Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City It’s seemed, not too surprisingly, a fairly quiet week in Central, & if anything the modest flurry of late-winter movement re-settled or moved on, in the days since last weekend.
Last Sunday (3/4) in a late-day pass by the N. Meadow ballfields, I found & photographed 3 Killdeer; these were well hunkered-in even with such short turf grass (& no snow then) perhaps getting some respite from the then-strong north winds. I checked there & elsewhere in the park over the rest of the week, & did not see any more. Killdeer are not common in Central, but likely annual in late winter-early spring & can easily be overlooked. They sometimes show up when any number of American Robins are passing or arriving in the park. At that time (Sunday, 3/4) approx. 250 robins were found acattered over the N. Meadow & it’s immediate perimter. That batch has by now moved on; most seemed to do so ahead of this past week’s snowfall (or 'slush-fall’ if one were out IN it as I was for a while. Species (& rough numbers noted for some) over the past week, to Saturday 3/10: Double-crested Cormorant (in & out to-from reservoir but seemed absent after the slushstorm) Great Blue Heron Turkey Vulture (a few) Canada Goose Wood Duck (at least 5 present Sunday & Monday, Meer-Reservoir-Lake-Pond) Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail (drake has returned to his favored Pond, at the SE part of park) Bufflehead Hooded Merganser (pair lingering, most regularly at Turtle Pond) Ruddy Duck Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon American Coot (Pond & Reservoir) American Woodcock (1, north woods, Monday, 3/5) Ring-billed Gull [American] Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull ['feral'] Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (very modest no’s. scattered thru park, wintered) Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker Eastern Phoebe (few, last noted by me this week again at Great Hill, post-storm) Blue Jay American Crow Black-capped Chickadee (very few) Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper (several) Carolina Wren (perked-up, a bit of singing from 1) Golden-crowned Kinglet (several, & seem to have overwintered) Hermit Thrush (1 overwintered, southeast part of park) American Robin (multiple, but no big swarms just yet) Gray Catbird (2 overwintered) Northern Mockingbird (various locations in the park) Brown Thrasher (at least 2 overwintered) European Starling [Red] Fox Sparrow (good no’s. to Monday- 12+, then poss. fewer) Song Sparrow (many thru Mon. - 25++, & far fewer after that day) Swamp Sparrow (3 noted Mon. - Meer / Lake / Pond areas) White-throated Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco (fair no’s. continued to at least Friday 3/9) Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird (modest no’s. after earlier small movement) Rusty Blackbird (1, Meer island, Mon. 3/5) Common Grackle (continuing, many had wintered, also earlier migrants) House Finch American Goldfinch (ongoing small no’s.) House Sparrow Although slush-snow-sleet & cold weather have slowed all plant growth, there’ve been more green shoots & some tiny leaves appearing in many parts of the park; several of the earliest Azaleas put forth pink blossoms (Strawberry Fields had one), & some grass was even greening-up - a little. A very few insects were even showing, & the few E. phoebes & kinglets etc. were able to find some, albeit with trouble in the worst bits of the week’s weather. good and ethically-minded birding, Tom Fiore manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
