The Pond has been host to a male Wood Duck this winter, who must believe he’s a Mallard, since he’s claimed a female Mallard as his mate. (Children’s story anyone?)
Cross breeding between Mallards and other ducks, while not common does occur more often than you might expect. The 10,000 Birds blog has a nice piece on the subject in 2007. We’ll see later this spring if this strange pairing leads to hybrids.
Lola returning to her nest on Fifth Avenue after a meal and some exercise.
It's wonderful when governmental agencies do something right. Last week, city agencies rescued a frightened coyote from Tribeca, transported it to Animal Care and Control (ACC), and quickly released it into a more wild area of New York City.
The Parks Department, Animal Care and Control, the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit, New York State's DEC and the city Health Department all worked together to ensure that this animal was treated humanly. A young female coyote that got lost in Tribeca, and could easily have been killed in traffic, was relocated to a more suitable area to continue her life.
Behind the scenes, members of these organizations had already been meeting to discuss the proper handling of coyotes in the city and had developed a protocol to handle them humanly when relocation is needed.
Now that coyotes are breeding in the Bronx, we'll have more and more encounters with them in New York City. It's not going to be perfect. Both man and coyote will have to cooperate, and occasionally, an aggressive coyote habituated to humans may have to be destroyed. But in general, with educational efforts, I think man and coyote have a good chance to leave together with minimal conflict in the Big Apple.
The Central Park coyote was seen today during lunchtime walking on the eastern shore of sanctuary. I went to see I could find it after sunset, but it gave me the slip. I’ve been having bad luck since daylight savings started.
I did get to see my first Great Egret of spring at the Pond. In the video, you’ll see it preening after dark with The Plaza in the background. One of the surprises of observing birds behavior is how active diurnal birds are after dark.
Hawk watching during nesting season can be very slow. On Saturday afternoon, I watched the St. John the Divine nest for over two hours. I only saw the female for a few minutes while she rearranged her eggs. There was no sign of her mate during the two hours.
Eastern Screech-Owls have been reintroduced to Central Park over the last twelve years. I’ve enjoyed monitoring them over the last five years.
This winter some friends and I kept track of what we believe is the last surviving pair from the reintroductions. Unfortunately, just after the pair started nesting, they lost their cavity to two squirrels and the male owl disappeared and is presumed dead.
The female continues to stay in the area. Each night she calls to advertise her availability to other owls, but no one answers.
