Went to check out the W. 46th Street pocket park between 5th & 6th late yesterday afternoon. After the drop down to 11 degrees earlier this week, I was curious to see how the handful of "non-migrating" migratory birds was faring. Although I was only there for 15 minutes, I was able to observe the following:
1 Brown Thrasher (I haven't seen the second one in several weeks, but I haven't been by very many times and my visits are always short) 1 Gray Catbird (the second continuing bird has always been more secretive, so it may still be around ) 1 Eastern Towhee (continuing) + Ring-billed Gull (flyover) White-throated Sparrows Rock Pigeons House Sparrows Didn't see the Swamp Sparrow that was there on Monday before the severe temperature drop. The Catbird was associating with the sparrows on the plaza itself, scavenging for crumbs, etc., but the Towhee and Thrasher continued to operate from the thickest bunch of bushes in the bald cypress circle (where the unfrozen puddle of water remains.) Each frequently flew out to forage around the circle, but returned to the bush every few minutes. Also, I learned from security employee that there is a sub-station under the park that "warms" the pavement to melt snow and alleviate the need for shoveling, etc.. I don't know if the presence of the sub-station provides warmth at other times, but it might be worth considering as a contributing factor to the success of these over-wintering migratory birds, thus far. Anyway, always a nice respite from the office grind. A nice weekend to all. Amy Simmons NYC -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
