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Central Park Common Redpoll
Central Park in the winter has a number of visitors from farther north. Today's special bird was a Common Redpoll, a small finch. It certainly made a grey day a bit brighter for me.
Juveniles Red-tails
I saw four Juvenile Red-tails along with the Sheep Meadow adults around the rink and the Pond on Monday afternoon/evening. It was a surprising number.
Past sunset, when I would have expected all of them to be roosting, one of the Juvenile hawks caught and ate a rat, well into the evening. This is the latest I've ever seen a Red-tailed Hawk eat.
Coyote Captured In Riverside Park
A Coyote was captured in Riverside Park on Saturday and later released in a Bronx wilderness area. After a few difficult captures that resulted in Coyote deaths in the last decade, it's great to see Animal Care & Control and the New York City police department coordinating well, and humanly relocating Coyotes.
The Gothamist had a nice article entitled, Coyote In Riverside Park Forces NYPD Out Of Slowdown.
Tompkins Square Park Before Roosting
I got to the park just after sunset and got a brief look at one of the hawks before it went down Avenue A to roost.
Another Day With The Couch's Kingbird
Friday was a tougher day to see the Couch's Kingbird, than Thursday. It was harder to find and when found didn't stay around as much.
When I was watching it, the most reliable location was 11th and 4th Streets again. I did find a berry tree just south of 11th Street, which could be seen from West 4th and Perry, where American Robins and the Couch's Kingbird were eating berries. I suspect the bird is eating and then taking advantage of the sun on 11th Street to digest them.
Couch's Kingbird
Another rare Kingbird, is in New York besides the Cassin's in Brooklyn. It's a Couch's Kingbird and is in Greenwich Village. I saw it as my first bird of the New Year. (It was a life bird for me.) The bird was discovered by Zack Winestine.
The bird which is normally in Mexico and southern Texas, is for some reason in some of the most charming blocks of the Village. This afternoon, it was mostly at 11th and 4th Streets. (In the Village, these two streets do meet!)
From the looks of the seeds it's regurgitating, it's surviving on a diet of mostly fruit rather than insects.