I’m in California visiting family for Holy Week, and got to see chicks in the Peregrine Falcon nest along the California coast, just south of San Francisco at Devil’s slide. A new camera, which I don’t fully know how to use and a small lens made it hard to photograph them, but I did get some images.
The first image is of Egg Rock, home to a rookery of Common Murres, which the Peregrines raid to feed their young.
Michael George produced a wonderful piece for CBS Mornings, that was aired nationally today. It was a long piece about the reintroduction of Bald Eagles in New York City and featured Ranger Rob Mastrianni and rehabber Bobby Horvath. I contributed a few seconds of video to the story.
I was impressed that story of Rover’s visits to Central Park, which could have been just a brief sensationalized report, was instead a much deeper dive into why Bald Eagles are making a come back in New York City. They are returning due to the hard work of local rehabbers, and conservation employees of the city, state and national governments.
Kudos to Michael George for such a great report.
On a snowy day, made my first stop Riverside Drive and 86th Street to see the Peregrine Falcons who have been perching on the Normandy. They were both there, but also a wonderful American Kestrel who was camped out in from of two bushed with about 40 White-throated Sparrows and House Sparrows. The Peregrines came and left, and in the late afternoon both moved to West End Avenue.
I then went to Central Park, making a brief visit to the Reservoir and then to see the Great Horned Owl that has been in the park. It’s important to see and owl on SuperB Owl Sunday.
I went to the reservoir to see what gulls I could see. I did see an all white gull, which most likely was an Iceland Gull, but there were very few gulls on the ice. The Bald Eagle appeared mid-afternoon and after making two loops around the reservoir dropped to the ice, where what looked like a half-eaten gull was located. It ate some of the gull and stayed for about 10 minutes.
While we searched for gulls today on the Central Park Reservoir, the Bald Eagle which has been making daily visits, arrived and quickly caught a gull and ate it. (The eagle is tagged with a R over 7 band, so it’s been nicknamed Rover.)
The Bald Eagle continues to visit Central Park’s Reservoir. Yesterday, I couldn’t get to the park, but many photographers were able to photograph the eagle and were able to see its band number, R over 7, which matches an individual often seen in Brooklyn. Today, it made at least three visits to the Reservoir. I saw two of the passes, one of which was after sunset.
With unusual gulls, ducks, a perched Peregrine and the Eagle’s flights the Reservoir is the “hot” location in the late afternoon in Central Park this week.
Update: From the Connecticut Fish and Wildlife @CTFishWildlife4h: Central Park birders were recently treated to the uncommon sight of a bald eagle capturing a gull in mid-flight! “R7”, or locally known as Rover, was banded by CT DEEP wildlife biologists in New Haven, CT, on May 11, 2018, and he has been hanging around NYC since mid 2020!
