Randalls Island has been discovered this winter by birders in New York City. Easily visited by public transportation, this island between the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens offers an interesting variety of birds.
Today, I visited the island. Thanks to the great birding skills of Ben Cacace, I got to see three American Pipits. This is a new species for my life list.
I spent a few days in the Everglades over the Christmas/New Year’s break. I managed to got a close up look at a Purple Gallinule, which is a new bird for my life list while on vacation.
The video is very shaky as there were high winds, but it shows the typical Purple Gallinute behavior of wading in Water Lillies. The photographs show the Purple Gallinule climbing a small bush to eat flowers. This was a special treat as it allowed me to see the whole bird including its large feet!
Among many White-throated Sparrows in the Shakespeare Garden of Central Park was this Carolina Wren. A nice colorful bird for a gray winter day.
I haven’t been able to spend much time birding this December. During the week, it’s too dark to bird after work, and the weekend before last, I was away on business.
This last weekend, I only had a few hours on Saturday to go birding. Sunday, I participated in the Christmas Bird count in Central Park, but didn’t have time to photograph much.
So, here are the few photos I got last weekend.
Despite all of time I’ve spent looking at owls, I have been keeping an eye out for Pale Male. Today, I started my birding near Pale Male’s nest. My first views were of a Cooper’s Hawk chasing some European Starlings.
Then Pale Male arrived. He broke off a tree branch and took it to the nest. He then perched a little south of the nest on a fence, then a water tank and then a railing. He kept looking south. I think his new mate may be spending her time below 72nd Street.
A gorgeous Eastern Bluebird was north of Winterdale Arch in Central Park today. Although it was near lots of fruit trees, it spent its time catching insects from the lawn. I spent an hour waiting for it to arrive, and was just about to give up before it showed up. It’s nice to have patience rewarded.
