The WETA Clan

The morning of the day before Thanksgiving, someone walking through City Hall Park heard an odd birdcall, and looked around to find a Western Tanager up in the trees. The Western Tanager (referred to in a lot of tweets and other online reports by its bird banding code, WETA) is not normally found east of Colorado; the last time one was seen in Manhattan was in the spring of 2008.

Western Tanager (WETA), looking down...

Word got out by early Wednesday afternoon, and, well, you know what happened next.

...at the WETA Clan birders looking up

OK, so, the crowd was smaller when I was looking for it after work on Wednesday. I failed, as did everyone else that afternoon as far as I know. On Thanksgiving Day itself, however, a steady stream of birders succeeded. I don't know how their families felt about it, but after all, the day is all about the bird.

Friday morning, I emerged from the subway at 8:10 in the morning and immediately spotted a fellow with binoculars outside the park. He put me on the bird and...well, about the easiest twitch I ever had.

too busy to pose!

More birders showed up shortly after. The Tanager was quite active and occasionally calling, but the light was horrid and the bird very hard to photograph.

Saturday, Elena came downtown with me, and we had views in somewhat better light. Still hard to get a good photo, though. The crowd was even larger than before.

what are they doing down there?

The Tanager is apparently still there today (Tuesday 11/29), so if you're among the dwindling number of New York City birders who hasn't seen it yet, there's still hope. It likes the tall trees in the northeast part of the park, along the path between the back of City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse.

Chat in a roundabout...

The WETA isn't the only good bird in the park. A second Yellow-Breasted Chat has been in the for several weeks, mostly in the traffic circle just to the south (which has a sign that says "Millennium Park", which is a good joke). Sometimes it ventures closer to City Hall.

I get around

Also a few other warblers are lingering: an Ovenbird is on that northern path just a bit west of the WETA area, and quite confiding.

Steppin' out

At least two Black-Throated Blue Warblers are also present. Mostly they stay way up in the same trees as the Western Tanager, but the male came down for a drink at a little birdbath nearby.

Black-Throated Blue at the birdbath

Usually, smaller birds are very wary of larger ones at a birdbath, even if they aren't actively chased away but this little guy wasn't taking any crap from the sparrows.

you are not the boss of me

There's also a couple of Common Yellowthroats around, one of which likes to assert it's presence.

Look at me! I'm also a pretty pretty bird!

The trees also hold more common birds including several Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers (the WETA and the Black-Throated Blues are taking advantage of the wells the Sapsuckers drill in the trees, which attract insects), Hermit Thrushes, and American Kestrels, all of which are nice to see. The lawns host the normal wintering sparrows--the suddenly-ubiquitous White-Throated Sparrows, Juncos, Song Sparrows, and Fox Sparrows.

winter Fox

Road Trips (1): Prattsville NY

not a sparrow

I'm sorry my blogging has been so sparse lately; I'll try to do better. Summer birding has also been pretty sparse, though it's starting to pick up. While it was slow, we went on a couple of nice road trips.

The first was to a friend's summer place in Prattsville NY. We've been up there around the summer solstice the last couple of years, and it's always great.

As before, the highlight was all the nesting Bobolink in the fields at the nearby crossroads. Interestingly, thefemales were very active and I got some wonderful close-up views of them. I'm not sure what was different from previous years--perhaps they got an earlier start with their nesting, since some of them were clearly carrying food.

"bug in beak went my love flying..."

I had never seen female Bobolinks so close before, only perching up briefly on power lines. In fact, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what these odd largish sparrows were, until one of the males popped up nearby giving the same contact call as the "sparrows".

3-2-1 contact!

On the farm itself, most of the usual nesters were around--Prairie Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Indigo Bunting, Song Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow--plus one I'd never had there before, a very loud Ovenbird in a stand of trees. The were mostly prety cagey this year, though, and I didn't get a lot of good photos.

One Common Yellowthroat did come out for a visit, bathing freqently in water pooled on the plastic cover of a sandbox in the yard.

making a splash

Also, a gorgeous male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird enjoyed a feeder right off the porch. I spent a couple of hours photographing him as he visited every nine minutes like clockwork. Somehow, I was never able to get a sharp photo with the right angle of light to really show off his throat. I'm pretty happy with this snap, though--oh, those feet.

a clockwork Ruby

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

diligent driller of holes

Midtown birding

Until the end of October, when my job moved, I worked at 45th Street and Sixth Avenue. Across the street is a pedestrian plaza--a fountain, some cafe tables, a few trees--that I hadn't really paid much attention to in the Spring and Summer. But in September and October it was surprisingly birdy.

Several Common Yellowthroats passed through, and a Brown Thrasher stayed for a considerable time, only disappearing a few days before I did.

The photo above is a looking out of the plaza onto 46th Street. I don't have a good photo of the plaza's glory, which is a circle of five Dawn Redwoods. The history of the plaza is kind of interesting; here's an old New York Times article about the plaza.

The neighboring building was the headquarters of International Paper, whose symbol is a redwood tree. The redwoods can stand there because that part of the park was occupied by a building whose owner didn't sell out for years, so there isn't any building space below teh tree circle, so it can accommodate the tree's huge root balls.

One of the first interesting birds I noticed there was this Ovenbird, the only warbler besides The Yellowthroats I saw there. The Ovenbird moved on fairly quickly, which is good. Every year, one or two Ovenbirds try to overwinter a few blocks away in Bryant Park. They never make it.

This Flicker showed upo one afternoon, farging furiously on the ground behind the benches, just a few feet away from peopel chattingon cellphones and drinking coffee. It wasn't there the next day. A Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker showed up one in a while. That one might be trying to stay the winter.

A number of other migrants came through -- sparrows and Towhees and Catbirds and Hermit Thrushes. Some of them occasionally do manage to survive a winter in the city, but usually in Central Park.

The best bird I saw in the plaza was a Woodcock, who foraged fairly happily in the redwood circle, but flew out in the mid-afternoon. I think he found the street noise a bit much.

Of course, the little park also had the usual New York street birds--House and White-Throated Sparrows, Starlings, and pigeons. Here's a couple of pigeons who were getting affectionate my on my last day there.

My new work neighborhood is less interesting, but I'll have something to say about it eventually. really, there are birds almost anywhere if you look.

Warm day, bath day!

Wednesday morning came up sunny and unseasonably warm, and the birds took advantage by getting nice and clean. Pale Male took a dip at the southeast end of Turtle Pond, while a few Mallards dabbled nearby and a single Bufflehead fished.

the royal bath

Over at the other end, starlings splashed around in a puddle.

splish-splash!

Downtown, at Bryant Park, I was looking for the Ovenbird (didn't find it) when this weird apparition popped up in front of me.

fresh from the bath

It took me a minute to figure out it was a Common Yellowthroat dripping wet from a dip in the park's fountain. People have been reporting a Common Yellowthroat in Bryant Park all autumn, but I hadn't seen it before. A very friendly bird--it accepted a few sunflower seeds and hopped all around me for a minute.

fluffing dry

You can see it was drying off pretty quickly.

Welcome to the working week

excitable boy, they all said

It's Kinglet season! Walking through the Ramble, you'll see dozens of them. There are also sparrows coming through, like this juvenile White-crowned Sparrow.

the young and the restless

We're also seeing a lot of Winter Wrens. I saw a half-dozen in a half-hour walk one day. I don't remember seeing such concentrations before.

winter is coming

There are migrants on the streets of the city as well. Last Monday morning as I hurried in to work, this Common Yellowthroat popped out of a tree pit on 40th Street near Park Avenue.

tourist

Raptor migration is in full swing, too; Monday ended with a Peregrine Falcon followed by a Bald Eagle soaring over Grand Central Station heading south-southeast.

Meanwhile life for the city residents continues apace. We can all enjoy the landscaping around the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue:

getting a street snack on Fifth Avenue

By the way, the reports from Randall's Island the last couple of days are amazing--Nelson's, Saltmarsh, Vesper, Eastern Meadowlark. If you have time to go there, it sounds wonderful.

Strike three!

I went back to Madison Square Park this morning, not that the MTA was any help. I walked around for forty minutes or so. No Connecticut Warbler. There were a few Common Yellowthroats; two of them came and perched in a tree right in front of me. They were very cute, but didn't hold still for a double portrait.

good morning!

Also some White-Throated Sparrows and three Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers. No Connecticut. Oh well.

Late in the afternoon, there was a report of yet another Connecticut, in Central Park's Strawberry Fields. Like the other two Connecticuts, it was apparently walking around out in the open rather than skulking deep in the foliage. I wouldn't know, obviously,

Perils of ear birding

So the other day, I was at east end of Turtle Pond, contemplating gong to the Ramble. Then I hear a bird singing somewhere on the north shore, couldn't tell if it was in the reeds on the shoreline, or in a tree. "Pizza pizza!" it called, high and crisp. "Pizza pizza!"

That was odd. What sings like that? It was the wrong cadence for an Acadian Flycatcher--too quick and not squeaky enough. It wasn't a Titmouse's sharp "peter peter" or an Ovenbird's eager "teachER teachER". Must be some bird whose song I don't know--no shortage of those. So I circled around to check it out.

It was down in the reeds at the water's edge. I couldn't even see the plants moving, just heard the song. The bird was moving west. I followed it, threading my way among sunbathers and picnickers on the lawn. I wonder what they thought I was doing.

After about twenty yards and twenty minutes, it flew out for a moment. Little bird, brown back, maybe some kind of light streak on the back of the head? A flash and back into the reeds. Some kind of wren?

It stayed hidden, but moved a little faster. Only a few minutes later we were nearly at the west edge. There are a couple of pines there, and then a pier. It wouldn't be able to move under cover much longer.

So it didn't. The bird went back east, singing all the way. I spared a glance at the warblers in the pines, and followed again. I really wanted to know who this bird was.

We got back to the place where it flew out before. It did it again, but this time went up into a tree. Aha! I got my binoculars up fast.

A Common Yellowthroat? What, now? They don't sing like that, they sing a rapid, light "Wichita Wichita Wichita Wichita".

"What the hell, little bird?" I said to him. "That's not your song."

"Pizza Pizza!" The Yellowthroat replied, and dove back into the reeds.

Slowdown

The last few days of migration have been much slower. Wednesday I was up in the north end of the park; a tree at the south end of Harlem Meer had nine species of warbler (Magnolia, Yellow, Wilson's, Chestnut-Sided, Black-Throated Blue, Black-Throated Green, Yellow-Rumped, and Blackpoll Warblers, and American Redstart), but that was the busiest spot of the week by a long way. Up at the compost area on the Mount the Solitary Sandpipers were gone, bit I had a nice view of a Lincoln's Sparrow up in a tree.

The find of the day was a female Mourning Warbler near the north end of the Loch. She came hopping out of the vegetation on the east side of the stream and came down to the water's edge, long enough for me to see the complete hood extending onto the breast, bright yellow underparts, and very thin eyering; and then as I tried to get my camera focused, a group of schoolkids came noisily along and the bird flushed to the west side of the stream, well back in the bushes, and I never picked it up again. Neither did anyone else, as far as I know.

A nice bird, but I found it very frustrating. I hate being the only person to see a good bird. I especially hate it when I don't even get a photo. I think I have a good reputation for being a reliable reporter, so when I report something that turns out unfindable and I don't have documentation, it eats at me. You know what they say: "oh, well".

Thursday, I went out a little too early and got rather damp. But there was a White-Crowned Sparrow right on the path at the north end of the meadow north of the King Jagiello ("Poland") monument at the east end of Turtle Pond. Best view of that bird I've ever had.

totally worth getting soaked for

My only new bird of the day was a Bay-Breasted Warbler, up in the big beech tree by Greywacke Arch (which is the underpass under the East Drive at the bottom of that same meadow). That's a fairly hard-to-get bird as well, but at least I have some crappy photos of it. The crappy photos were frankly needed to even ID the bird--it was a terrible view, high in the tree and backlit all to hell and back by the bright overcast sky after the rain stopped.

In the Ramble, an Indigo Bunting sang briefly at Evodia, and a Common Yellowthroat there gave a longer concert.

Common Yellowthroat, tearin' up the stage

and several warblers and a Lincoln's Sparrow were on the Point. One Chestnut-Sided Warbler was especially confiding:

why couldn't I get a shot like this of the Mourning Warbler?

Friday was very slow. I had expected a lot of birds to arrive ahead of the rain, but that didn't happen. We'll see whether good things happen after the storm.