jan 30
Perhaps January is a special time for many people, but I think that birders really take this month to another level. Where most people forget resolutions about 11 days into the new year, people who look for birds are often hard at work on their lists to see as many species as possible before Feb. 1st. My January list, for example, is pathetic this year, and today, faced with the dying winter sun and an early a.m. plane flight tomorrow, I am actually considering running out to Central Park to pad… see if I can find a Common Redpoll, for example. I can’t do this for logistical reasons. But I really want to.
Here is what I have seen this January anyway:
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Black Duck
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Eastern Screech Owl
LONG-EARED OWL
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Juno
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
SCOTT’S ORIOLE (not pathetic, BTW)
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Birds, Central Park, Lists, NYC |
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February 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 am
Please elaborate on the “not pathetic” comment on the Scott’s Oriole.
Saw some great shots of that bird.
Mark
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:36 am
This might fall under “strangest rare bird experience” - every time I go through Union Square I look for this bird, and usually it has been feeding at eye level not ten feet from hundreds, nay thousands, of people passing by. His survival and continued presence in the square are no doubt due to the fruit provided by birders, and aided by a YB Sapsucker who is methodically maiming the bushes in there. I would have been overjoyed to just see the Sapsucker (see them in C. Park all the time, but US is such another story). I LOVE BIRDING IN NYC.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
re: pathetic: my birding time during january was usurped by drawing time (i know, tiny fiddles and all), so my sightings are a little thin… but it was nice to run an errand or get a coffee and pop over to have a look at the oriole. nice as in AWESOME.
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
OK, I understand…I thought it might be an obscure ref to “pathetique” as used by 1980s Brit post punk punters when descriibng bands like SPLODGESSENABOUNDS. Oi!
January here has been great for Pine Grosbeaks, and of course (the world knows) gulls like Slay-backed. Unfortunately, and this is a huge “unfor…”, I just broke my leg. First broken bone ever: left fibula. Waiting for the premanenant cast (6 weeks) to go on Tuesday. It won’t stop me birding, but it will cut it down considerbaly. Damned greasy ice outside Dunkin’ Doughnuts!!!
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
MARK!! (say in voice that means be careful)
That must have hurt. That must still hurt. Heal quickly, and stay off of it as much as you can, irruptive finches and all…
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:25 pm
This has NOT been a good past 12 months for me and falls. This time I was being so careful; had major hiking boots on et, and was only three steps from the car…argh!Bloody frozen H2O! Pain, of course, but What really hurt was the ER guy hand forming the fiberglass cast all around the broken bone. YIIIIII-KES! I actually chewed blanket.
BTW: I was asked to give a lecture at the meeting of BIRDERS WHO ARE ARTISTS (or is that visa versa?) on the artists featured in thier upcoming show (Lars Jonsson; Andy Warhol and others) .But it is early March, and I will still be on crutches and w/cast so I will likely back off.
On the other hand, I will be giving a short talk there in APRIL on the HONDIUS painting: REST ON THE HUNT.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I wish you would come to Birders Who Are Artists, cast and all! I am supposed to be the featured artist this year, so will definitely be there… it would be so cool to see you.. no leg pulling/ arm twisting intended…
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Well, it would mean I would have to actually TALK about your art in front of you. Not that I don’t actually enjoy talking about your art (obviously I do), but WITH YOU THERE? I don’t know if I have ever given a lecture about someone’s work with the artist actually THERE. It could be pretty hilarious. They asked me to say “soemthing” about all the artists in the exhibiiton.
What I told them initially is that it would be interesting to talk about nature and birds in the great 20thC art movements: Futurism; German Expressionism; Stella’s hialrious rail assemblages et Kitty Wale’s lammergier’s; and of course Warhol. But they didn’t want that. Why do I get the feeling they aren’t that comfortable talking about Modern and Contemporary Art away from realist traditions?
Especially when looking at your work (and you may not see this at all and it may only be the way I look at your work; but it comes from knowing you) I see a relationship to Warhol via Danto’s essay on BEYOND THE BRILLO BOX. In that you really need to know the artist’s life and concepts to REALLY understand what is going on in thier work. I never just see a “really cooly drawn bird” when I look at your work. It is THAT, but there are other elements at play too. There is a personal history that exists as a nimbus surrounding every drawing.
OK, enough of that shit: maybe they are just really cool drawings, and what the hell is wrong with that?
Anyway, I was really hankerin’ to show some slides of Stella’s rails. Those works always make me laugh.
In the meantime, what I can see of my foot beyond the cast has turned a perfectly gruesome pallette of purples, yellows and even some fleshy blacks. Yum!
Must go elevate.
Mark
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
re: my work: I’m not in that exhibit, just giving a separate talk, so you’d be safe on that…
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
re: the contemporary link: that’s EXACTLY why you need to be there!
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
re: blackened foot: keep that puppy elevated, you don’t want any complications.
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
TRUTH: my plan was to talk about you ANYWAY when I was talking about Contemporary and Modern Art. Your work has always operated for me in a very weird zone between what is typically appreciated by the general public as “bird art” (Hey, cool drawing of a bird!) and Contemporary Art (via museums and galleries and all that goes with it), and in that way is delightfully wicked and category defying. If I do the talk, I very will likely stick you in there anyway (how could I not?). I wish they would expand the topic to something more general like NATURE, cuz then you would have some real conversations. They need to get more people with a deep art background like yourself for some really challenging conversations. But is it your reading that they want those conversations?
Leg color: bruising is an amazing thing and spreads across the leg when broken over the course of a week or so. It can look quite gangrenous and CSI, but not to worry. I think.
February 4th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Please excuse my eavesdropping here…
I’ve spent some time with Cathy in her studio and the thing I gleaned from her the most, is how much her craft & concepts equally match up in her process…
I find it difficult to look at her work now without thinking about all of the layers of subtext…
Your Statement really helps too!
February 4th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
PS-
Oops! Sorry about confusing my tenses!
February 4th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
no worries about tenses, no worrying about eavesdropping…
and I am very glad to hear that the statement is somewhat coherent.
here is a link, in case someone wants to read it:
http://mydogoscar.com/2007/pages/statement.htm