This week Horned Larks have been on both Randall’s Island and Governors Island. Today, I caught up with the ones on Governors Island. They were eating grass seeds on the ballfields.

Four Horned Larks have stuck around Randalls Island out of two larger groups that had been seen both on Randall’s Island and Governors Island a few days earlier.

It had snowed and they were eating grass seeds in the bare patches of the snow along the eastern edge of the ballfields in the northeast end of the island. They were a bit skittish, and I got my best pictures digiscoping and staying 100 feet from them.

A Dickcissel that was first seen in a birder’s backyard on a BirdCam feeder Harlem and now in Riverside Park was very cooperative today. It was on the ground and sometimes on a small bird feeder about 50 feet south of the Tennis Center bathrooms.

It was a great bird to watch on a cold fall day. The winds from the Hudson made it even colder!

An American Tree Sparrow was eating grass seed along the fence just north of the Tupelo Tree in the Tupelo Meadow of Central Park on Monday afternoon. It’s a plump, long tailed sparrow with a black dot in the center of its chest and a bicolored beak. It took some patience to watch and photograph it as it weaved its way through the thick grass and leaves. It was hidden much more than visible.

A Red-breasted Merganser has arrived on the Central Park Reservoir and with some patience you could find it. Depending on when you looked, it could be easy to photograph, under water or in the worst possible place to view it or photograph it. I lucked out at the end of the day, when it when up on the reservoir’s divider and stayed close to the south gatehouse for 30 minutes.

Late this afternoon a Great Blue Heron was fishing on Turtle Pond. It had a great hit rate. I would say eight out of ten tries.