Central Park 12/28

Since the blizzard has buried any chance we had of birding outside the city during Shari's break from work;

Photo by Shari Zirlin

and since I read on Peter's blog that he was using snowshoes to get around Prospect Park yesterday, we decided to brave mass transit to go see what Central Park was like and then have lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant nearby. After more than an hour and 3 trains we made it to the park and the roads and paths were a lot clearer than say the corner of Clinton & President Streets in Brooklyn. Almost immediately all the usual winter birds were in evidence. We walked in the ramble down to the feeders, which were of course, very active. I got to play with my Christmas present from Shari, a digital voice recorder, which makes keeping track of the birds a lot easier than trying to write them down with frozen fingers. The feeders had either waves of grackles, or waves of sparrows. When the grackles flew in, the sparrows flew out. A lot of the grackles today seemed especially iridescent in the sunlight reflecting off the snow. The sparrows all looked fat, fluffing out their feathers, no doubt, for insulation.

Best bird was a Brown Creeper that flew in for a few minutes, crawling up a tree then flying off to another. Always happy to see one. No other birds of special note; I didn't spend any time looking for the Varied Thrush--I'm not certain how it would fare in the snow, much less a blizzard. Robins were around, but that doesn't prove anything.

Lunch at the Earthen Oven (72nd & Columbus) was extremely good. Love those little fritters, and that vibrant green sauce (cilantro, mint, yogurt) was really spicy today.

Day list:
Number of species:    21
Ring-billed Gull    25
Rock Pigeon    2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker    2
Downy Woodpecker    1    Feeders
Blue Jay    5
Black-capped Chickadee    10
Tufted Titmouse    5
White-breasted Nuthatch    2
Brown Creeper    1    Feeder area
American Robin    5
European Starling    10
Yellow-rumped Warbler    1
Fox Sparrow    2    Feeders
Song Sparrow    1    Feeders
White-throated Sparrow    100
Dark-eyed Junco    3    Feeders
Northern Cardinal    3
Red-winged Blackbird    1    Feeders
Common Grackle    125
American Goldfinch    7    Feeders
House Sparrow    20