The Pond has been host to a male Wood Duck this winter, who must believe he’s a Mallard, since he’s claimed a female Mallard as his mate. (Children’s story anyone?)
Cross breeding between Mallards and other ducks, while not common does occur more often than you might expect. The 10,000 Birds blog has a nice piece on the subject in 2007. We’ll see later this spring if this strange pairing leads to hybrids.
The Central Park coyote was seen today during lunchtime walking on the eastern shore of sanctuary. I went to see I could find it after sunset, but it gave me the slip. I’ve been having bad luck since daylight savings started.
I did get to see my first Great Egret of spring at the Pond. In the video, you’ll see it preening after dark with The Plaza in the background. One of the surprises of observing birds behavior is how active diurnal birds are after dark.
On Christmas Week, I was in Southwestern Florida and visited J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I was birding casually but had one life bird, a Reddish Egret.
If you wonder why I haven’t been posting lately, I’ve been studying owls this January. The owls are easily disturbed in their winter roost, so I’m postponing reporting about them until the late Spring.
The Loch has had a number of interesting birds this week, including a Cooper’s Hawk, Great Blue Heron, American Woodcock and Wood Duck.
The Wood Duck, a female, was eating nuts in the snow on Christmas Day.
I had gone up to the North Woods looking for owls, but ended up seeing nocturnal activity I didn’t expect. The Loch had Mallards (displaced from their normal nighttime location of the North Meadow due to the snow), raccoons, and a Great Blue Heron who for some reason hasn’t migrated further south and was hunting after dark.
The annual Christmas Bird Count was held in Central Park. The snow storm had tapered off just in time for a nice morning in the park.
Counting in fresh snow was good exercise, although it kept the count numbers down. I birded the Northwest. Highlights included a female Wood Duck and a Great Blue Heron (most likely the same bird Jack Meyer saw earlier in the week on the Lake). Our group had two raptor species, a Cooper’s Hawk and a pair of Red-tailed Hawks.
An unusual species for the count was a Turkey Vulture, with multiple fly overs the park. Speculation was that heavy snow forced the vultures south. The Riverside Park count even had a Bald Eagle. So the weather was a mixed blessing.
