Two rare birds for Central Park were within 100 yards of each other on the north side of Turtle Pond on Friday. A Sora, a small rail, was skulking along the NE shore, but at times giving wonderful views, and a Grasshopper Sparrow on the north lawn that was busy eating seeds in the lawn.
A young hawk was bathing in the shallow waters of the Pond, just north of Gapstow Bridge. It really seemed to be having fun having a bath!
A juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker was among the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in Central Park’s Pinetum today. Hopefully, it will find some nice acorns and stick around for the winter.
Tonight the numbers were higher for the Chimney Swifts at 944 Fifth Avenue. About 370 went to roost in about four minutes with them assembling about 8 minutes before hand. This is much quicker than last week.
I’m not sure how to reconcile the numbers with last nights count in the rain. Did swifts leave in the northerly winds, to be replaced with more migrants this evening? I have no idea. But I’m glad that we’re still seeing good numbers of swifts roosting on 5th Avenue.
The numbers were way down tonight. The rain also seemed to have changed their behavior. Rather than circling for an extended period, they seemed eager to go to roost. It was raining so I couldn’t record them like I would have liked. I suspect the number of swifts was around 160 tonight.
Once the weather is better it will be interesting to see if the numbers go back up, or if with our northerly winds, the Chimney Swifts have migrated south. Last year, we had good numbers until the third week of October.
New York City weather has been relentless rain with strong northeasterly winds over the last few days. Gray has been the dominant color!
However, it did bring in some interesting birds. On Governor’s Island at least five Forster’s Terns were seen in Buttermilk Channel. When I arrived they were mostly around the Lima Pier, fishing in the somewhat sheltered cove the pier makes.
Thank you to Mary Beth Kooper who sent out a Group Me alert.
