Snowy In Snow
Snowy Owls continue in the area. This afternoon, I got to photograph one in the snow. White on White, what a delight to photograph.
Horned Larks at Floyd Bennett Field
For some reason, Horned Larks are a species that has escaped my view until today. A flock was on one of runways at Floyd Bennett Field this afternoon.
Happy New Year
My New Year’s resolution is to do a little more birding and a little less photography during the non-nesting/fledgling period for hawks. (Basically the months outside of April, May, June and July.)
So today, I just went for a long walk around Central Park today with my scope and took an occasional digiscoping picture. My bird count 39 species. The highlight was seeing two Baltimore Orioles.
| Count | Species | |
| 81 | Canada Goose | |
| 2 | Wood Duck | |
| 41 | Mallard | |
| 1 | American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) | |
| 37 | Northern Shoveler | |
| 1 | Ring-necked Duck | |
| 8 | Bufflehead | |
| 9 | Hooded Merganser | |
| 10 | Ruddy Duck | |
| 4 | Pied-billed Grebe | |
| 1 | Sharp-shinned Hawk | |
| 1 | Cooper’s Hawk | |
| 3 | Red-tailed Hawk | |
| 5 | American Coot | |
| 18 | Ring-billed Gull | |
| 6 | Great Black-backed Gull | |
| 23 | Rock Pigeon | |
| 1 | Mourning Dove | |
| 1 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | |
| 2 | Downy Woodpecker | |
| 1 | Hairy Woodpecker | |
| 11 | Blue Jay | |
| 1 | American Crow | |
| 2 | Black-capped Chickadee | |
| 2 | White-breasted Nuthatch | |
| 1 | Brown Creeper | |
| 1 | Carolina Wren | |
| 2 | American Robin | |
| 1 | Northern Mockingbird | |
| 4 | European Starling | |
| 1 | Song Sparrow | |
| 28 | White-throated Sparrow | |
| 8 | Dark-eyed Junco | |
| 2 | Northern Cardinal | |
| 1 | Red-winged Blackbird | |
| 6 |
Common Grackle | |
| 2 | Baltimore Oriole | |
| 11 | House Finch | |
| 8 | American Goldfinch | |
| 23 | House Sparrow |
NJ 30 in Battery Park
I finally caught up with NJ 30, the banded hawk which may have been one of the juveniles from the Washington Square nest, in Battery Park today. It was great to see the hawk.
After loosing track of it, but finding the park’s Wild Turkey and an American Kestrel, I saw two Red-tailed hawks high in the sky. It was hard to tell if they were friend or foe and I couldn’t tell if one of the hawks was NJ30. But it was good to see that the area had more than just one Red-tail.
More Snowy Owls
Snowy Owls continue to be abundent in the outer boroughs of New York City. Today, I took advantage of the warm weather to look for them yet again. I saw three today.
Today was the first day I saw owls being harrased by photographs. The grasslands of the park I was visiting is off limits to all visitors. Unfortunetly, two photographers violated these rules. The owls weren’t hurt in any way, but both were moved about by the photographers.
If you go looking for Snowy Owls, and are visiting a park for the first time, please take the time to visit the park’s ranger station or nature center. Most of the grasslands and beaches have strict rules about where you can walk, but also don’t have good signage. Vandals, storms and budget cuts have removed many of the warning signage in the New York area. Rather than assume there are no rules, search them out. Every park has them!
Washington Square, 1st Day of Winter
I arrived at Washington Square with some good luck today. I had one in sight even before I got to the park. Then I had them either Bobby or Rosie in sight until sunset. They shared food on the Law School and spent a great deal of time on 3rd Street. They showed me some perches I hadn’t seen before, and gave the slip at sunset. I couldn’t find them at any of the known roosts.
