On the roof of the open building to the west of Belvedere Castle in Central Park was a Merlin late in the afternoon today. It was seen earlier in the week in the same spot, and has also been seen hunting on around the Great Lawn. It stayed perched for over half an hour.
I was walking with a fellow birder to Central Park’s Reservoir, and we saw about 50 gulls in the air moving west. I said, “something must have spooked the reservoir gulls”. When we got to the SW corner of the reservoir, this was understatement. Two Bald Eagles were sitting along the divider of the reservoir which is currently covered by only an inch or two of water. in 2022, we had daily visits by Rover when we had ice, and I’ve seen single eagles before on the divider was fully exposed, but I’ve never seen two Bald Eagles on the Reservoir, nor have I seen them wading in the water.
They were both far away from me, and I had to use my scope to take most of the pictures, so the highlights are washed out in most of my photographs. But it was a thrill to see both eagles. One left about a half hour before the other. The one that stayed the longest was banded, but I only saw the bands when the bird flew off, so I couldn’t read them.
On Thursday afternoon, The Linnaean Society of New York hosted a hawk watch on the steps near Belvedere Castle. While it was a bit too late in the season to get Broad-winged Hawks, we had lots of raptors, Turkey Vultures, Canada Geese, and one Bald Eagle.
A local American Kestrel showed up on a tree on the opposite side of Turtle Pond and eventually perched on an antenna on Fifth Avenue.
Bryant Park is a small park by the New York Public Library. It is a green space near the brightly lit buildings of Times Square and ends up attracting many migrating birds who end up making a stop in the park. Rarely, a few of these birds stay the summer, as did two Mourning Warblers this year.
Over the last few days, the park has had two rare visitors, a Marsh Wren and a Yellow-breasted Chat.
While difficult to see with binoculars, if you have a spotting scope, from the western side of the park, you can see the Peregrine Falcon nest box at the top of the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue. On the three days, I visited the park, a Peregrine Falcon was perched on the nest box each day.
A weekend out of the city, brought me to an Osprey Nest on Long Island Sound. I had seen signs of the nest having nestlings the last time I was out, but now in late July the nest had two fledglings flying about. Osprey have made a fantastic recovery from DDT, and I counted eight Osprey in the cove where the nest is at one point.
As in years past, the Riverside Church Peregrine Falcon fledglings have moved to the Interchurch Center, a block south of the church. I saw at least three of the fledglings and both parents on the building. The parents also perched on the church.
(One of the fledglings was found on the ground over the weekend and was sent to the Wild Bird Fund. I don’t any more details.)
