Inwood Hill, 103rd Street and Central Park
I started the afternoon in Inwood Hill Park on Saturday. The Urban Rangers hosted an Owl walk. No owls were seen, but owl pellets were found and dissected. Both kids and adults had a good time.






I started the afternoon in Inwood Hill Park on Saturday. The Urban Rangers hosted an Owl walk. No owls were seen, but owl pellets were found and dissected. Both kids and adults had a good time.
Central Park had its 107th Annual Christmas Bird Count on Sunday. (To accommodate various greater New York locations, the counts are held on various days before and after Christmas.)
The Count is a census which records the number of each species found in the entire park. There are seven
teams, splitting up the park into sections, Northwest, Northeast, Reservoir, Great
Lawn, Ramble, Southwest and Southeast. The teams all start at the South Pump House, split up to do
their section’s and then meet back at the Arsenal for lunch and the tally.
The mix of birders included all skill levels, from beginners to experts. So, if you don’t think you’re qualified for the event, don’t worry. Join in next year, everyone is welcome.
I went into Central Park on Saturday hoping to find a Cooper’s Hawk, take a few pictures of Pale Male and then go off to the Monk Parakeets on Amsterdam Avenue.
As often happens when birding, I ended up with a different set of observations.
James O’Brien (yojimbot.blogspot.com) hosted a Harlem and Washington Heights bird watching walk on Sunday.
We then took a brief subway ride to Broadway Bridge, which is a car and subway draw bridge at the upper end of Manhattan. The bridge is home to two Peregrine Falcons.
On my way home, I got off the 1 train at Columbus Circle and looked for the Central Park South hawks. One of them was on a building between 8th and 9th Avenues on 58th Street.
After taking a break in the early afternoon, and a detour to Riverside Church, I returned to the Cathedral.
The hawk watchers up at the Cathedral compared their estimates for fledge dates today. The question of the day was, Did we have a precocious fledgling followed by a normal fledgling?, Or a regular fledgling followed by a reluctant one? The general consensus was that we had a precocious, first fledgling.
Seven blocks north and a few blocks west of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is Riverside Church. A pair of Peregrine Falcons have two fledglings there, who on late Saturday afternoon made the worst racket imaginable begging for food.