively better than you. Great fun, as well as instructive and informative.

Sunday was a little brisker in Central Park, and a lovely day for birding as well.

Northern Parula

Blue-Headed Vireo

I'll post more soon.

Christmas present; Year-End wrap-up

Christmas present

My other Christmas present, besides the Kingbird, was a spotting scope. I took it for a spin on Randall's island on Sunday. Randall's was pretty quiet.

Downy Woodpeckers were the most interesting land bird I saw that day

The scope worked fine-I saw for the first time Common Goldeneye ducks off in the channel near Riker's Island. I didn't get photos of them--haven't got the hang of taking photos through the scope yet. When I tried, I wound up with shots like this:

digislop

Those are Cormorants off on a channel marker rock probably a mile from Randall's Island. The big one on top is a Great Cormorant, the others are Double-Crested.

Brants doing laps

A flock of Brant that was feeding on one of the ball fields with Canada Geese took off just after high tide, flew around the northeast shore area about four times, settled in eastern mouth of the Bronx Kill, and then swam off east.

riverscape with Brant

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Odds and Ends

The other day, as I passed through the Ramble Arch on my way west, I heard a Carolina Wren singing loudly above. Good morning! He came down to forage--I didn't get much of a photo of him in the brush, but he was quite a cheering sight.

an obscure but cheering sight

Today, I spotted a Chipping Sparrow along the path down the Gill source to Evodia.

oh, Chipping Sparrow, why are you here?

He's very late indeed, but a Chipping did winter here last year. There was a good-looking Sapsucker at Evodia, too.

Sapsucker at work

The eBird system doesn't think the Sapsucker is late, but I do. Still there clearly must be sap running in that tree somewhere.

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Year-end Wrap-up

The Goldeneyes were species number 190 for the year in New York County for me. Barring a Redpoll or something popping up in the Park tomorrow morning, that's my count for the year. That includes a Budgie, which isn't really a bird you should count. Last year I had 176 (including both Budgie and Canary). I had a lot more time to bird the first eight months of the year than previously.

There's not many birds I regret missing this year in Manhattan (though I am a bit sorry I never trekked out to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to see the Snowy Owl last winter). No Bluebirds, is the main disappointment. There were not a lot of sightings this year. I made a pretty good effort looking, including long silent walks along the top of Inwood Hill. Just not a Bluebird year for me. I missed several Connecticut Warblers--they'd be my nemesis bird if I were a good enough birder to have a nemesis bird. Again, I put a fair effort into looking. I missed the Yellow-Throated Warbler that was around the Tavern on the Green area in Central Park for a week in the Spring. That one I made only two real tries at; I should have tried harder. I didn't see Zelda the Battery Park Wild Turkey this year. Whenever I was down there, she was hiding out. Now I'll never see her again. She had a heck of a long life for a Turkey.

But I saw many more. The best of the year was right at the end, the lovely Couch's Kingbird, a perfect combination of rarity and beauty. But I saw a lot of other wonderful birds, new to me--some rare, some not--Barnacle Goose, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Pectoral Sandpiper, Semi-Palmated Plover, Cerulean Warbler, Kentucky Warbler, White-Winged Scoter, Long-Tailed Duck, Snow Bunting, Red-Necked Grebe... about 30 life birds in the year, which is amazing considering I didn't travel much--almost all of them in New York City.

I figure there's about 35 to 40 species that are regular migrants or frequent visitors here, that I haven't seen yet, so I won't be running out soon--the pace will slow way down since I've seen most of the easier ones. Looking forward to it.

Then there were all the regular birds, the ones I already know. I never see them without enjoyment, never without learning something new. In particular, standing all alone on the shore of Randall's Island while Tree Swallows zoomed around me, courting and feeding and mating, is something I will never forget as long as I live. A perfectly usual bird, seen in a way I never dreamed of. My best moment of the year, even better than the fancy Kingbird.

I'm looking forward to more. I'll have less time for birding in 2015, but I'll be out every chance I get. I have a scope to learn to use, and a hankering to figure out how to photograph birds in flight; and I know more about where and how to look for birds then I ever have. And I'm looking forward to all of it.

Tree Swallow, familiar but brilliant

Getting late in migration

stock Fall warbler photo

Monday in Maintenance meadow (Central Park), I saw my first Yellow-Rumped Warblers of the Fall. To me, that means it's getting late in the migration season.

Carolina Wrens seem to be back in the Park in numbers. I saw a few last week who might have been passing through, but Monday morning I heard a singing battle rage at the east end of Turtle Pond, their songs ringing out through the crisp autumnal air.

remembrance of wrens past

If there are males working out territory boundaries that close--the two birds were probably ten yards apart at most--there must be a lot of them around staking out claims. They'll be staying the winter in that case--Carolinas stay on territory year-round and don't migrate seasonally--and I hope it's a mild one. The reason there's territory open for this new bunch to stake out is that this past winter was harsh enough to kill all the resident males in the area.  It's not an easy life, being a bird.

In Manhattan birding news, there was a White-Rumped Sandpiper at Muscota Marsh in Inwood Hill Park on Friday afternoon. It appears to be the first recorded in New York County, though they show up every couple of years somewhere in the region. This one hasn't been seen since Friday, but there's been a Semipalmated Plover returning at intervals, so who knows--this shorebird might come back.

Also, on Friday, a Nelson's Sparrow was seen in the saltmarsh at the northern tip of Randall's Island (right behind ballfield 42); another one was spotted at the Loch in the north end of Central Park on Sunday, and then three (!) more at the Randall's Island saltmarsh on Monday. That's a really good bird for New York (and a rather pretty orangy sparrow, too).

More things I hadn't seen before.

Every time I go out birding, I see something I haven't seen before. Monday, there was a Cooper's Hawk around at Evodia in the Ramble. It was pretty restless, kept switching perches every few minutes. Eventually it moved off past Azalea Pond toward the pin oak swamp.

A little later, a Red-Tailed Hawk flew in, a little east of Evodia. He was a very pale morph, possibly Pale Male himself, though he seemed like a younger (and even paler) bird. he sat fairly low in a tree, giving a good view.

After a few minutes, I saw the Cooper's flying low and fast north from Azalea Pond. The Red-Tailed took off after him! I got my binoculars on the Cooper's and saw it had a bird in it's talons--probably a Starling, maybe a small Grackle. The hawks disappeared over Tupelo Meadow, heading toward Belvedere Castle. The Red-Tailed was in surprisingly close pursuit.

I think the Red-Tailed figured the Cooper's would be slowed down from carrying off prey, and the he had a chance to harass it enough to make it drop its meal. Anyway, I'd never seen that before.

There was a Carolina Wren at Evodia--I'm not sure if the rescued wren was released already or if this was another bird. Word is the rescue was just dehydrated and will be fine. Another Carolina was near Willow Rock; didn't spot the Woodcock in the Oven. I was told the Pine Warbler was over at the Upper Lobe in the morning, but I didn't see it, though two Black-Capped Chickadees and a Brown Creeper were there.

later, I saw two Red-Tailed Hawks soaring over Central Park West around 81st Street. I thought it might be a mating flight, and watched for a while. Suddenly the male dove toward the building on the corner, flushing out another male Red-Tailed. It looked like he might actually have hit the third hawk. The female joined in the pursuit, and the three disappeared southwest behind the Museum of Natural History.

So that's two new things.

The Wren Rescue

Our Carolina Wren, the day before

I went to Central Park this afternoon. It was blustery and cold, though sunny. As I left Maintenance meadow in the Ramble, I ran into Ranger Rob Mastrianni and two other Park workers. "I have a wren in my bag", Rob said.

One of the Carolina Wrens who has been around the Evodia feeders this winter was acting listless--not feeding and seemingly unable to fly--and the birders watching the feeders called Rob, and Rob spirited the little bird away to the Wild Bird Fund. Hopefully our little friend will recover well. At least he's somewhere warm now.

The afternoon was otherwise pretty uneventful. An American Tree Sparrow was at the feeders with the usual residents, but I didn't see the Pine Warbler who was observed earlier in the day. I walked around a while, looking at likely spots for Woodcocks, but none presented themselves.

Mockingbird, come out to glare at me

When I first entered the park at Cedar Hill, I heard an odd song--a phrase of two high notes, repeated at intervals of a few seconds--coming from Near the Transverse, near the path between Cedar Hill and the south side of the Metropolitan Museum. I had a notion of what it was, stopped and approached the trees along the Transverse to see if I could get a look. Eventually the Mockingbird--for that was indeed who it was--came out to glare at me for getting too close to his tree. Hello, bird!

What I learned today

I'm sentimental. I worry about the little birds in the cold weather. Especially, I've been worried about the Carolina Wrens in Central Park this winter, so today I trudged out in the mid-teen temperatures to the Ramble, with a bag of blueberries.

Blueberries? Yes. Wrens are basically insectivores, but will eat fruit (they can use the glucose); nuts or seeds, not so much. Their guts are not set up to deal with extracting nutrition from plant matter (no gizzard, for one thing). In extreme need, they can eat some very oily seeds like sunflower, crunching it up to get the oils. At, least, that's what I'd been told. So, since we had some blueberries...

At Evodia, Sol told me that at least one wren had been visiting and begging food. He showed up in a few minutes.

Hey, buddy, spare some food for a wren?

And I tossed a few berries on the ground in front of him, and Sol threw out--a handful of crushed peanuts.

The bird eyed the blueberries suspiciously, grabbed a hunk of peanut, and retreated.

The same scene repeated a little later. So now I know a Carolina Wren will choose peanuts over blueberries.

Elsewhere in the Ramble, it was pretty much the usual crew. I watched a young Red-Tailed scouting the area for prey.

Long-Eared Owl, again

Today was dreary and damp, a perfect day to stay home. But, there were reports that a Long-Eared owl was back on Cherry Hill in Central Park, so off I went.

It was a marginally better view than last time--I could at least see that the owl had ear tufts. But it was basically unphotographable, at least for me.

Very photograhable, on the other hand, were the Carolina Wrens I encountered at Willow Rock on the way in. In the absence of Titmouses this winter, the Carolina Wrens seem to be taking over "the will land on your hand for food" niche in Central Park. Being Carolina Wrens, they don't bother to wait for you to extend a hand with food in it; they take the initiative. This was one of two wrens at Willow Rock who hopped on my boots and landed on my arm. I didn't have any food.



That's an uncropped photo.

The Long-Eared Owl was my 48th species of 2014.