On Sunday around 5:30 p.m. I ran into Bob Levy, who said there were reports of a large bird west of the Lake. We went to see what was there and within minutes saw a Wild Turkey. After about 40 minutes, it flew up into a tree and roosted for the night. What a nice ending to a day of very mixed weather.
One goes through periods where one doesn’t see anything special while birding, and then all at once you turn a corner and see lots of interesting birds. This happened to me on Thursday evening around 6 p.m. I photographed four birds, including a new bird for my Central Park list, a Merlin on a ten minute walk from the East 70’s to the West 70’s.
Daffodils are blooming and other signs of Spring are all around the park. The diversity of birds being reported has increased greatly in the last ten days.
The 5th Avenue hawk watchers found this Brown-headed Cowbird behind their bench at the model boat pond on Saturday.
I started birding on Sunday afternoon at the north end of the park and worked my way down to the Ramble.
James, Ben and I took the bus down to Central Park from Harlem. I wanted to try and capture photographs of the Eastern Screech-Owl, I had seen earlier in the week. As soon as we get off the bus at 110th Street, a Peregrine Falcon appears overhead. This was a new bird for my Central Park list.
We then walked to the location of the Eastern Screech-Owl and I set up my camera. On Wednesday night, it was so dark at the fly out I couldn’t focus my camera. So, I set up well in advance this time.
While I was waiting both Ben and James went birding. While I sat looking at a tree hole, an immature Red-Tailed Hawk flew into a nearby tree. An adult was also spotted flying by, so we had a 7+ Red-tailed Hawk day.
After the distraction of the Red-tailed Hawk, I reset my camera equipment. I was rewarded just after nightfall by the appearance of a beautiful Eastern Screech-Owl.
Our list for an hour’s worth of birding in Central Park was:
DATE: Saturday, 28 January 2006
LOCATION: Central Park
(Since the Eastern Screech-Owl was reintroduced to the park, it doesn’t go on the official list.)
I spent the afternoon in the park, starting at 105th and Fifth, first exploring the Conservatory Garden (which I discovered has two stray cats living in the snow), the Meer and the Loch. I then went down to 79th and explored the Ramble.
I had planned my day to look for owls of any kind. So, it was a hunt for tree cavities (Eastern Screech Owls) (where did the 5 Eastern Screech Owls we saw in the Spring go?), in bushes (Northern Saw-whet Owls), and Evergreens (Long-eared Owls). I didn’t have any luck. My only owl of the day was the Great Horned Owl, who had returned to the tree it had used earlier in the week.
As often happens with birding, I saw interesting things I wasn’t looking for…
