Central Park is My Backyard

Shari & I went to Central Park this morning before she met a friend at the AMNH. I don't especially enjoy birding Central Park because it is usually too full of people to make birding enjoyable and it is so big that you can only go to one or two spots in a day which limits the number of birds you'll find. In Prospect Park, by contrast, you rapidly pass through a number of habitats, plus you have the water course to follow and structure your trip.

It was cold and a little slippery, but not nearly as icy as PP was yesterday. We went first to The Ramble because the feeders are usually reliable and while there were no surprises (like siskins last year) we found the usual variety of birds, just not in great numbers.

Later I walked around the reservoir. I'd never done that. I always get turned around once I'm in the middle of Central Park, so going out of my way to walk in a circle has never been that appealing. I was halfway around when I read a sign directing everyone to walk or run counterclockwise. Naturally, I was walking clockwise. Happily there wasn't much foot traffic on the path, since it had not been shoveled--otherwise I'd probably have been flattened before I took 10 steps. Dumb rube from Prospect Park that I am.

The reservoir looks big. I was dubious about walking all around it. But it didn't take me any time at all to circumperambulate the perimeter. The only real surprise was a Bufflehead, plus 2 crows standing on the ice among all the gulls. I like the contrast when they do that.

The list for the day (with GBBC numbers first).
Central Park

Observation date:     2/13/10

Number of species:     21

Canada Goose     5/5

American Black Duck     1/1

Mallard     10/36

Bufflehead     1/1

Ring-billed Gull     200/300

Herring Gull     2/5

Great Black-backed Gull     14/16

Rock Pigeon     5/20

Red-bellied Woodpecker     1/1

Downy Woodpecker     1/2

Blue Jay     1/5

American Crow     2/3

Black-capped Chickadee     1/2

White-breasted Nuthatch     1/1

American Robin     1/1

White-throated Sparrow    20/50

Dark-eyed Junco     4/6

Northern Cardinal     2/3

Common Grackle     1/1

House Finch     4/6

House Sparrow     20/25

Blizzard

A million moths attracted to vanilla light. 

Prospect Park is My Backyard

Every February the Cornell Lab of Ornithology organizes the ineptly named "Great Backyard Bird Count," and encourages all us citizen scientists to go out to count birds for at least 15 minutes anywhere we want--it doesn't have to be a backyard. List obsessed as I am I went to Prospect Park this morning and kept 2 running lists in my head--one for the total number of birds of each species I found and one with the largest count of birds of each species I saw at one time. So, while I saw about 220 Mallards altogether, for the GBBC I listed the 127 I saw sitting on the ice at the lake. The other were over by the Boathouse or else swimming farther along the lake shore.

I don't understand why they want the largest count. I suppose I could find out if I looked through their site long enough but I don't really care. If they're happy, I'm happy to make another list.

The 10 or so inches of snow in the park made walking around a slog. Virtually none of the paths had been shoveled or plowed. I forgot, as usual, to take the camera. The geese plodding across the ice were risible, and 100 or more them wandering around on the snow would have been a great high contrast photo.

With the big "blizzard" we had this week our birding opportunities have become limited. They only plow a small section of the path around the pond at Jamaica Bay, there's no guarantee the roads are clear at Jones Beach, Dead Horse Bay is probably inaccessible and anyplace in NJ, where they've had two "blizzards," is out of the question. I haven't been seeing many reports the last few days from anywhere. We were thinking of going back to Hunter Island at Orchard Beach this weekend, but after tromping around Prospect Park today, I told Shari we probably didn't want to re-enact Robert Scott's return from the South Pole just to see some chickadees and woodpeckers.

The "interesting" birds today were Fox Sparrows and a Hermit Thrush. I hate when someone asks me if I've seen any interesting birds because if I told them, "Yeah, I saw a Fox Sparrow and a Hermit Thrush," they wouldn't think it was interesting or know why I thought it was interesting. Usually I just say, "Nope."

(The first number is for GBBC, the second number for eBird.)

Prospect Park
Observation date:     2/12/10

Number of species:     33

Canada Goose     125/205

Mute Swan     6/6

Wood Duck     1/1

American Black Duck     2/3

Mallard     127/220

Northern Shoveler    16/26

Ruddy Duck     8/9

American Coot    5/8

Ring-billed Gull     325/325

Herring Gull     2/3

Great Black-backed Gull     1/1

Rock Pigeon     9/25

Mourning Dove    3/3

Red-bellied Woodpecker     1/1

Downy Woodpecker     1/3

Blue Jay     1/5

American Crow     1/1     Lake ice.

Black-capped Chickadee     2/4

Tufted Titmouse     1/1     Back of Upper Pool

White-breasted Nuthatch     2

Hermit Thrush     1/1     Hill by Maryland Monument.

American Robin     11/20

European Starling     2/4

Fox Sparrow     1/2     One at feeders, one on hill by Maryland          Monument

Song Sparrow     2/5

White-throated Sparrow     5/25

Dark-eyed Junco    9/12

Northern Cardinal     3/9

Red-winged Blackbird    2/3

Common Grackle     1/1

House Finch     2/3

American Goldfinch    3/3

House Sparrow     5/15

Owl Walk with No Owls

We went to Orchard Beach/Hunter Island this morning for the "Superb Owl" walk with my brother and a friend of his who knows where the owls are. Last year we saw 2 Long-eared Owls almost immediately. This year, not much luck. We found pellets from Saw-whet and Great Horned Owls, but the owls themselves remained elusive.

No Dovekie last week, no owls this week. Still, I knew we'd see ducks and we did find quite a few of them, plus the bonus was when my brother spotted a Killdeer, a bird I don't normally expect to find A) on a beach and B) in the winter.

Walking around Orchard Beach, looking out on the sound it is hard to believe you're in The Bronx with all the freight that term carries. Afterward we went to City Island for lunch and there, a little fishing village gone to sleep in the winter,  it is well nigh impossible to believe that it is part of NYC, much less The Bronx.

Orchard Beach/Hunter Island

Observation date:     2/7/10

Number of species:     19

Brant     4

Canada Goose     13

Gadwall     5

American Wigeon     20

American Black Duck     25

Bufflehead     10

Common Goldeneye     4

Red-breasted Merganser     3

Killdeer     1

Herring Gull     15

Great Black-backed Gull     1

Rock Pigeon     6

Red-bellied Woodpecker     2

Downy Woodpecker     2

Blue Jay     4

American Crow     2

White-breasted Nuthatch     2

Northern Mockingbird     1

Northern Cardinal     1

Brant

Today, down at Fulton Ferry, I saw a large flock of about 100 Brant flying over the East River. Brant don't fly in formation like Canada Geese; they're more like a crowd of birds flying in the same direction. What interested me was that even though they have no leader, they all flew in the same direction, circling over the river a few times before they landed in it, and, more interesting, they all beat their wings in unison and glided in unison. Their timing was precise; there was no delay from the front of the flock to the back of the flock. They all stopped beating their wings at the same moment and started flapping again at exactly the same time.

You'll see lots of bird species doing this, as if there is a group mind, but they seem to fly in tighter formations and I don't know if they have the same marching band precision these relatively big birds achieve. How do they do it?

Later, on the lawn, I saw about 45 Brant grazing on the brown grass of Empire State Park, With them was one Canada Goose, huge next to them, wandering among the flock and seeming completely out of place.

Month-end Summary

Because I won't go on pelagic trips, particularly in the winter (I have this irrational prejudice against being seasick and frozen), there are a number of birds that I am probably precluded from seeing (petrels, shearwaters, jaegers, some gulls). That's why Shari's life list is longer than mine--a mid-winter trip on a stinky old tub far out on the Hudson Canyon? She's there!

However, every once in a while, one of these open oceans birds inexplicably ends up close to shore. There was the Red Phalarope in Shinnecock Inlet. There was the Thick-billed Murre in Brooklyn by the Gil Hodges Bridge, so close to shore you didn't need binoculars, and so co-operative he did everything but sign autographs.

And this week there was Dovekie out on Long Island, paddling around a marina. This is really a cute little bird, like a wind up toy. I'd show you a picture of it, but I don't have one because after hanging around for a week and giving every other birder in the tri-state area perfect looks, it wasn't there today when we went. I wanted to go yesterday but the temperature was 14 degrees with a stiff wind and that just seemed too cold to go   looking for a bird--even if it was a bird I really wanted to see. Shari, of course, has seen "hundreds" of them in mid-ocean. So today, even though the weather wasn't a lot warmer, the wind had died down and we made the trip out to Great River. (On a side note: what Great River is on Long Island?) We found the marina at the back of a golf course without any problem, but the water had started to ice over and the bird was not around. Disappointed and frustrated.

The lesson: Carpe Diem (although what eating a goldfish everyday has to do with any of this I don't know).

We went to Heckscher State Park which was nearby and saw a really splendid looking Northern Flicker, a Brown Creeper, lots of Buffleheads and some goldeneyes, then returned to the marina but still no luck. The consolation prize for the day was at Jones Beach: a Lapland Longspur that was very tame, affording excellent views.

For the month I recorded 76 species. We started & ended the month on Long Island and probably saw the best birds there:
Harlequin Duck
Common Eider
Lapland Longspur.

Well, except for the Mew Gull in Brooklyn (technically Long Island). And of course, there were the 2 Rusty Blackbirds in Prospect Park. And the American Pipit, it took me three or four tries to find that little dandy, can't forget the American Pipit.

But no Dovekie. Shari says I'll just have to go out on a pelagic sometime. Large porcine mammals will be flying out of one of my nether orifices before that happens.

Prospect Park 1/28

The snow stopped.

It was certainly easy to find the cardinals today against the white backgrounds.

I finally found the American Pipit that's been reported there. It was right where everyone has said it was, in the fenced off area by the ball fields. It was bobbing its tail "almost constantly" as it says in Peterson. That, the Bufflehead on the Upper Pool and my FOY Great Blue Heron were the highlights. The lowlight? Listening to the terrible music coming from the skating rink. It's amazing how far away you can hear the music. Now I have Baby baby don't get hooked on me running on a loop in my head.

PROSPECT PARK
Number of species:     31
Canada Goose     130

Mute Swan     8

Wood Duck     1     Boathouse Pond.

American Black Duck     17

Mallard     347     Upper Pool, Boathouse Pond, Lullwater, Lake.

Northern Shoveler     8

Bufflehead     1     Upper Pool

Ruddy Duck     46

Great Blue Heron     1     Back of Upper Pool

American Coot     18

Ring-billed Gull     200

Herring Gull     1

Mourning Dove     20

Downy Woodpecker     7

Blue Jay     9

American Crow     1

Black-capped Chickadee     5

Tufted Titmouse     1

White-breasted Nuthatch     1

American Robin     25

Northern Mockingbird     1

European Starling     1

American Pipit     1     Enclosure near ballfields

Song Sparrow     1     On Lullwater trail

White-throated Sparrow     35

Dark-eyed Junco     15

Northern Cardinal     26

Red-winged Blackbird     4     Feeders

House Finch     7     Feeders

American Goldfinch     9     5 by lake, including the one in full    breeding plumage, 4 by feeders.

House Sparrow     8