The Day After Christmas
Before leaving on vacation, I made a brief visit to the park on December 26th. In my brief visit, I had a Barred Owl, a Coopers Hawk and Pale Male.
Category: Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey
Cooper’s Hawk and then Pale Male
Despite all of time I’ve spent looking at owls, I have been keeping an eye out for Pale Male. Today, I started my birding near Pale Male’s nest. My first views were of a Cooper’s Hawk chasing some European Starlings.
Then Pale Male arrived. He broke off a tree branch and took it to the nest. He then perched a little south of the nest on a fence, then a water tank and then a railing. He kept looking south. I think his new mate may be spending her time below 72nd Street.
Gray Day
On a gray late Fall day, a visit to Central Park yielded a few Cooper’s Hawks, two Barred Owls and a few Red-tailed Hawks. Let’s hope the Barred Owls stay for the Christmas Bird count, Sunday, December 16th.
Weekend In Central Park
I spent time watching American Crows, waterfowl and American Kestrels on Saturday and watched Pale Male on Sunday. The Harlem Meer had a nice selection of birds, including Buffleheads, Ruddy Ducks, Gadwalls, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Wood Ducks, and a Mute Swan.
Sandy made a mess of the park, and there are still sections closed. The clean up may take longer than usual as resources are being sent to hard hit areas of NYC rather than Central Park. Sadly entitled Upper East and West siders are complaining about how they suffered because they can’t walk their dogs in the park or use the bypass road in the north of the park, which is now a staging area for the clean up. Get a life folks!
Bleecker Street Peregrine Falcon
I went looking for the Washington Square Red-tailed Hawks on Wednesday and came up empty. However, I did find the Peregrine Falcon that hangs out at the top of 100 Bleecker Street. I sure hope we have a Peregrine Falcon scrape next year in the Village.
Réserve Naturelle des Sept-Iles, Bretagne, France
On vacation in Brittany, France, I discovered a wonderful two hour cruise to a nature preserve, off of Pleumeur-Bodou. The cuise visits a set of islands that host breeding puffins and gannets, that this year is celebrating its centenial as a nature preserve.
The puffins had already left for the season, but hundreds of Northern Gannets were still raising young on one of the islands. Other birds and mammals seen on the trip were European Oystercatchers, Herring Gulls, Gray Seals, European Shags and a single Peregrine Falcon.
