Five years ago this week (2)

In the winter of 2011, the best bird in Central Park was a Varied Thrush that was hanging around near the Ramble bathrooms. Varied Thrushes are common park birds in the Pacific Northwest; we get a vagrant here every few years.

This one had been often seen in January and February in the company of two male Eastern Towhees, where were the most accommodating Towhees I've ever seen.

The day I got the Varied Thrush photo above I also took one of my favorite Blue Jay pictures ever.

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.

Early Winter notes

I'm sad to report that the American Woodcock that was sighted many times in Bryant Park in November, died. I saw it lying on a bare patch of ground in the southeast part of the park on December 2. It's a hard life, being a bird.

The Ovenbird in the northwest corner is still hanging on.

hanging in there

It appears completely without fear of Man, which I suspect means it is very hungry indeed. The other day I tried feeding it pumpkin seeds, and it seemed interested, but they were apparently too large for it. I suppose I could crush some. Or maybe sunflower seeds? Dried fruit? I need something I can carry around for days without it rotting. I can't just leave food out for the pigeons and sparrows to eat (they're doing fine, anyway); I want to feed this particular bird on the days I see it in the morning.

Bryant Park also has a female Towhee I first noticed last Thursday, and saw again today.

Towhee and friends

I assume that, being a sparrow, she'll be fine eating whatever the crowd of White-Throateds subsist on.

Several Catbirds are still there as well.

Nothing very out-of-season has showed up in Central Park that I know of, though a pair of Ring-Necked drakes continues in the Reservoir. By the way, the Conservancy's renovation of the running track continues to close off more and more of the Reservoir from observation; and somehow they never seem to finish work on any part of it before closing off more. Very annoying.

A Goshawk appeared in the north end of Central Park on Sunday. Nadir Souirgi, who spotted it, thought it's behavior meant it might hang around at least a day or so. Also, there have been a steady stream of sightings of red-Shouldered Hawks in the area.

I went out to Randall's Island on Sunday and walked all around. There was nothing much to report there. No Pipits appeared to me, nor did I spot the Nelson's Sparrow (still reported as of 11/29).

The Central Park Christmas Bird Count id this Sunday (12/14) at 8:00am, meeting at the south pumphouse of the Reservoir. That rounds out the birding year. I started this blog right after last year's CBC.

Lazy weekend

Eastern Towhee in the Shakespeare Garden

Sorry for the lack of posts. I had a lazy weekend.

Sunday an American-Tree Sparrow was reported at the Evodia feeders, so I went out to see if it was still there. I was there for an hour or so, and it didn't show up. I had a nice time seeing the other winter residents--the Baltimore orioles were there, along with Brown Creeper, White-Breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Downy Woodpeckers, and the usual Juncos, House Finches, Goldfinches, White-Throated sparrows, House Sparrows, and Grackles.

I took a walk around the Ramble, but luckily I came back just in time to see a little rufous-capped sparrow foraging with Juncos and Whte-Throateds:

American Tree Sparrow (in the back), and friends

So that's my 67th species in the county this year.

I walked through the Shakespeare Garden on my way out of the park. That was uneventful until I saw a small flock of mixed sparrows, joined by a Brown Thrasher and the very confiding Towhee at the top of this post.  He was maybe 8 feet away from me when I took that shot.

There's been a Red-Shouldered Hawk reported several times in the past week in Central Park, but I haven't seen it.

Anya Auerbach reported a Horned Lark on Randall's Island today, also with Red-Necked Grebe, Common Goldeneye, Common Loon and others. If it doesn't snow all day tomorrow, I may chase those.