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

First Phoebe of Spring

Some birders mark the real beginning of Spring from the sighting of the first Eastern Phoebe. Though I'm not really one of them, I do admit that the first Phoebe does give a certain sense of Springitude to the proceedings.

Elena and I were having brunch and discussing where to go afterwards, and I checked my usual bird resources. On the NYNYBird web page (the web site for a text alert system I don't subscribe to; I don't like texts) was a message from Karen Fung: "E phoebe swampy pin oak. FOY?"

Certainly the first I'd heard of. So we went to the Ramble, intending to check the Swampy Pin Oak. That needs a new name, by the way, since the big Pin Oak was brought down in the aftermath of Sandy, but I digress.

We came up Cedar Hill, spotting a male baltimore Oriole there (maybe the one who wintered around Evodia), and entered the Ramble through Maintenance Meadow, and...

Phirst Phoebe

...there it was, our first Phoebe of the year. Ah, Spring!

Evodia was normally busy with the usual birds, including the female Baltimore Oriole. There were a lot of Downy Woodpeckers around.

Downy glaring at an incoming house sparrow

We spotted another Phoebe a little south of the Humming Tombstone, and also our first Hairy Woodpecker of the year (life bird for Elena, and 82nd species of the year for me).

We looked for Woodcock in the Humming Tombstone area, with no luck, but at Tupelo Meadow we saw someone peering intently into the fenced area around the big Tupelo tree. She made a complete circuit, and then suddenly a football with wings burst forth from the middle of the area and flew south toward the Gill. So there are still Woodcocks around.

At the east end of Tupelo Meadow is a tree dark with sap. Two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were disputing ownership.

winner and still champeen!

See how his crest is up? That's an agitated bird.

On our way back out through Maintenance, we saw this Swamp Sparrow in the meadow.

Spring in his step

That's Spring all over.

First day of Spring

Today was the first day of Spring, and I spent the afternoon in Inwood Hill Park. Walking along the river, I saw something moving on the river, screened from me by a tree on the bank. It dove, and I anxiously scanned the water for its return. And there it was, just a few yards offshore:



A Long-Tailed Duck, a life bird for me and my 80th species of the year. So I've made two trips to Inwood Hill, and gotten two lifers and two other year birds. Nice!

There was a raptor soaring north over the Bronx. It seemed too small for a Red-Tailed Hawk. Maybe a Red-Shouldered, but I couldn't make any field marks on it.

The interior of the park was very quiet--I could hear Cardinals singing and Jays calling, but there were few other birds, not even sparrows. But it was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods.

Might as well be Spring

What does the Fox sing?

Everything has started singing, it seems. Tuesday, a Fox Sparrow sang near the Humming Tombstone while I searched for Woodcocks. I eventually found them. They aren't singing, but I'm told they've been doing flight displays around 9PM in teh Maintenance meadow.

At Evodia, the male Baltimore Oriole who overwintered was singing. The female Oriole did not seem impressed yet. Considering what a hard time he gave her over the last couple of months, I don't blame her.

There's a Rusty Blackbird who's been hanging out near Azalea Pond. He's singing too, in the Rusty's rusty-hinge way. Song Sparrows were singing everywhere, and White-Throated Sparrows, and Cardinals. Jays were making a variety sounds, some of them joyful.

The first Black-Crowned Night Heron of the season was asleep in a willow at the Point, well-screen by branches.  (That's species number 79 for me.)

Today I started at the Reservoir. There wasn't much singing, but the Red-Necked Grebe is still around, it's neck getting more breeding-plumage red every day. Buffleheads were plentiful, and Shovelers.

More Buffleheads at the Pool, and a lovely warm red-brown Swamp Sparrow on the Loch, and more Song Sparrows singing.

On Fifth Avenue and 105th, a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks is building a nest. I saw them carrying nesting materials.

Off to find more sticks!

They better get with it--I hear Octavia has laid her eggs already.

I saw on the internets that a Lesser Black-Backed Gull was in the middle of the Reservoir, so I went back there.  I don't have a scope, but I scanned the gulls as best I could; also took some photos and zoomed in on them.  Nothing promising.  Then I took another look at the reports, and saw they were about a first-cycle Gull.  There's no chance I'd tell a first-cycle Lesser Black-Backed from a young Herring Gull.  Wrong equipment, wrong birder.

I got home before the rain.  Spring tomorrow;  warblers soon.  Those I can recognize.

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!

Inwood Hill Park

I went up to Inwood Hill Park for the first time today. There have been reports for a week or so of White-Winged Scoter in Spuyten Duyvil creek and in the Hudson River nearby, and I figured I'd check it out.

It's not hard to get to. I took the #1 train to 215th street and walked up to Columbia's Baker Field athletic complex at 218th and Broadway, then up 218th a couple of block to the park.

There are a pair of coves just inside the park there, mostly full of gulls. Song Sparrows were singing along the shore. About halfway along the second cove, I spotted some dark spots out in the mouth of the cove, a little too far for my binoculars or camera to resolve. I backtracked to a point of land on the east point of the cove and saw they were a male Hooded Merganser and three female Greater Scaup (first of year for me). The Merganser was on patrol while the Scaup were mostly asleep.

Moving back down the cove, I ran into a gentleman who pointed out a Red-Tailed Hawk nest high in a tree over the nearby soccer field. he also told me how best to get to the part of Spuyten Duyvil creek west of the bridge (where some of the Scoter reports were from), and down to the Hudson. Turns out there's a path along the lower part of the big hill that makes up most of the park.

There was nothing in the creek between the auto bridge and the Amtrak bridge. I followed the path a half-mile south to an overpass over the train line and then down to the Hudson. I headed back north along the river walk to the end, and watched the river for a half-hour, but no birds appeared on the water.

I decided to backtrack to the coves to see if the Scaup might have woken up enough for a good photo, so back down the river walk, over the overpass, north along the path. I kept scanning the river; hope springs eternal.

Suddenly, dark dots on the water.

Could those be...Scoters?

They sure looked like Scoters when I zoomed in on the photo, drifting down the river. So it was back down the path, over the overpass, up the river walk... by the time I got there, the Scoters were well past the end of the walk, which was probably the closest they got to shore. But they were still close enough for a decent photo.

You can clearly see the "swoosh" mark on the faces of two of the males.

The Scoters' behavior was interesting. They were drifting backwards down the river, facing north. They'd dip their bills into the oncoming waves and occasionally dive into the current.

I watched them for a few minutes, and then they decided to fly north, well past Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and start over. The white patches on their wings were very evident as they flew. I elected to head south down the river walk, heading for the Dyckman Street exit at the south end of the park.

I was counting Song Sparrows when a huge white bird flew past me on the river, perhaps 60-80 feet offshore.

That's a Whistling Swan (Tundra Swan, they're calling it these days). For once my camera managed to focus quickly on a flying bird. Not the best picture, but you can see the essential features--all-while wings, dark legs and bill, long neck.

An excellent adventure. Greater Scaup, White-Winged Scoter, Whistling Swan bring me to 78 species in New York County this year. When I left the park, I saw a Kestrel chase a Red-Tailed Hawk high over Dyckman Street. That was the cherry on top.

American Wigeon and Red-Necked Grebe on the Central Park Reservoir

The ice on the Reservoir is finally, slowly, melting. The area of open water around the fountain now reaches east to the dike and nearly to the southern edge; the whole dike (which runs down the center of the reservoir) is now open water, from the south pumphouse to the north pumphouse.

As the water opens up, new birds begin arriving. A Red-Necked Grebe has been sighted intermittently for several days; an Iceland Gull was spotted yesterday; Red-Breasted Mergansers have been around. The usual late-winter grew of Shovelers, Buffleheads, Hooded Mergansers, Wood Ducks, American Black Ducks, and an occasional Ruddy Duck is present.

Today, rain was promised but only late in the afternoon, so I went around 2 PM to see what was around. Nothing out of the ordinary that I could see on the south edge; no Red-Necked Grebe and none of the gulls looked exotic. I watched a Ruddy Duck diving for a long time. After yesterdays long hike I found I lacked the energy to walk to the north part of the Reservoir; there was less open water there anyway.

Scanning the farther reaches of the open water, I saw a small bird diving repeatedly. Couldn't quite make it out. Ruddy? Pied-Billed Grebe? I watched a while. About 3:30, it was being harassed by gulls, and lifted off into a crazy twisting flight, dodging in and out of the air traffic and coming down square in the middle of a group of Buffleheads, who greeted her as one of their own, which indeed she was.

I thought about leaving, but I noticed that a lot of birds were arriving from the north. I decided to walk back to the south pumphouse and see if anything turned up. From about 50 yards off, I saw a duck frantically preening himself in the narrow strip of open water over the dike near the pumphouse. It had a shockingly white head. When I got closer, I realized it was an American Wigeon.



That's a pretty nice bird for Central Park (and a life bird for me, and my 75th species in New York County this year). After getting some photos, I sent an email to the NYS-Birds mailing list and a tweet to the #birdcp hashtag (and if anyone reading this knows who runs the @BirdCentralPark account that retweets that hashtag, can you ask them why they ignore my reports?) and went back to watching. He was a very itchy bird.

Eventually a few birders showed up and saw the Wigeon. I went back to the larger patch of open water, but nothing new had shown up. Eventually, about 4:30 or so, with the sky looking more threatening and the rain overdue, I decide to leave and headed back toward the pumphouse.

Just then, a birder whose name I unfortunately do not know came from that direction and said the red-Necked Grebe was present; he and David Barrett had been watching it swimming down the dike corridor. And there it was.



This was a far better view than I had at Randall's Island last month, and I watched and photographed as the rain began to come down. I didn't care about the rain.