birdspot

From Central Park, from the W. 96th St. entrance and around the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir:

Pied-billed Grebe **
Double-crested Cormorant
Canada Goose
Mallard
American Black Duck
Northern Shoveler
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
(1000+ gulls, on the water and the jetty)
Rock Pigeon*
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling*
Cedar Waxwing (35+)**
Chipping Sparrow (1, associating with 100+ White-throated Sparrows & Dark-eyed Juncos)**
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
House Sparrow*

* In general, I will probably not list these birds as they are so common that I see them every day.
** While not especially rare, these were interesting: the PB Grebe and the Chipping Sparrow are out of season, and the Waxwings are not always seen.

There are some things that make me happy on a cold winter day. One of those things is to stand at the edge of a body of water and endure blistering wind chills while squinting through a brand-new pair of tiny, expensive optics designed to fit comfortably into a pocket. NEW 10 POWER ZEISS BINS! Bins means binoculars, in case you are of the reasonable portion of the population who would never say such a thing. Who cares if you can’t feel your face and people on the running track around the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir are looking at you strangely? I thought at first that they looked at me because I am bird-watching, but of course this is Central Park and there is nothing odd enough about that to attract attention. I then realized it was probably my hat. Such a hat is obtained only via ill-informed Christmas giving, and until recently only worn during outdoors excursions in Maine. Occasionally I will see someone with something similar, but only as of last winter, when the hipsters in Williamsburg must have decided that it was just ridiculous enough to be cool again. I don’t see too many in Manhattan. But it’s the only one I have out of storage so far.

This is, above all else, the city of the gaze. I’m usually watching the pigeons. While waiting for the subway trains I look for rats. They don’t bother me at all; I find them fascinating, but then again I don’t have to live with them. At least so far; now I have probably jinxed myself.

Perhaps in the next few days I can truly get this up and running. I have been on the road and out to sea for two months, with a New York City apartment move thrown in for extra fun, and I am a little under the weather. But I am back to work, and will post a new sketch soon…