Miscellany

Dragon

Here's a few photos from my Sunday jaunts in the parks. The Red-Breasted Merganser above was preening in the river, and I caught her at a good angle.

listen to the Mockingbird

This Mockingbird--one of a half-dozen I saw on the river walk north of Dyckman Street--was giving a rusty little call in a bush by the river, and a Song Sparrow sang in a tree nearby.

singing out

The last two photos didn't quite fit in earlier posts. The Common Redpoll--who is still in Central Park at the Evodia feeders--gets along OK with the Goldfinches.

best buddies

The Chipping Sparrow is still around as well.

Chipping Sparrow and fungus

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!

This and that

I walked all the way around Randall's Island on Sunday. There were a lot of Red-Breasted mergansers on the southern shoreline.



A note for anyone thinking of visiting Randall's: some of the pedestrian paths marked on the map don't look much like paths when you're walking on them. There's a path running under the Hell Gate Bridge approach that isn't really passable in spots.

I finally made my way to the freshwater marsh near the Little Hell Gate Inlet. There's a path into the middle of it, which does not go through, so I backtracked to Central avenue and walked on the west side of the wetland. I heard a loud, low-pitched chack call, and scanned the tall grass.

There was a Rusty Blackbird clinging to a reed--a male, black with a lot of rusty feather edging, especially on the head and back. He spotted me as I raised my camera and took off in a looping flight up and over the Hell Gate approach road, coming down somewhere in the water treatment plant area. My 62nd species this year in NY county.

The north end of the island had a massive flock of over 300 Brant.

Monday, I went to Central Park. Lots of Downy Woodpeckers around Evodia. The Baltimore Orioles remain there as well. I think the second oriole is an immature male, because the adult male bird basically dominates it, chasing it away for the feeders over and over.