On the north face of the building at the SE corner of 84th and East End Avenue, on a balcony with three sliding glass doors, the local Carl Schurz Park Red-tailed Hawks were bringing twigs to balcony. This early in the season, it’s hard to know if this is just an experiment or if it will be their nest for the year. Let’s hope it works out for them.
On a snowy day, made my first stop Riverside Drive and 86th Street to see the Peregrine Falcons who have been perching on the Normandy. They were both there, but also a wonderful American Kestrel who was camped out in from of two bushed with about 40 White-throated Sparrows and House Sparrows. The Peregrines came and left, and in the late afternoon both moved to West End Avenue.
I then went to Central Park, making a brief visit to the Reservoir and then to see the Great Horned Owl that has been in the park. It’s important to see and owl on SuperB Owl Sunday.
I went to the reservoir to see what gulls I could see. I did see an all white gull, which most likely was an Iceland Gull, but there were very few gulls on the ice. The Bald Eagle appeared mid-afternoon and after making two loops around the reservoir dropped to the ice, where what looked like a half-eaten gull was located. It ate some of the gull and stayed for about 10 minutes.
While we searched for gulls today on the Central Park Reservoir, the Bald Eagle which has been making daily visits, arrived and quickly caught a gull and ate it. (The eagle is tagged with a R over 7 band, so it’s been nicknamed Rover.)
Today was one of those magical birding day, where a rarity brings out the best NYC birders who then find everything around them that would normally be missed.
Two days ago, a Slaty-backed Gull was seen one the reservoir but misidentified as a Lesser Black-backed Gull. Once the error was realized, many birders came to Central Park to see a bird usually only found in Asia but occasionally in Alaska.
But as happens when a rare bird appears, having over a hundred birders including many experts looking for a rarity, less rare birds are also found.
Today, many of us had eight species of gull:
Thank you to all of the experts today who helped those of us who are “gull challenged” to have a great experience. 2-2-22 will have a special meaning for many of us.
Here are pictures of the Slaty-backed Gull:
And photographs of the Iceland Gulls
There has been a Great Horned Owl in Central Park for at least a week now. Tonight, I was able to follow it from its roost tree to the Compost Heap. It perched in a tree that the Snowy Owl often used last year. It then went down to the Conservatory Garden and returned to a tree a bit further northeast. I couldn’t be sure, but I think it had prey.
