On a cold, gray afternoon flocks of birds can be a welcome find. My first flock was a group of American Goldfinches with a few Pine Siskins eating Sweet Gum seeds.
The second flock was a group of Cedar Waxwings. They got spooked by a pair of Cooper’s Hawks.
The hawks aren’t the only birds to have fledglings at Morningside Park. There were a set of Blue Jay’s with three fledglings, being very mindful of the hawk fledgling up on the the Cathedral.
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.
