Small pocket parks in New York City can yield great birds as was the case this week with a Yellow-breasted Chat in Verizon Plaza just west of 3 Bryant Park, between 41st and 42nd and Sixth and Broadway. Chat’s can be hard to find, as they tend to hide in brush, and only come out into view ever so often. However, this bird, in this park during migration was easy to watch. It was a nice treat after the heavy rains we have been having.
A Clay-colored Sparrow was found and reported by Edmund Berry on Sunday afternoon in Central Park’s Pinetum. It was a great find, and was enjoyed by many birders, who ended up discussing the finer points of Spizella pallida identification, with Chipping Sparrows and Field Sparrows nearby.
I found some nice articles online, including this PDF.
I had brief looks at the Belted Kingfisher that was at Turtle Pond on Friday. I love seeing them during migration at Turtle Pond or year-round out on Randalls Island.
I found a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk eating a Grey Squirrel on a Great Lawn baseball backstop. After I got closer, it had finished eating. This is the same hawk I’ve seen chasing squirrels over the last few days here. It was good to see it able to catch one. As I started photographing, a young Cooper’s Hawk appeared next to the Red-tailed Hawk. I suspecting it was hoping to get leftovers. I’ve seen young hawks of both species steal food from the other species in the past.
Pale Male patiently waited for a Brown Rat to appear and caught it very easily in the Tupelo Meadow. It took it a nearby tree to eat it. The was a young Cooper’s Hawk nearby, so Pale Male took a few minutes to start his meal.
It looks like the Chimney Swift roost on Fifth Avenue now has double or triple the number of swifts going to roost nightly then in August. I suspect we have a mix of local and migrating swifts now. No mater how many times I watch them drop into the chimney, I still am amazed at how they all seem to get sucked in as though there’s a vacumn.
