Stepping into Spring with a spring in your step, or something like that

in spring a young hawk's fancy...

Spring is here! And resident birds are at various stages of family life. Some of the lcal Red-Tailed Hawks were already sitting on eggs by the beginning of April. Others, like the pair above that I ran across one morning in the Ramble, were just getting started on the process.

Great Horned Owls, not big on nest concealment this year

Some birds were even farther along. The Great Horned Owls at the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx nested in a very prominent place this year and had nestlings by mid-March, who should be about ready to fledge by now

not just one but two adorable slaughterfloofs!

Once the slaughterfloofs are ready to leave the nest, they will flutter down into nearby trees. The parents will feed them there until they can actually fly. The Botanical Garden folks are prepares to rope off the whole area while that's going on.

Jay chillin'

Other residents, like this Blue Jay, will be breeding a bit later in the Spring and are just chilling for now. I've only just started seeing Robins building nests this week, though they've been singing for a month or more.

"Rusty Blackbird" always sounds to me like a baseball player's name from the 1930s

Many birds who spent the winter in the NYC area will be moving north to nest. Rusty Blackbirds were at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx all winter as usual, and are now headingfor their mysterious breeding grounds in somewhere in the boreal forests.

American Wigeon, swim away from me

Our wintering ducks will also be nesting somewhere in the north. THis female American Wigeon spent a good deal of the later winter at Harlem Meer.

male Golden-Crowned Kinglets have the orangey racing stripe on their head

Meanwhile the first spring migrants have started moving through the area. Both kinds of Kinglets have been around, along with Chipping Sparrows. Fox sparrows have basically all left already, and the bulk of Song Sparrows have passed through, though some will stay and nest here.

very confiding Chipping Sparrow behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Phoebes came in in a big rush around the end of March and have also mostly left by now. Still waiting to see the first Pewees and Empidonax flycatchers.

Phoebe, here today gone tomorrow

The first warblers have arrived--Pine, Palm, Yellow-Rumped, and now Black-and-White--but I don't have good photos yet. Also there have been several reports of Yellow-Throated Warblers, which is unusual.

Christmas Goose

The Pink-Footed Goose is a cold-weather bird. They breed in Greenland and Iceland, and they winter in northern Europe and Britain. The field guides say that it's an extremely rare vagrant in North America (for example the online Audubon guide: "Strays that have gone the wrong direction have been found in North America only a couple of times, in eastern Canada"), but since about 2011 they've been increasingly common, and there are several in the New York City area at the moment.

One of them is in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and I went to see it on Friday.

Pink-Footed Goose for Christmas!

I may have mentioned this before, but as a rule, if you're looking for a reported rare bird, look for the birders before you look for the bird. When I got to Van Cortlandt Park--a straight shot up the to the end of the #1 IRT subway line--I spotted people with scopes on the Parade Ground, scanning a huge flock of Canada Geese. This saved me from having to circle the flock myself--there had been warnings online about how shy and nervous this goose flock was. You don't want to be the bozo who flushes the rare birds.

Anyway, the scope owners turned out to be NY birding luminaries Gail Benson and Tom Burke, and they kindly gave me looks through their scopes at the Pink-Footed Goose and also a young Snow Goose in the flock.

I moved on to nearby Van Cortlandt Lake, where there was said to be a Cackling Goose and a Northern Pintail duck.

Swans always lend a touch of elegance

Most of the Lake was frozen over, so there were a lot of waterfowl crowded into a small area of open water at the south end. A pair of Mute Swans brightened up the scene, and a phlegmatic Great Blue Heron perched on a branch over the water only a few feet from the path along the west shore.

Imperturbable

The birds on the open water included lot of Canada Geese and Mallards, several Shovelers, one American Black Duck, one Pied-Billed Grebe, and a few Ruddy Ducks.

Ruddy Duck stretching out

Eventually I found the Northern Pintail, a drake. From a distance he was quite handsome, but when I saw him close up he was a bit scruffy. Well, it's winter.

contemplative Pintail

The Cackling Goose never appeared--at least I saw no notably small Canada-type geese--and I eventually headed back to the Parade Ground to see if perhaps I might get a closer look at the Pink-Footed Goose.

There were at least a thousand geese on the Parade Ground when I arrived but almost immediately half of them were put to flight by a single large dog some schmuck decided to let run through Dogs are not allowed on the Parade Ground, by the way, and there are prominent signs to that effect. However, many dog owners consider themselves to be special beings not subject to rules. I will admit it was somehow inspiring to watch fine hundred geese rise up in a body, circle, and fly off.

Goooooooooal!

A single crow stayed behind around the.southernmost soccer nets. There remained a large body of geese at the extreme north end of the field. These geese proved to be not shy or nervous at all. As I approached, I watched two kids passing a soccer ball back and forth going south along the east edge of the flock without disturbing the birds at all. Then an oblivious young man talking on a cell phone walked right through the middle of the flock; the birds near him walked out of his way, but they didn't even honk at him.

There's no gooses like Snow Gooses

I spotted the Snow Goose first, near the edge of the flock at the north end. I walked around to the west side, staying only about ten yards away; the birds didn't pay any attention at all to me. Finally I saw the brown head of the Pink-Footed Goose, also very close by, and I was able to get some nice photos of the rarity.

Very cooperative

And so I got my Christmas goose. The Pink-Footed Goose was a life bird for me, my 280th species. Happy holidays to you all!

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.

Rainy day

Heavy rain all day, so I didn't get out. Monday I stopped in the Ramble briefly on my way to the Bronx. I failed to spot the Hooded Warbler who was seen on the Point and also in the Captain's Bench area, missed the Spotted Sandpiper in the Oven by mere minutes, and didn't have time to try for the Yellow-Throated Warbler seen around Sheep Meadow and then south of Tavern on the Green. I did see my first Northern Waterthrush and Chimney Swifts of the season, which brought me to 109 species in Manhattan this year. The Chimney Swifts retruning is my marker for the real beginning of Spring.

The southwest part of Van Cortlandt Park was not as birdy as I expected. A lot of red-Winged Blackbirds are around, and I had a nice look at a female RWBB in the wetlands area south of the mansion.

Female blackbird calling

She was calling, rather sweetly for a blackbird. I also saw a lingering Rusty Blackbird there. There was a Ring-Necked Duck on the lake; I wonder if he was the same drake I saw there a month ago. A number of singing Yellow-Rumped Warblers were around, and also Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, and (yes!) Chimney Swifts.

Tuesday, I saw a report early in the morning that the Yellow-Throated Warbler was seen just south of Sheep meadow, so I headed straight down there...and struck out. I spent an hour and a half getting "warbler neck" from scanning the trees between the 65th Street Transverse and the Bandshell. No dice. I did get a nice addition to my photo collection of House Sparrows nesting in interesting places:

Sparrow at her nest in a street sign

And a good look at the male Red-Tailed Hawk of the pair that is nesting near the Sheep Meadow.

I think that's a bit of his breakfast still in his beak.

Reaching the Ramble, I saw a Yellow Warbler right near Bow Bridge. Poor thing seemed to be missing its tail, but it was flying pretty well anyway. The other newly-arrived warbler species I didn't see, nor had anyone seen the Hooded Warbler from the day before again.

On my way out, at Maintenance meadow there were some Chipping Sparrows and one Field Sparrow.

Field Sparrow, ohsocute

There haven't been a lot of Field Sparrows this Spring. I think they're about the cutest thing going.

The yellow Warbler was my 110th species in New York county this year. Tomorrow it's supposed to stop raining in the afternoon, so I'll go see what's around after the storm.

Early Spring in Van Cortlandt Park

I was in Riverdale visiting my aunts and decided to take a stroll through the southwest part of Van Cortlandt Park before going home. On the way there, I watched five crows mob a Red-Tailed Hawk across the road from Brust Park.

At Van Cortlandt, Spring was swinging into motion. It looked so different from just two weeks before; snow had been everywhere and was now all gone, and the flooding was gone from the paths.

At the little freshwater marsh south of the Van Cortlandt mansion, many Song Sparrows were singing and some Red-winged Blackbirds calling, and a small group of Rusty Blackbirds popped out and back into the tall grass. Along the path northwest of the Parade Ground, Tufted Titmouses sang.

The best part was the marshy north end of Van Cortlandt Lake (just south of teh golf course fence), where countless Red-Winged Blackbirds called and sang, and then this guy cruised out of the reeds:

Ring-Necked Duck on Van Cortlandt Lake

A very nice Ring-Necked drake, always a good bird in New York City.

I worked my way eventually to the east side of the lake. There were some female Hooded Mergansers along with the Mallards on the south part of the lake, and yet more Red-Winged Blackbirds going off like alarm clocks everywhere. I especially liked this gaudy male:

High-steppin' Blackbird

Catching up: Woodcocks in the Ramble; Spring closing in on Van Cortlandt Park

Sorry for the silence. Saturday, Elena and I went to Central Park. There were two American Woodcocks in the Ramble, just northeast of Azalea Pond. One of them gave us a pretty good look. The Pine Warbler is also still around; I saw it bathing in the Gill just north of Azalea Pond, along with the American Tree Sparrow and a Cedar Waxwing. And the Baltimore Orioles are still at the Evodia feeders.

Sunday we went to the Bronx to visit my aunt who's rehabbing after a hip replacement, and we spent an hour in the southwest part of Van Cortlandt Park. Spring is coming--there were red-Winged Blackbirds calling all over the place, especially in the little freshwater marsh south of the Van Cortlandt mansion. There were also several Titmouse (Titmice? Titmousim?) and Chickadees. Van Cortlandt is the only place either of us has seen Titmouse since last Spring. There was still a lot of snow and ice in the park, and the path south of the Parade Ground was completely flooded in spots (and bordered by very slick ice). I can see why the city wants the Central park conservancy to share some of its resources--Van Cortlandt could really use some help.

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).

Van Cortlandt Park: Rusty Blackbirds and Tufted Titmouses

Friday, I closed out January by going to Central Park in the morning (and failing to find the Pine Siskin reported the previous day) and then up to the Bronx for a stroll through the southwest part of Van Cortlandt Park before visiting my aunts.

The highlight was a flock of 35 to 40 Rusty Blackbirds, foraging on the grass between the marsh area north of the soccer field and the nature center at the south end of the Parade Ground. It was a lovely sight. I've never seen so many Rustys at once.

Just east of the Parade Ground, I saw a few Tufted Titmouses (Titmice? Titmousim?), my first of the year and in fact my first since last Spring. Charming as always.