A Phalarope was found in Stuyvesant Cove Park this morning and after much discussion was identified as a Red Phalarope.  It was an amazingly cooperative bird, staying close to the shoreline.  It as a life bird for me.

For the last few days, there has been a Dickcissel up by the compost heap in Central Park, which is near the East Drive and 105th Streets.  I got lucky and was in view for a few minutes.  It harder to find later in the afternoon.

One of the joys of New York City birding is its great network of birders who freely share their discoveries.  Another joy is the pocket parks of Manhattan that due to light pollution end up with an interesting number of rarities.  Yesterday and today, these intersected with a Sora in Bryant Park.

It was a tough bird to find, as it kept hiding in the undercover but if you were patient, you could get some good looks at the bird.  It was in the western section of the plantings just north of lawn.  It worked east and west before climbing up into a small conifer, after dusk, and may have ended up roosting there.

Fall migration has been slowly starting over the last few weeks.  Birds take some work to find at times, but there are interesting species moving through the area now.  Today, I was lucky to have a number of birders direct me to a Tennessee Warbler in Central Park’s Maintenance Meadow.  It was a very cooperative bird and it gave great looks for over two hours.

Odds and ends from a quiet day in the park.  Central Park lost a number of trees and there were a lot of broken branches blocking paths after Tuesday’s storm.  On Turtle Pond there was a Belted Kingfisher, a nice bird for early August.  The Gill in the Ramble had two nice sized catfish and lots of minnows.  It’s amazing that such a small stream could have such good sized fish.

In addition to the Red-tailed Hawks, I was curious to see how the Yellow-crowned Night Herons were doing and the Common Terns.  

The old Yellow-crowned Night Heron nest from last year was abandoned and I was unable to find a new one.

The Common Terns were out on Lima Pier.  (I didn’t see any on Tango Pier.)  There seemed to be fewer than last year.  They were concentrated on the middle of the arm of the pier where they nest and this year I didn’t see any on the northern end of the arm like last year.  

But there were lots of chicks getting feed, even if the numbers seemed lower.