Central Park 1/18--Wood Duck, Northern Shoveler, Common Grackle

Common Grackle

Two stints in Central Park today, sandwiching an appointment. In the morning I entered the park on the West Side, by the Natural History museum and walked into The Ramble where I spent most of my time watching the feeders. Nothing that I couldn't see in my own backyard, as Black-capped Chickadees didn't make an appearance, but I was cheered by a big flock of FOY Common Grackles. I'd say Common Grackle is probably #4 on the "trash bird" list, (not a list I give any credence to), right after Rock Pigeon, European Starling, and House Sparrow (all of which were in the park today, of course), but, if you'll just look at a grackle and then imagine seeing it in another country, with its iridescent blues, violets, and even oranges, all shimmering on what at a glance is just a big black bird, you'd be knocked out and be taking a slew of photos.

Fox Sparrow

I was also happy to find a couple of Fox Sparrows on the ground. Not a year bird (had one a couple of days ago at Bamber Lake), but always a good to find this robust sparrow in winter. 

After my appointment on the East Side, I walked back to the park and headed up to the Reservoir. Despite one of the great bubblers of all time in the fountain spewing a stream of water a couple of stories high, about 70% of the water was frozen. It is, according to the tracker of eBird, 1.57 miles around the perimeter of the Reservoir, and since there were only a few areas where the birds were congregating, I did the loop in 45 minutes.

Northern Shovelers mixed with Mallards

It wasn't until I was about 2/3 of the way around that I saw any new ducks for the year and I almost overlooked them as 2 Wood Ducks and 7 Northern Shovelers were mixed with the 30 or so Mallards sitting on the ice which in turn were mixed in with well over 100 Canada Geese. It didn't make any easier that most of the ducks had their heads tucked in. At first I saw the shovelers, their white breasts being the giveaway, and then, after another sweep with the binoculars, I found the two Wood Ducks, one of which appeared to be looking  balefully at me.

Wood Ducks

My little list for the day:

155 Canada Goose

2 Wood Duck

7 Northern Shoveler

54 Mallard

1 American Black Duck

2 Hooded Merganser

7 American Coot

200 Ring-billed Gull

20 Herring Gull

2 Rock Pigeon

2 Downy Woodpecker

4 Blue Jay

1 American Crow

6 European Starling

2 Fox Sparrow

5 White-throated Sparrow

50 Common Grackle

4 House Finch

5 American Goldfinch

45 House Sparrow

Of course none of these birds are New Jersey birds, much less Ocean County birds, so to a certain turn of mind, they hardly even count. I have to admit, I was much more excited when I pulled up to the house this afternoon and found 5 Wild Turkeys on my neighbor's lawn. FOY turkeys.