A gorgeous Eastern Bluebird was north of Winterdale Arch in Central Park today. Although it was near lots of fruit trees, it spent its time catching insects from the lawn. I spent an hour waiting for it to arrive, and was just about to give up before it showed up. It’s nice to have patience rewarded.
Three Barred Owls have been spotted this week in New York City. I got to see two of them tonight and hear them. They’re no making the standard “Who cooks for you?” calls, but are caterwauling. The sound is very, very loud.
I spent time watching American Crows, waterfowl and American Kestrels on Saturday and watched Pale Male on Sunday. The Harlem Meer had a nice selection of birds, including Buffleheads, Ruddy Ducks, Gadwalls, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Wood Ducks, and a Mute Swan.
Sandy made a mess of the park, and there are still sections closed. The clean up may take longer than usual as resources are being sent to hard hit areas of NYC rather than Central Park. Sadly entitled Upper East and West siders are complaining about how they suffered because they can’t walk their dogs in the park or use the bypass road in the north of the park, which is now a staging area for the clean up. Get a life folks!
I was taking pictures of the Flatiron Building in New York City, when I saw a hawk fly in and land on what used to be the northern Toy Center building, which is undergoing renovation. It landed and returned south. It was dark, so I couldn’t get a good enough I.D. to figure out if it was one of the Washington Square hawks, the hawk that had been seen hanging around the park, or just a migrating hawk.
The adult female of Washington Square was hunting in the park this afternoon. The park had lots of downed tree limbs and construction debris that came off of 2 Fifth Avenue. The park is still closed to the public, but park employees were working hard to clean up the mess. The area is still without power.
He’s just fine. The park remains closed, but here’s a view of Pale Male from Fifth Avenue.
