Far from the madding crowd, not close enough to the maddening gull

Saturday, after the rain, I was finally able to go out to Randall's Island for the first time in weeks. I was looking for a little orangy bird, Nelson's Sparrow, that had been sighted in the salt marsh on the northern tip of the island. The last report was of three birds on Monday the 6th.

I had no luck with the Nelson's. At the west end of the marsh were many Swamp Sparrows, some Song Sparrows, a few Common Yellowthroats. A hundred or so yards away, at the other end, a group of Savannah Sparrows jumped in and out of the bushes onto the grass and back in.

After a couple of times back and forth along the marsh, I continued around the northeast shore. Three more Savannah Sparrows seemed to follow me around. Sometimes I flushed them, sometimes they flew past me and led me up the shore.

It was quiet. The solitude was wonderful. Almost nobody was ever in sight. two joggers, once, and a man walking a dog.

There is a small hill at the south east end of this area, past the ball fields and jest before the fire department training area. I sat on a bench at the top of the hill for a while. When I want down the hill, a Kestrel flew past me and perched on a lamppost at the top.

industrial Kestrel

Just then, a couple with two dogs started up the hill, the first people I'd seen in an hour. I got my camera ready.

it was time to hunt anyway

I didn't think the Kestrel would care for them. Besides, it was time to hunt. I went back to the salt marsh.

There was still no sign of unusual sparrows. I waited a long time. As I got ready to leave, I scanned the opposite shore of the Bronx Kill, and noticed a rather small, slim gull, much smaller than the Herring and Ring-Billed Gulls nearby.

on shore, left to right:  Herring, mystery gull, Ring-Billed.  In the water, juvenile, probably a Herring

That was interesting. I'm not good at gulls, but I didn't think we had any small white-headed gulls. Maybe it was some kind of tern?

maddening gull

Not a tern surely. Smallish bill, though, and kind of a dark spot behind the eye. I paged through Peterson's. Hmm, maybe a winter-plumaged Bonaparte's? That would be a good bird--a lifer for me, in fact, though not a screaming rarity. Maybe a Laughing Gull, but it seemed much too small--Laughing Gulls are only a little smaller then Ring-Billeds.

The gull moved several times--it didn't care to stay around the bigger gulls. I don't blame it--gulls in general are assholes, though they weren't really bothering the smaller bird.

Eventually, it flew north out of sight around the eastern Bronx shore.

Time to go home. A Kingfisher came out and hunted along the Bronx Kill, and perched near the New York Post plant.

Kingfisher, posted

when I got home, I looked over my many photos of the gull to try to definitely ID it. I had a few of the bird in flight.

...nope.

Drat. Those aren't the wings of a Bonaparte's--they have kind of a white triangle thing going on on the top of the wing, and usually some black on the trailing edge. Laughing Gull. Oh well. A fine afternoon out, anyway.

Road trip: Morris County, NJ

Sunday, some friends brought us out to Morris County, NJ. They started with a gesneriad show at the Frelinghausen Arboretum; I walked around the grounds. I had been surprised that there were very few eBird reports from the arboretum, which seemed to have a nice location with a brook that was once attached to the Whippany River. But it turned out not to be very birdy.

My highlight was an assortment of sparrows in the scrubby plants at the end of a dry gully near a wildflower meadow. I thought at the time they were mostly Song Sparrows, but my photos turned out to be mainly Savannah Sparrows.

I think there may have been one Vesper Sparrow in the bunch as well, but that one only popped out very briefly, so I don't know. A couple of the Savannahs had very strong eye-rings, so maybe that's all I saw.

One of my friends saw two Red-Headed Woodpeckers chasing each other near the arboretum's visitor center. I missed that, unfortunately.

Next stop was the Raptor Trust. This excellent organization is a rehab center for injured hawks, eagles, falcons, owls, and vultures. They treat and release the ones who can make it in the wild, and keep the ones who can't.

We toured the area with the permanent residents' cages. The cages are mesh, so photography is difficult. Sometimes one can get a good shot--get up right close to the cage when the bird is in the back of the cage, use the longest focal length you have, shoot it wide-open.

"Winky" the Eastern Screech-Owl

Finally, we went to the observation area of the Great Swamp NWR. As we got out of the car, a vulture soared over--flat wings, whitish wingtips, grey head--a Black Vulture, and a life bird for me.

The swamp was pretty quiet. There were one or two Palm Warblers; at a blind overlooking a wet meadow a Great Blue Heron flew low through the golden late afternoon light.

As dusk came down, a Tufted Titmouse family crossed the path I was on, complaining all the way into the underbrush.

An excellent day.

Getting late in migration

stock Fall warbler photo

Monday in Maintenance meadow (Central Park), I saw my first Yellow-Rumped Warblers of the Fall. To me, that means it's getting late in the migration season.

Carolina Wrens seem to be back in the Park in numbers. I saw a few last week who might have been passing through, but Monday morning I heard a singing battle rage at the east end of Turtle Pond, their songs ringing out through the crisp autumnal air.

remembrance of wrens past

If there are males working out territory boundaries that close--the two birds were probably ten yards apart at most--there must be a lot of them around staking out claims. They'll be staying the winter in that case--Carolinas stay on territory year-round and don't migrate seasonally--and I hope it's a mild one. The reason there's territory open for this new bunch to stake out is that this past winter was harsh enough to kill all the resident males in the area.  It's not an easy life, being a bird.

In Manhattan birding news, there was a White-Rumped Sandpiper at Muscota Marsh in Inwood Hill Park on Friday afternoon. It appears to be the first recorded in New York County, though they show up every couple of years somewhere in the region. This one hasn't been seen since Friday, but there's been a Semipalmated Plover returning at intervals, so who knows--this shorebird might come back.

Also, on Friday, a Nelson's Sparrow was seen in the saltmarsh at the northern tip of Randall's Island (right behind ballfield 42); another one was spotted at the Loch in the north end of Central Park on Sunday, and then three (!) more at the Randall's Island saltmarsh on Monday. That's a really good bird for New York (and a rather pretty orangy sparrow, too).

Strike three!

I went back to Madison Square Park this morning, not that the MTA was any help. I walked around for forty minutes or so. No Connecticut Warbler. There were a few Common Yellowthroats; two of them came and perched in a tree right in front of me. They were very cute, but didn't hold still for a double portrait.

good morning!

Also some White-Throated Sparrows and three Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers. No Connecticut. Oh well.

Late in the afternoon, there was a report of yet another Connecticut, in Central Park's Strawberry Fields. Like the other two Connecticuts, it was apparently walking around out in the open rather than skulking deep in the foliage. I wouldn't know, obviously,

Double-dip

not the bird I was looking for

In birder jargon, a "dip" is when you chase a reported rare bird and fail to see it. I dipped twice today on the same species of bird.

Yesterday, several people saw a Connecticut Warbler in Central Park, between the Riviera and the Rustic Shelter in the Ramble. The Connecticut Warbler is a skulky bird, a little smaller than a House Sparrow, mostly olive, with a full hood, grey (in adult males) brownish otherwise, and a bold eye-ring. They walk on the ground rather than hopping or flitting, usually come through New York only in the Fall migration (in Spring I think they go north inland), and are quite uncommon even then.

Yesterday's reports were from late in the afternoon until a bit after sunset, so it seemed possible that the bird might stay overnight. So I went out in the morning to try to spot it. Nope! It wasn't a total loss--a cool humid morning with several wrens (all Carolinas, I think), various sparrows, and my first Ruby-Crowned Kinglet of the season. (Not the one above--the light was terrible this morning.)

In the afternoon, I saw a report online of another Connecticut, this one in Madison Square Park. I wasn't able to get down there until after sunset. There were a few birders left, but no bird.

In birder jargon, a "nemesis bird" is a rare bird that a birder has tried and failed to see several times. I'm not really a good enough birder to have an actual nemesis bird, but I have never seen a Connecticut Warbler in a dozen or so attempts. Some of those chases were stakeouts lasting many hours, including one where the other five birders there all saw the warbler skulking in the shrubbery at one point.

That one made me swear off chasing Connecticuts, but there I was again today--and I'll see if I can get up early enough to try again tomorrow.

Just waiting on a wren

at long last / suddenly / a wren appears

Some birds appear rarer than they really are, because they are simply difficult to spot even when they're around. The Marsh Wren, for example, is mildly rare and only comes through New York in migration, but the real problem is that it is tiny and brown and well-camouflaged as it skulks in the reeds at the water's edge.

In the last week, there have been two sets of reports of Marsh Wrens in Manhattan. One is at Muscota Marsh up in Inwood Hill Park. It was probably there when I went to see the the Pectoral Sandpiper last week. Oh well. Then, a series of reports from a very careful birder named Adrian Burke of a wren, and then two, in Central Park at The Pond at 59th Street. That I could try for after work, and I did, twice, without success.

But hope springs eternal, and since the bird was apparently still there on Friday--and the Global Citizen concert was going to make things difficult in the Ramble-- Elena and I went downtown on Saturday. A quick trip around the Pond--there's clearly activity in the Hallett Sanctuary, and we saw a Hermit Thrush through the fence there--ended at the northmost end of it, where there's a little mud flat near the fence around the skating rink grounds. The bit of pond that extends into the fence area is good place for a Marsh Wren. Nobody's going to bother it in there, except maybe the rats, of which there are a really startling number.

We had a little excitement shortly after arriving, when a wren popped out of the fence. But it was a grayish plain-backed bird, a House wren. Marsh Wrens are browner and have prominent streaks on the back.

A pair of Northern Waterthrushes who didn't care for each other's company enlivened the waiting, as did a Northern Parula warbler who came down to bathe.

Northern Parula with a powerful urge to get clean

The parula splashed around and was joined by some House Sparrows, huge in comparison.

bathing with a friend

More waiting followed. Swamp Sparrows. Song Sparrows. A sparrow with a plain breast and a very streaky head, maybe a juvenile White-Crowned. A Pewee, being chased by a House Sparrow. A charming family of catbirds. It was a fun wait, but a long one. Other birders came...and went. a mile away from the Great Lawn, we could hear the bass thumping from the concert. After two and a half hours, we were thinking of giving up. I went over to the fence one last time and--something was down in the reeds.

got to be good-looking 'cause you're so hard to see

It was the Marsh Wren. I got a good enough look to confirm the ID, and called Elena over. The bird foraged near the fence for a couple of minutes, then melted back into the foliage.

We went home happy. A happy robin bade us goodbye as we crossed Barstow Bridge.

thanks for coming to Central Park, we hope you enjoyed your visit!

Wing, no prayer

Pigeon's wing in front of the NY Public Library, Fifth Avenue

This morning, I got off the bus at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. I was running late to work, but of course, I looked to see what was in the little strip of grass and bushes along the avenue in front of the main branch of the NY Public Library. Only sparrows. Then I spotted the wing.

Just a wing, a pigeon's wing, I believe. A Peregrine Falcon--they nest in the Met Life building--had dined well recently. Hardly any meat on a bird's wing, so it was left intact. That's life and death in the City.

Here's a more cheerful photo, taken last week while I unsuccessfully chased the reported Green-Winged Teals in Central Park after work:

Central Park Lake from Hernshead, at sunset