Kingbird vs Hawk

Earlier in the summer, soon after the young Red-Tailed Hawks from Pale Male's brood had fledged, I spotted one of them in a tree along the 79th Street Transverse. It called occasionally, a creaky version of an adult hawk's scream. As I drew nearer, I realized that the young hawk was being mobbed by a single Eastern Kingbird, who I knew was nesting nearby.

This is the only time I've seen the red crown on a Kingbird. It's usually hidden, but this was one angry bird.

The Kingbird made pass after pass at the hawk, sometimes going away for a few minutes then returning again. On every close approach, teh hawk would screech.

The Kingbird was actually striking the hawk occasionally, though I didn't manage the catch that in camera.

The hawk eventually decided he'd has enough, and flew off. The Kingbird's young fledged a couple of weeks later, and you'd see the parents feeding them around Turtle Pond.

Three days

Tuesday there were apparently two Red-Headed Woodpeckers in Central Park. One was reported by Anders Peltomaa early in the morning at the Great Lawn, moving north, and the second was in the Ramble. I glimpsed the second east of Evodia, in the same trees that last May's Red-Headed liked. It flew off quickly towards Azalea Pond, but I guessed that it would return, which it did, at least for a few seconds about 15 minutes later.

Red-Headed Woodpecker

Then it disappeared again, and this time did not come back for the hour I waited in hopes of a better photo.

The Ramble was otherwise moderately birdy. I had a nice view of a female Black-Throated Blue Warbler having lunch.

Mmm.. Tasty!

The Red-Headed Woodpecker is my 160th species of the year in New York County. Aside from that, the only rarity I've heard about in Manhattan is a very late Pied-Billed Grebe on the Reservoir.

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Monday was rather slow in the park--28 species, only four warblers. My highlights were a very cooperative Eastern Kingbird near Greywacke Arch:

The Kingbird is not afraid of a peasant like you

and a nice view of a female Indigo Bunting drinking in the Gill.

the subdued elegance of a female Indigo Bunting

Female Indigos tend to be difficult. They're a bit skulky, and somewhat non-descript. This one, though, came out in the open and had a nice warm brown look overall, with a bit of blue in the tail, so she was fairly easy to ID.

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Sunday I went up to Riverdale to take my aunts out to lunch. I rewarded myself for the good deed by birding in Van Cortlandt Park for a couple of hours afterward. I have never heard so many Warbling Vireos in my life--easily over a dozen, including several doing song battles, one of them a three-way fight.

The vireos stayed pretty well hidden, but I did see a loudly singing House Wren.

House Wren, belting out the hits

Also, the Ring-Necked drake was still on Van Cortlandt Lake, where he's been hanging out since at least late March. He's pretty decisively taken himself out of the mating game for this year.

Astonishing

The variety of birds passing through Central Park this weekend was astonishing.  Let's start with this guy:

Wilson's all over

Wilson's Warbler. I saw my first of the season on Thursday. Sunday I saw sixteen. Possibly more--I tried not to count more than one in an area unless I saw them all at the same time. That's a crazy number. You see one or two Wilson's a day, if you're in luck. Not sixteen.

Wilson's wasn't the only very abundant warbler. Sunday we saw eleven Magnolia Warblers,

That's a Magnolia, sugar

which is a lot, and nine Redstarts, which is not too few.

American Redstart disapproves of you

Friday I saw eleven Ovenbirds, but they seem to have mostly moved on (only three on Sunday), or maybe they were just less noticeable with all the other activity. Other warblers were frequent as well. I even got a Tennessee Warbler on Friday, my first of the year, and a couple of Blackpolls on Sunday (also FOY).

And then there were rarities. This fella showed up roosting in a tree near Azalea Pond:

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Yellow-crowned Night Heron, a life bird for me, and I not something that shows up in Central Park often. If ever. And we (Elena and I and our friend Melissa) ran into a group of birders near the Weather Station who were looking at a Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.

Yellow-Billed Cuckoo

OK, those come through every year. One or two, anyway--so you don't necessarily see them every year. I didn't get a Yellow-Billed last year, for instance.

A couple of other first-of-year birds for me his weekend were Olive-sided Flycatcher (at the northeast corner of Azalea Pond, favoring the bare branches at the top of a tall snag--I think the same bird visits there every migration) and Eastern Kingbird (at least one at Turtle Pond).

any question as to why they call him the King-Bird?

That all puts me at 153 species in New York County this year.

Some nice birds continue, as well. A Summer Tanager has been hanging around Turtle Pond the last few days.

Summer Tanager

Scarlet Tanagers have been pretty frequent, as well.

any excuse is a good excuse to post a photo of a Scarlet Tanager

And, well, almost everything else. Really an astounding migration season.