The Governors Island Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron nest quintuplets were easier to count today, with all five showing together often. They all engaged in Gular Fluttering together to cool down in the hot weather at one point too. They were fun to watch. I’ve learned that in most years the number of young in the Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron nests on Governors Island have been lower, so five is unusual for the island.
Governors Island has hosted Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron nests over the last few years. This year the island has one successful nest with five chicks.
What was interesting to observe today was two immature birds hanging around the nest. One immature bird was on a branch near the nest when I arrived and another was on the nest. When a mature adult arrived later, the immature bird left the nest and the adult fed the young by regurgitating into the middle of the nest.
Between rain showers, I visited the Warbling Vireo Nest and tired taking some slow motion video. It didn’t quite work out in the low light but you can see some feedings. The nestlings are much more visible now.
The Warbling Vireo nest I’ve been watching in Central Park has now hatched. If you watch closely at the video, you’ll see that when the parents feed the chicks, the chicks sometimes turn around and give back to the parents a fecal sack. I guess what goes in, must at some point come back out.
The Warbling Vireo nest in The Ramble of Central Park is in use now. I captured video and audio this afternoon of what is most likely the male on the nest. Lovely singing!
Governors Island is now open after dark on Fridays and Saturdays, so I went in search of bats on Saturday. I saw and recorded echolocations from two Eastern Red Bats at Nolan Park around 8:15-8:45 p.m.
Earlier in the daylight, I enjoyed views of the Yellow Crowned Night Heron nest, Killdeer and Common Terns. I was also able to see the three young Peregrine Falcons and their mother at 55 Water Street.
The Common Terns nest on two of the piers, Lima and Tango. NYC Audubon is encouraging Common Terns to nest on the Lima Pier this year and has put up three decoys. It took me awhile to realize there were decoys and I had to subtract three Terns from my eBirds checklist.
They piers are named after their shapes, L, T and Y, which in the NATO alphabet become, Lima, Tango and Yankee. The Yankee pier, which now only is half a Y, is in active use by the Brooklyn bound ferry.
In addition to the birds on Memorial Day weekend, there was a military ship being guarded by the Coast Guard across Buttermilk Channel and a few military plane and helicopter flyovers.
