More Ruby-throated Hummingbirds
I spent Saturday bird watching rather than hawk watching and like earlier in the week got mesmerized by Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
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I spent Saturday bird watching rather than hawk watching and like earlier in the week got mesmerized by Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are enjoying feeding on the Jewelweed flowers in Central Park this season, and occasionally rest on branches nearby. This young bird rested on the same branch every five minutes or so, sometimes staying only a few seconds but sometimes stayed for as long as two minutes.
The adult male of the Tompkins Square Park was hunting near the pool of the park, before he went to the flagpole and then to a tree to roost for the evening.
The Washington Square Park hawks have been spending time building an alternate nest above the Angelica Theater at Mercer and Houston. At sunset, one of the hawks was on the balcony of above the new nest. (Hawks are known to build alternative nests and not use them, so I would suspect that come spring the activity will once again shift back to Washington Square Park.)
It took some time to find them, but I was able to see both Washington Square Adults this evening. I started in the courtyard of the Silver Towers buildings looking at the building on Mercer and Houston where the hawks had recently brought nesting materials. (Building an alternate nest is not unusual, and this pair has brought materials to other sites in the late summer and early fall.)
Without warning, Rosie appeared flying up Broadway from below Houston and I followed her to a building at 4th and Greene Street. Then I saw Bobby fly east on Washington Place. After a few minutes Rosie joined him and both were on top a roof shed at Mercer and Washington. At dusk they both flew north to roost, but I lost track of them.
On Labor Day, Octavia, Pale Male's current mate was perched on the north side of 2 East 70th Street. The location gave her a good view up Fifth Avenue.
I always thought 72nd Street was the "line in the sand" between the 5th Avenue and the Sheep Meadow pair, but the borders are turning out to be more complicated. Octavia is regularly south of 72nd Street, and the Sheep Meadow fledglings regularly go north of 72nd Street on either side of Bethesda Fountain.
The highlight of my bird watching Labor Day weekend was a very cooperative Hudsonian Godwit (a large sandpiper). The bird was on the East Pond of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. It was a new bird for my "life list".
The bird breeds in Tundra locations in Alaska and Canada and winters on the Atlantic coast of South America.