birdspot

The weather yesterday was incredible, and Central Park was mobbed with people. I had to push through tourists at Strawberry Fields and fight my way over the Bow Bridge, but once in the wooded Ramble it was a little more manageable, and I looked for birds. It is amazing how much you can see there, even when the paths are crowded. There were two Black-crowned Night Herons sitting on the path at the Riviera, about twenty feet over a boat with two teenage boys who were pulling at the branches and trying to push each other overboard. I assumed the fracas would flush the herons, but this guy just opened one eye, looked down, scratched his cheek and let out a huge yawn.


There were sparrows and finches for all seasons: many of the winter birds are still here, and are temporarily joined by migrants and summer residents. The feeders are pretty maniacal right about now. There was proof positive that Juncos and Chipping Sparrows are not weird metamorphoses of the same specie because they were both present at the same time. There were a number of Swamp (top photo) and Song (bottom) Sparrows acting like feeder trash birds at both Evodia Field and Willow Rock. For sparrows: Eastern Towhee, Chipping, Fox, Song, Swamp, White-throated, and Dark-eyed Junco. For finches: Purple, House, Pine Siskin, and American Goldfinch.


And finally, I found a quiet spot where I followed a Ruby-crowned Kinglet around and amused myself with tangles for a while.

I know that it is Spring. I know this, despite the fact that it is freezing and I am wearing long underwear as it snows on me in Central Park, because I spotted a Louisiana Waterthrush and a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher and a couple of Yellow-rumped & Pine Warblers and numerous Eastern Phoebes AND a gazillion Chipping Sparrows. None of whom have been here all this long winter and many of whom were not here two days ago. So as I shiver and point my binoculars past a sleeping man on a park bench and see the Gnatcatcher zipping along a stream in the Ramble, I feel a little happier, if not warmer. There is a Black-crowned Night Heron in a willow on the lake, hunched over with his bill buried deep into the feathers on its back, and I sympathize, but it’s got to get better soon.

This morning the park was notable for an unusual number of Springer Spaniels (6), most with owners. One had forsaken its master and was swimming in Turtle Pond for a good half hour, intently going after ducks and geese. Other birders were none too pleased with this. The ducks and geese, while harassed, were not especially worried, and would fly just enough to be out of reach. Over and over again. The dog, driven by man-manipulated genetics to the verge of insanity, would not give up. We left as the owner gave up cajoling and progressed to howling.

For a full list of the birds I saw today, click “more” at the end of the post.

Oh, and there is some of that amazing new-green color coming up in the park, on the heels of the blooming Forsythia. Magnolia flowers are also opening. And, after getting so used to being filmed that I forget the “film guys” Jeff and Jed are there, I finally turned on Jeff while he was filming me and surprised him by shooting a photo of him.
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I have just about given up trying to get good reproductions of these drawings, so I thought I would post a more casual, in progress shot that doesn’t purport to be anything other. The whole drawing is 19 x 24″ and is ink on white paper. I am doing a series from the incident in Central Park where I observed a dying Tufted Titmouse (photo blog post here).

tufted titmouse, dying, central park, ny, ny

What is it with me and finding birds in their death throes? First there was the DYING DUCK, and now this. The poor guy was lying in the path in the Ramble, and when I first saw it I thought it would expire within a couple of minutes, as downed birds usually do. But no, it was going through something more horrible than that, and as I watched (and photographed - please don’t think I am heartless or was scaring it, because I truly was not), the bird curled up and started spinning maniacally across the path. A tiny ball of pain and fury. Its neck looked unbroken, but everything else was skewed terribly.

The bird looked as if it had been poisoned or had a neurological problem. And it was suspiciously three feet from the feeders that provide us with amazing views of birds like Pine Siskins, right in Central Park (there were about 30 there yesterday, by the way). The squirrels were not as oblivious to the melodrama as the feeding birds, and periodically came over to investigate it, attracted by the movement. One looked like it was seriously going to eat it. A small crowd of people collected over the next hour, including many knowledgeable birders, who were waiting for it to die (and shooing away squirrels) so they could collect the body for testing. Much speculation ensued, but not one person mentioned the feeders as a potential culprit. What do you think? Could Salmonella or a contagious disease manifest with signs of neurological damage? I will certainly be keeping an eye on those feeders.

The Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge is, or was, one of my favorite places in Texas. (more…)

Connecticut Warbler in Central Park! (more…)