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.

First RWBB of the year

an oldie (3 April 2010): Red-Winged Blackbird calling

I've been sporadically birding in the southwest part of Van Cortlandt Park and a small nearby park called Brust Park, because my aunt is in a nursing home in the vicinity (rehabbing after a hip replacement). So I was in Van Cortlandt in the late afternoon today.

It was pretty quiet. I went up behind the Golf House, but there wasn't anything there but a single Downy Woodpecker. On my way back, I passed a small phragmites marsh south of the Van Cortlandt Mansion. There was a mixed group of sparrows--White-Throated, Junco, one Song--which scattered as a juvenile Cooper's Hawk came out of the marsh and perched low in a tree.

As I left the park, I heard a familiar check-check-SCREEEE call, and scanned the trees. A Red-Winged Blackbird was at the top of one tree; my first of the year. People have been reporting them in Central Park over the past week, but I haven't see any there yet.

Cooper's Hawk and Red-Winged Blackbird make 30 species in the Bronx this year for me. The RWBB is my 72nd species overall this year (that and Tufted Titmouse I've only had in the Bronx this year).

Things I haven't seen before

One of the joys of birding is that, almost every time I go out, I see something I've never seen before.

Today, as I entered Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, I spotted a Red-Tailed hawk in a tree just inside the entrance. That's not unusual. Pale Male famously lives on Fifth, and one of this year's crop of his offspring has been roosting in a pine on Cedar Hill nearby. I think this was that young hawk.

What was unusual is that the tree also contained twenty-odd starlings. Hawk and starlings all sat peacefully together. I've never seen that before.

In the Ramble, I saw a Cooper's Hawk chase another Cooper's away from a Willow Rock. I don't think I've seen that, either. They were roughly the same size, and seemed rather large for Cooper's, so I guess both were female.

Two Carolina Wrens were among the birds at the Evodia feeders. Yay, the wrens didn't freeze to death! The Baltimore Orioles were there as well.

I believe that is called al fresco

Recently I've had a couple of good views of raptors having lunch in the trees above Azalea Pond. Thursday, it was an American Kestrel eating a Fox Sparrow snatched right from under the feeders at Evodia.



The day before, I watched a Cooper's Hawk chow down on a sparrow (probably a House Sparrow). Here it is spitting out some feathers:



Nature, red in beak and talon. I'm fonder of the little birds than I am of the hawks, but we all have to make a living.

Chilly day

A blustery day with a storm coming in turned out productive: I picked up some usual species I knew were in Central Park but had missed on New Year's Day (Brown Creeper, Hermit Thrush, American Goldfinch, Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker), plus I got a good view of a Cooper's Hawk dining at Azalea Pond. I believe the entree was a House Sparrow; I will share photos soon.

After a couple of hours, I was going to finish by skimming the south end of the Reservoir and going home, but I looked at the NYSBirds mailing list and saw that Pat Pollock ("Pat in the Hat") had reported a Canvasback (very rare in Manhattan) in the northeast corner of the Reservoir, so I went up there. No Canvasback that I could spot, but there was a Lesser Scaup, which is also a good bird in the park. Another birder spotted something red-headed back on the west side, so back we went; it turned out to be a female Common Merganser, who kindly flew in to give us a better look. (Common Merganser is not common in NYC; almost nothing with "Common" in the name is, except Common Grackle.) By then it was getting very nasty out, so when I worked around to the southeast corner and met a birder who had also not seen the Canvasback, I bailed out.

Anyway, that gets me up to 43 species. I'm told that White-Winged Crossbills sometimes come in after a snowstorm...