In late August, Central Park can have lots of migrants one day and be quiet the next. On Saturday, it was fairly quiet. A highlight was a common bird for the park, an American Goldfinch. Generally we see them at the bird feeders in the winter, so it was nice to see this bird enjoying seeds in the Wildflower Meadow in the North Woods.
Judging by the under tail of the bird, we had a female Chuck-Will’s-Widow in Central Park today. A nice surprise on a wonderfully warm spring day.
I spent most of the weekend bird watching, so I only shot about 15 minutes of hawks over the last two days. I did get to see the Fifth Avenue nest on Sunday afternoon.
I’ve just gotten back from a week long visit to California, which included a trip down Highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Along the way was a stop in Big Sur, and a chance to see some of the California Condors there.
For details about the hawk tagged 51, see www.mycondor.org.
I was keeping an eye out for American Woodcock in Central Park, but was shocked to find one on Randalls Island out in the open next to the Golf Driving Range. It was a fun discovery.
On Sunday, I spent most of the day in the park trying to see a Common Redpoll without success. However, I did have a good time seeing a group of Red-winged Hawks for the first time this year, a very beautiful European Goldfinch (possibly an escapee rather than a wild bird), Owls and the Common Merganser on the Harlem Meer. While I wasn’t trying for a long species list, I did end up with a respectable 37.
| 180 | Canada Goose | |
| 3 | Wood Duck | |
| 57 | Mallard | |
| 6 | Bufflehead | |
| 8 | Hooded Merganser | |
| 1 | Common Merganser | |
| 2 | Ruddy Duck | |
| 1 | Pied-billed Grebe | |
| 2 | Double-crested Cormorant | |
| 1 | Cooper’s Hawk | |
| 4 | Red-tailed Hawk | |
| 2 | American Coot | |
| 18 | Ring-billed Gull | |
| 1 | Great Black-backed Gull | |
| 4 | Mourning Dove | |
| 2 | Northern Saw-whet Owl | |
| 2 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | |
| 1 | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | |
| 6 | Downy Woodpecker | |
| 1 | Hairy Woodpecker | |
| 4 | Blue Jay | |
| 8 | Black-capped Chickadee | |
| 33 | Tufted Titmouse | |
| 6 | White-breasted Nuthatch | |
| 1 | Brown Creeper | |
| 74 | American Robin | |
| 2 | European Starling | |
| 1 | Song Sparrow | |
| 23 | White-throated Sparrow | |
| 2 | Dark-eyed Junco | |
| 4 | Northern Cardinal | |
| 7 | Red-winged Blackbird | |
| 20 | Common Grackle | |
| 9 | House Finch | |
| 11 | American Goldfinch | |
| 1 | European Goldfinch | |
| 15 | House Sparrow |
