Catching up

Last Sunday (1/17), I went out to Central Park and caught up on a few birds I hadn't seen in Manhattan this year.

The best thing there were two Snow Geese, a very rare sight in Central Park, even as a flyover much less down on the water.

rare visitors

I have heard that they are still there.

Walking around the Reservoir, I saw the Ring-Necked Duck drake that has been wintering there.

I think this is the first photo I've taken where you can see the ring around the neck

The Reservoir gets one or two Ring-Necked drakes every winter. I wonder if the same bird has been returning every year. He was hunting quite successfully, and I spent some time trying to get a good photo of him at the moment of the dive.

dive!

It was a little beyond my skill, and it was quite windy and cold so I gave up after only ten minutes or so. . This is the best one I got.

Also new for the year at the Reservoir was a Pied-Billed Grebe. We generally have two or three hanging around, but I think only one this winter.

Heading toward the Ramble, I found the Orange-Crowned Warbler that was found during the Christmas Count. It looks like it's trying to overwinter here, which is pretty scary.

it's a living

In this photo, you can see it's probing at sapsucker scrapes on the viburnum (I think that's the plant, anyway). The Orange-Crowned has basically been following an overwintering Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker around, poaching insects from its wells and scrapes.

It is still behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, though it has moved to the area right up against the East Drive between the Transverse and Greywacke Arch

the hawk gaze

In the Ramble itself, I found this juvenile Accipiter, which I think is a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.

tail looks pretty square to me

On my way out, I was startled by a flash of white wings darting into a mixed flock of sparrows. It turned out to be this partially-leucistic House sparrow. I think a couple of people have remarked on this bird recently.

white wings

It's interesting--the white doesn't look that extensive when the bird is at rest, but in flight it was really startling.

One thing I didn't see that day was the Great Horned Owl which was present from late October to early January, and then disappeared once all the leaves droppped from its favorite roosting tree. It's apparently back! I've seen several reports of it this past week, in the same now-bare tree near the feeder area in the Ramble. I guess it missed the attention.

In the good light

I went back to Central Park on Sunday to see what was around the Reservoir. Not much of positive interest was around, though the lack of Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads, and Shovelers was interesting; Hooded Mergansers were almost entirely absent as well.

There was a group of five Coots at the north end, squabbling occasionally. One decided to try his luck elsewhere and stalked off across the ice on his big ridiculous Coot feet.

Coot, bigfooting

I thought that the late-afternoon sunshine would make for a good photo of the Common Redpoll, so I went back downtown to the Ramble. I had a bit of a wait before the Redpoll appeared,and a longer one as he left and returned to the feeders several times, always in the shade. Other birds were a bit more cooperative.

the Chipping Sparrow is still hanging in there

Chickadee, pausing briefly

"get my good side"

Finally, the Redpoll showed up on the sunny side of the feeders briefly

worth the wait

Central Park Christmas Bird Count

I was up at 6:30 this morning and at the south pumphouse of the Central Park Reservoir by 7:45 for the Christmas Bird Count. The count divides the park into seven zones--northeast (Harlem Meer and environs), Northwest (the North Woods mostly), the Reservoir, teh Great lawn, the Ramble, Southeast (the Pond and environs), and Southwest (usually the least productive area, having no real water feature). I joined the Reservoir team this year (last year I did the Great Lawn).

It was a pleasant day to be out. Last year was miserable, icy and slushy, all the joys of bad footing and of getting your feet soaked through; but this year was warm for December, and partly sunny, and dry. But not birdy. The best birds of the day for us were right atthe start--the three Ring-Necked Ducks still hanging out in the southeast corner of the reservoir.

who's the best bird? you are!

Other than that, it was slow. We had a Kestrel along Central Park West around 94th Street--heard it first, calling klee-klee-klee! and then spotted it perched on a rooftop. Later we had what turned out to be the only Cedar Waxwing in the whole count. There were a goodly number of woodpeckers, including two Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers. I think it's rather late for them to be here.

lingering

At the compilation, it turned out that there were only 56 species seen in the whole park. Some of the missing species were pretty shocking--no Red-Winged Blackbirds--and numbers of some common species were very low--only a hundred-odd Robins, a couple of dozen Cardinals. Not sure what's going on with that. At least the Titmousen and Nuthatches were back in force after being basically missing last year.

plenty of these guys, though

Ring-Necked Ducks, Central Park Reservoir

Saturday at the Central Park Reservoir, I saw this:

Three-count'em!--three Ring-Necked Ducks

Three drake Ring-Necked Ducks, just hanging out. They seemed to be taking turns being the one awake. Andres Peltomaa tweeted that that's the high count ever for Ring-Necked Duck in Central Park. There had been two the previous day.

I didn't find the female Northern Pintail who had been reported a couple of days before. Sunday I went to Randall's Island in search of American Pipits--Jacob Drucker saw four on Saturday morning along the northeast shore line, and David Barrett had one a couple of days before--but had no luck. There was a flock of over 300 Brant on one of the baseball fields, which was interesting, and a bird flew by that I couldn't identify.

It was the size and general coloration and shape of s smallish gull--maybe a Bonaparte's or a Laughing Gull--but was brick red or chestnut on the undertail coverts or vent. It flew very directly east to west along the Bronx Kill with fast steady wingbeats, eventually rising to fly over the bridge and then slowly descending out of sight. I have no idea what it was. It doesn't seem to match anything in the books. maybe the red was actually its feet, tucked up under it? Still doesn't really match anything that I can see.

Common Loon

Anders Peltomaa reported a Common Loon in full breeding plumage at the Reservoir Friday morning, a very nice bird for Central Park. I eventually made my way there at 5 PM. The loon was down near the south pumphouse, and I got off a couple of frames before it made one of those patented long loon dives and emerged about halfway to the north side. That left a bunch of Cormorants and a single Great Egret fishing just outside the pumphouse.

I noticed after a while that the Loon was slowly drifting toward the east side, so I hustled up there...I was still 30 yards away when the bird, about 20 feet offshore, dove again and simply disappeared.

Loons do that. There's a reason they're called the "Great Northern Diver" in Britain. The last Common Loon I saw, in February at Randall's Island, did not come up within a half mile of where I saw it dive.

Around the north side of the Reservoir, a single Merganser--I think a female or immature Hooded--made shallow dives and then slept fitfully, to far off for a good photo. Whatever the species, that bird is quite late for this area.

I was rewarded for completing the circuit when, as I rounded the southwest corner, I spotted the Loon again, between the fountain and the shore. It dove again as I ran to the area, but this time it came up only a dozen yards farther away, and I caught up and got the photo above. That's my best view ever of this very handsome bird.

Wigeon landing

Tuesday I was at the Reservoir. An American Wigeon was sleeping peacefully on teh east side with some Black Ducks. I waited for some time. My patience was eventually rewarded when the Wigeon woke up and flew a short distance to join a group of Shovelers.



The Red-Necked Grebe was still present on the west side, steadily coming into breeding plumage and fishing actively and successfully.



I'm not sure how it managed to swallow this big fish.

A sunny late-winter Saturday

Saturday afternoon, Elena and I went to the reservoir to look for some of the recent rarities. The areas of open water had greatly expanded in the last few days, and the remaining ice was a thin and sickly grey.

We got to see the Red-Necked Grebe, who came quite close to shore on the west side.

The star of our show

Also fishing the west side were two Red-Breasted Mergansers. The drake was especially photogenic.

Sharp-looking Merganser

Down near the south pumphouse was a sleepy-looking Ring-Necked Duck.

Sleepy-eyed Ring-Necked Duck

Alas, the American Wigeon was not present.

Several people told us there were several American Woodcock in the Ramble. You can never see too many Woodcocks, so off we went. We found a group of birders peering into the brush a little south and east of the Humming Tombstone. That's always a good sign. There was a Woodcock giving pretty decent views in the late afternoon light.

Woodcock in the sun

There were supposed to be two others in the same fenced-off area. I walked around the edge and finally spotted one.

You can tell it's a different Woodcock because it's facing the other way.

What a lovely afternoon!

American Wigeon and Red-Necked Grebe on the Central Park Reservoir

The ice on the Reservoir is finally, slowly, melting. The area of open water around the fountain now reaches east to the dike and nearly to the southern edge; the whole dike (which runs down the center of the reservoir) is now open water, from the south pumphouse to the north pumphouse.

As the water opens up, new birds begin arriving. A Red-Necked Grebe has been sighted intermittently for several days; an Iceland Gull was spotted yesterday; Red-Breasted Mergansers have been around. The usual late-winter grew of Shovelers, Buffleheads, Hooded Mergansers, Wood Ducks, American Black Ducks, and an occasional Ruddy Duck is present.

Today, rain was promised but only late in the afternoon, so I went around 2 PM to see what was around. Nothing out of the ordinary that I could see on the south edge; no Red-Necked Grebe and none of the gulls looked exotic. I watched a Ruddy Duck diving for a long time. After yesterdays long hike I found I lacked the energy to walk to the north part of the Reservoir; there was less open water there anyway.

Scanning the farther reaches of the open water, I saw a small bird diving repeatedly. Couldn't quite make it out. Ruddy? Pied-Billed Grebe? I watched a while. About 3:30, it was being harassed by gulls, and lifted off into a crazy twisting flight, dodging in and out of the air traffic and coming down square in the middle of a group of Buffleheads, who greeted her as one of their own, which indeed she was.

I thought about leaving, but I noticed that a lot of birds were arriving from the north. I decided to walk back to the south pumphouse and see if anything turned up. From about 50 yards off, I saw a duck frantically preening himself in the narrow strip of open water over the dike near the pumphouse. It had a shockingly white head. When I got closer, I realized it was an American Wigeon.



That's a pretty nice bird for Central Park (and a life bird for me, and my 75th species in New York County this year). After getting some photos, I sent an email to the NYS-Birds mailing list and a tweet to the #birdcp hashtag (and if anyone reading this knows who runs the @BirdCentralPark account that retweets that hashtag, can you ask them why they ignore my reports?) and went back to watching. He was a very itchy bird.

Eventually a few birders showed up and saw the Wigeon. I went back to the larger patch of open water, but nothing new had shown up. Eventually, about 4:30 or so, with the sky looking more threatening and the rain overdue, I decide to leave and headed back toward the pumphouse.

Just then, a birder whose name I unfortunately do not know came from that direction and said the red-Necked Grebe was present; he and David Barrett had been watching it swimming down the dike corridor. And there it was.



This was a far better view than I had at Randall's Island last month, and I watched and photographed as the rain began to come down. I didn't care about the rain.

A sunny winter afternoon at the Reservoir

The afternoon was sunny, and I took a walk through the Park. Sometimes snowstorms bring in interesting new birds, but not this time. Finches, Downy Woodpeckers, and Grackles dominated the Evodia feeders; sparrows and Juncos foraged on the ground there.

The air was still, and so the snow clung to the tree branches, a rare sight in the Park. Quite a few Cardinals were around, handsome against those snowy branches. Here and there the "Kwirr!" of a red-Bellied Woodpecker rang out.

The Reservoir was frozen over except for a small area around the fountain. At first glance, it didn't seem to hold a lot of birds, but when I counted, I found over a hundred Canada Goose, about 130 gulls, almost all Ring-Billed but for a couple of Herring Gulls and one Greater Black-Backed; sixty or so Mallards, sixteen Shovelers, four American Black Ducks, and a pair of Gadwalls.

All was peaceful on this little island of open water in the sea of ice. Many of the Mallards and gulls were settled on the ice, but a few swam and bathed. One pair of Mallards flew up into the the fountain jets, beating their wings to hover in the spray, apparently just for the hell of it.

The Shovelers took off and hurtled northward, probably seeking better prospects at the Pool or the Meer. A small contingent of geese walked toward the edge of the Reservoir. One stood guard there while the other five foraged in the snow--for what, I couldn't tell.

Another snowstorm is coming in tonight, I'm told. At least the birds had this sunny afternoon to enjoy.

Nature, red in beak and talon

The Canvasbacks were gone from the Reservoir today. The group of Wood Ducks was still around, minus one drake:



And the Ring-Necked Duck is still around:



On the northern end of the Reservoir, I watched a female Hooded Merganser dive and come up with a crawfish:



And then I headed over to the Pool. On the way, I spotted a red-Tailed hawk perched high in a tree. I took a couple of photos, and then looked around and saw Karen Fung photographing something in another tree. She has followed a diving Red-Tailed Hawk from the Reservoir, and it was now enjoying a meal on a low perch:



I got a bunch of great shots of him dining, but some are not for the squeamish.

At the Pool, I had two first-of-year sightings, a Swamp Sparrow and a Brown Thrasher.



The sparrow was too deep in the shadows for a decent photo. Those two, plus a female Towhee on the eerily quiet Great Hill, get me up to 60 species for the year in New York County.