This piece on crows & ravens in the NYC region and featuring some of
our great NY ornithologists and birders is a good read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/24/nyregion/crows-and-ravens-make-new-york-comebacks-to-caw-and-cr-r-uck-about.html?
- - - - - - - - -
Central Park, Manhattan, New York City
An inadvertent omission from my report for Tuesday, 10/25 was the
sighting of a Yellow-breasted Chat a bit east of the West Drive &
roughly across from the Tanner's Spring area, that find by Paul Sweet,
leading a scheduled bird walk for the AMNH (American Museum of Natural
History) and finding that bird to be mainly-skulking, true to their
frequent nature. This bird just might be lingering in the park, as
sometimes is so with the species at various seasons.
I received kind, generous and gratifying responses (privateIy in
addition to those posted in this list) regarding migratory strategies
& possibilities which I'd brought up in a prior post, regarding
Central Park, & the local movements of birds at this season; all I
wrote on that was mainly just theorizing, and thus it was gratifying
to hear from a number of very serious students (and teachers) of bird
migration and ecology who have thought and worked deeply in these
areas. Thanks, to everyone who wrote.
________
Thursday, 27th & Wednesday, 26th October, 2016 -
On Wednesday, an Eastern Meadowlark was on the Knoll, north of the
North Meadow ballfields, behaving very warily and staying mostly in
the rear portion of grasses & other vegetation; seen around mid-day, I
was unable to find it again much later, near the sunset hour. There
seemed to have been more Hermit Thrush in, with 60+ found all thru the
entire park, and a modest new batch of Palm Warblers, most of the
"eastern" yellow form & in many lawn edges, especially from north of
the reservoir to near 110 Street (the north border of the park). The
overall number of warbler species I found was down to nine, with the
above (and a Nashville noted at the Ramble, plus Pine, seen by other
observers, making for at least 11 warbler species in the park) & still
good numbers of Myrtle, several Black-throated Blues, & Northern
Parulas, 2 Common Yellowthroats, 2 Ovenbirds, Blackpoll, American
Redstart, and a Black-and-white Warbler at the south end; however
there might easily have been some additional warbler species still
lingering in any portion of the park. The young Red-headed Woodpecker
in the east edge of Sheep Meadow was there, quietly working; it gave
one short call as I stood nearby over the course of half-an-hour.
There may very well be more than one 'red-headed' continuing in the
park (or more than two!) and this species could turn up virtually
anywhere, especially with so many oaks having produced bumper-crops of
acorns in Central Park this year. A late Scarlet Tanager was in the
Ramble on Wed.
On Thursday, despite rainy weather, I made rounds of the park thru the
Ramble, all around the reservoir, & through the north end with some
extra attention to many lawn areas where migrants were feeding,
unharried by human activities thanks to the wet. A very recent
arrival, presumably, was a 'Red' Fox Sparrow, mixed in with a passel
of White-throateds, in the park's north woods - usually, when there's
one seen in fall, some others are about, but it's still very slightly
early for them, at least in the modest numbers that can be hoped-for.
Most noticable in that regard were large mixed flocks (around 20 & up
to 80+ in total number per flock), of Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated
& Song Sparrows, and a good proportion of Chipping Sparrows (over 200,
in total of the latter, in the many flocks found; the Great Hill alone
had over 100 'Chippies' in total, at mid-day & with zero off-leash
dogs or any other disturbances (uncommonly) to their peaceful feeding
& foraging on the ground, as well as a lowered risk of raptor
predation - although a few Sharp-shinned & Cooper's Hawks were found
in dampened state, perched or hunting, most with attending Blue Jays &
some other birds raising the alarm. Kinglets of both species were
very numerous and Ruby-crowned near-common, my perambulations having
encountered more than 75 of the latter, and 30+ of Golden-crowned;
also in very good numbers overall were Hermit Thrush, with more than
55 found, widely distributed but a few patches holding 7 or 8 at once,
& some behaving in ways suggesting freshly-arrived reinforcements to
those already in the park of late.
Duckage & other waterbirds were much as in recent days, yet now at
least a half-dozen Bufflehead were frolicing together at the
reservoir, while American Coots were distributed in (at least) 2 pairs
at opposite corners, & there's still a coot of that kind at the Pond,
as well as the full-plumaged drake Wood Duck at the latter location -
and for those who enjoy, a set of 2 'funny' ducks of rather muscovy-
mal-contents; while, at the Meer, an off-and-on-again Indian Runner
Duck is sometimes in evidence, but sometimes scarce to see. Warbler-
ing this damp day was not high on my agenda, but the maintenance field
area had a few, including lingering Nashville, Northern Parula higher
in a tree, & an Ovenbird right out in the paved walk; other warblers
noted today were Black-throated Blue (2), Palm ("eastern" or yellow
form), and a very modest no. of Myrtles. Notably down, but not "out",
were catbirds, towhees, and a few kinds of sparrows that were not so
rare just a week-and-a-half earlier. I also came away from Central
with no Vireo sightings but there may yet be a few late-movers;
several Blue-headeds were found in the park on Wednesday.
- - - - - -
"All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the
individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. ~
The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to
include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land. ~
A land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the
land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect
for his-her fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such."
- Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) - U.S. wildlife biologist, conservationist,
professor, author, best known for his book "A Sand County
Almanac" (1949), which has sold more than two million copies.
good - and ethical - birding,
Tom Fiore
Manhattan
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