« February 2006 | Main | April 2006 »
Wild Turkey
On Sunday around 5:30 p.m. I ran into Bob Levy, who said there were reports of a large bird west of the Lake. We went to see what was there and within minutes saw a Wild Turkey. After about 40 minutes, it flew up into a tree and roosted for the night. What a nice ending to a day of very mixed weather.
Merlin and other birds
One goes through periods where one doesn't see anything special while birding, and then all at once you turn a corner and see lots of interesting birds. This happened to me on Thursday evening around 6 p.m. I photographed four birds, including a new bird for my Central Park list, a Merlin on a ten minute walk from the East 70's to the West 70's.
5th Avenue Nesting
The Fifth Avenue hawks are now sitting on their nest.
Brown-headed Cowbird
Daffodils are blooming and other signs of Spring are all around the park. The diversity of birds being reported has increased greatly in the last ten days.
The 5th Avenue hawk watchers found this Brown-headed Cowbird behind their bench at the model boat pond on Saturday.
Junior Gives Charlotte An Early Afternoon Break
The nest has eggs. How many? Still a mystery.
The afternoon sun hits the nest around 1:35 p.m.
Junior arrives to give Charlotte a break.
A few minutes interaction and she's off. There are a two extra feet in the picture, so I guess lunch was involved.
Evening Shots of Charlotte on Nest
On Monday night, after watching an Owl fly out, I made my way down to Central Park South, to see if I could take pictures of Charlotte on her nest. Here are the grainy results...
The nest is so high, she's barely visible once she settles in.
Charlotte lays an egg
Reports are that Charlotte laid an egg on Sunday and is now sitting on the Central Park South nest. This is about a week later than Lola who is already sitting on her Fifth Avenue nest.
If all goes well this year, it should be a wonderful Spring with lots of fledglings in the park.
Saturday on Central Park South
Saturday was a wonderful day. The temperture was in the sixties and it was clear that Spring would soon be arriving.
Junior flying near the nest around 7:30 am.
Charlotte with Junior behind, with only his tail is visible, on top of the Essex House sign in the early afternoon.
Junior on his first visit to the nest while I was photographing in the afternoon.
The nest looks great with about double the volume of last year's nest.
Junior returns, leaves briefly and returns with some paper.
The paper gets wedged into the nest.
Later he returns later. I couldn't tell if he has brought an addition to the nest.
Charlotte, left and Junior, right on a ledge of the Hampshire House where they spend 45 minutes.
Later he returns with another piece of paper, one he caught in
mid-air! He not only helps control pigeons and mice, he collects trash
and recycles.
Junior then flies west, and after a few minutes out of sight.
The nest is a little bigger after some Saturday additions by Junior.
Late Sunday just north of Strawberry Fields
Sunday on Central Park South
Young Cooper's Hawk Eats Afternoon Tea
Fordham Hawks make the tree to building nest move
Rob Jett reports on his excellent The City Birder blog, that the Fordham Campus Red-tailed Hawks have made the move from tree nesting to building nesting.
This makes the fourth New York City building nest I've heard reports of:
Fifth Avenue
Bronx Fire Escape (2004) (Daily News, NYC DEP)
Central Park South
Fordham Campus
Update: I forgot about the St. John the Divine (200?-?) nest, which would make five. If you know of other building nests in NYC, please leave a comment.