Other Birds

Black-headed Gulls On The Reservoir

Birders patient enough to look through all of Central Park’s gulls have been rewarded with some rarities this winter. In January, we had a Short-billed Gull, Glaucous Gull, and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Iceland Gulls and Black-headed Gulls. These gulls were in addition to our regular Ring-billed Gull, American Herring Gull and Greater Black-backed Gull species which we see daily during the winter.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been seeing the return of some Black-headed Gulls. What’s unclear is how many different individuals we’re seeing. We’re seeing at least one in adult plumage and at least two different individuals in 1st cycle plumage.

Adult
This could easily be just the same gull transitioning to alternate plumage.

Adult – January 27


Adult, March 16


Adult – March 20


Sub-Adults
There are at least two different individuals. The gull seen on March 15 has a darker head that the ones seen late in March. Also the bird on March 18 has a tail that ends in a black band, while the others had a black subterminal band, with a thin bad of white at the tip of the tail. What has been an interesting lesson for me is how different the head marking appears based on the posture of the bird and the light.


Sub-Adults – January 18


Sub-Adults – January 24


Sub-Adults – January 27


Sub-Adults – March 15


Sub-Adults – March 16


Sub-Adults – March 18


Sub-Adults – March 21


Sub-Adults – March 22

Central Park Coyotes

Central Park Coyote

I wanted to wait a week to post these photos to ensure the Coyote had moved on to a more private sleeping spot. Depending on who you talk to we have either two or more Coyotes in the park. I’ve seen two together in the northern end of the park and in the center of the park others often see two together. These could be the same animals or two pair.

Other large cities have Coyote populations in the hundreds, so I suspect over time we’ll have more Coyotes in Central Park and Manhattan. Despite their reputation as being a danger to pets and livestock, Eastern Coyotes generally try to avoid people.

Other Birds

West Harlem Piers Park Canvasbacks

A pair of Canvasbacks were found by Linda Pistolesi on Thursday at the north end of West Harlem Piers Park. The continued to be seen on Friday, so I went up to see them. They’re a short walk from the last westbound stop of the M125, so it was an easy transfer from the subway.

I missed them at first and I then went for a walk up in to 150s along the Hudson River. When I came back the Canvasbacks were out of view but quickly came back into view. I learned that they can easily hide among the pilings that protect the west side of the natural gas pipeline building and that I should have been more patient when I first arrived.

The pair spent about 45 minutes diving, then copulated and then rested.

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Octavia on the 927 Fifth Avenue Nest

Octavia was on the 927 Fifth Avenue nest on Tuesday afternoon, and then on 960 Fifth Avenue. She looked great. But it’s hard to know what’s going on. She hasn’t had offspring for a number of years, so I’m not sure she’s interested in having offspring anymore.

It’s late enough in the season that I would have expected that either the 927 Fifth Avenue nest would have been rebuilt or a new nest built, but there looks to be very little activity. Melody Andres saw a new hawk bring a twig to tree near the Levin Playground earlier this week, but it was laid on top of a squirrel’s drey.

So, I have limited expectations for anything to happen this season, but it sure would be nice if I was wrong!

Central Park Coyotes

Owl Rules for Central Park Coyotes?

Yesterday, I discovered one of Central Park Eastern Coyotes in a location that has been used by coyotes on and off for a few years in the spring. I had seen it there a few days earlier and posted a few pictures on Instagram and posted a video on YouTube from yesterday without stating the location. But maybe I shouldn’t have.

Everything was quiet and the coyote was sleeping when I arrived, and I was the only observer. However, the coyote’s location had been posted on twitter, so more and more people started showing up, and you could see the coyote’s ears perk up repeatedly. Our presence was clearly annoying the coyote.

When I started watching a coyote years ago in Hallett Sanctuary, I blogged about the coyote for a month and started a good discussion about how we should treat coyotes that arrive in the park. It ended up with the police, parks and the NYS DEC develop a good policy about what to do about coyotes in Manhattan. At the time Hallett was still locked and not open to the public, so my blogging about the coyote didn’t threaten its welfare.

But times have changed and we now have at least two resident coyotes in the park. Now that they are residents, I realize this morning that it might be time to put “owl rules” in place to avoid any unnecessary harassment of the coyotes. By owl rules, I mean that to protect sleeping birds and animals from being disturbed that we keeping their locations off social media and delay posting photographs of the animals until they have stopped using the den or roost.

Our infatuation with birds and animals can sometimes do more harm than good. So, to be on the safe side, I’m going to take my time from now on and post coyote images a few weeks after they have moved on to new locations.

General News

Baker Pavilion Peregrine Falcon Nest Box

On the 26th Floor ledge of Weill Cornell–New York Hospital’s Baker Pavilion is a Peregrine Falcon Nest Box. I’ve seen it on the NYC Bird Alliance cruises for members that explore the harbor in the past, but yesterday I thought it might be fun to see if I could watch it from Roosevelt Island. The box faces the East River and the Baker Pavilion is east of York Avenue at 68th Street.

It turns out you can easily watch it with a spotting scope, although you can’t see inside of it due to the angle.

One Peregrine Falcon was perched on the box when I arrived and made a few trips off the box before returning. At some point the falcon went inside the box and a falcon emerged soon thereafter. It was unclear if it was the same bird, or the falcons are already sitting on eggs and this was an exchange between two birds.

I’m looking forward to watching these birds later in the season.