[nysbirds-l] Central Park (& Jamaica Bay WR news), NYC 2/14
A bit of what ought to be good news for birds and their observers: the breach that opened the West Pond to salt water, at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (Queens County, NY) has been repaired and is now closed, in other words, the process of restoring that pond to fresh water is now well underway - and this may mean a fresh start for birds there & other wildlife, one much sought and fought-for by many birders & conservationists - while there are certainly many, many folks to thank, for a lot of efforts, I will get a start on those thanks by noting the efforts of Queens County & Broad Channel's own Don Riepe - & of course thanks also to the NPS* for making this a reality - many of us will look forward to a visit once the West Pond loop is re- opened to the public! (*National Parks Service) Valentine's Day - February 14, 2017 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City Although Common Raven has become an almost-familiar sight in some parts of New York City in this decade, it is nonetheless remarkable to have them around, even in the midst of Manhattan island (there are some seen rather often even in mid-town areas) - today a bit before noon, while standing at the east edges of the CP reservoir scanning through the gulls (& still not coming up with any unexpected or uncommon species of gull), I saw & photographed extensively a bit of interaction between these largest of our corvids - two Ravens, and a minimum of 50 (fifty) American Crows which were going after the 2 ravens, but perhaps not in a very 'serious' way, however - the 2 ravens first went across the north end of the reservoir to around Central Park West (the western edge of the park), then wheeled around &, with crow-cacophony then at a maximum, the 2 ravens came across to the east side of the park and exited that air-space moving off east over Fifth Avenue, in the upper "90's" street-latitude; my photos captured the sequence & there may well have been a few more than 50 crows, as a few dropped out before my lens was aimed up & across the reservoir to the sky. While the reservoir continues to attract more observers, with the Common Loon & Red-necked Grebe (each in basic / winter plumage) ongoing there, the Meer (in the park's northeast corner) has had & today had Wood Duck, at least 5 Hooded Mergansers, American Coot, & other waterbirds as well as a modest number of gulls (& gulls rare to manhattan have been found at the Meer in the past, and could well show there again at some point; it seems to have been most attractive to the mid-sized gulls rather than the larger or smaller species.) Ruby-crowned Kinglet was found (a few seem to have made it part-way through the winter) by the AMNH (American Museum of Natural History) group on a mid-day guided bird-walk to the reservoir & back (contact the museum for info on joining these very informative walks with various leaders; most are by subscription-series). A small number of Snow Geese were observed moving over the park this evening, at near-dusk, their direction was towards the southwest (and these are not the first of the year seen as fly-overs here) - in other parts of manhattan & vicinity, a few Snow Buntings were noted and this may coincide with some other movements of species such as Lapland Longspur seen in other parts of NYC today & recently. There have been some modest movements of other waterfowl lately too, such as the very few Canvasbacks that are at best, intermittent now around Manhattan waters! (in comparison with the numbers of Canvasback seen say 2 or more decades ago.) Nathan Pieplow - who gave a fascinating talk & sound program on bird sounds, preceded by Ben Mirin speaking (& dancing!) on sounds in nature (in part) as well (the Linnaean Society of New York program, as was announced to this list very recently and was very well-attended) - found, thanks to some mobbing Blue Jays in the park, the year's first Great Horned Owl in Central - but do not fear, the owl's moved on and it may -or may not- be around for more mobbing in coming days (the big owl had already been reported to an "international" audience, via eBird). Mr. Pieplow, who is the author of the (new-forthcoming on March 7th?) book, the "Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of North America" noted how impressed he was at being able to observe as many as 75 White- throated Sparrows in the heart of Manhattan (and, that just one of that sparrow species is rather a star-sighting in his current hometown of Boulder, CO). It's possible to connect with some of Ben Mirin's work in part thru: https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/ben- mirin/ & at https://benmirin.com/bio/ - and with Nathan Pieplow's work thru: https://earbirding.com & other web sources. "All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. ~ The
[nysbirds-l] Central Park (& Jamaica Bay WR news), NYC 2/14
A bit of what ought to be good news for birds and their observers: the breach that opened the West Pond to salt water, at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (Queens County, NY) has been repaired and is now closed, in other words, the process of restoring that pond to fresh water is now well underway - and this may mean a fresh start for birds there & other wildlife, one much sought and fought-for by many birders & conservationists - while there are certainly many, many folks to thank, for a lot of efforts, I will get a start on those thanks by noting the efforts of Queens County & Broad Channel's own Don Riepe - & of course thanks also to the NPS* for making this a reality - many of us will look forward to a visit once the West Pond loop is re- opened to the public! (*National Parks Service) Valentine's Day - February 14, 2017 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City Although Common Raven has become an almost-familiar sight in some parts of New York City in this decade, it is nonetheless remarkable to have them around, even in the midst of Manhattan island (there are some seen rather often even in mid-town areas) - today a bit before noon, while standing at the east edges of the CP reservoir scanning through the gulls (& still not coming up with any unexpected or uncommon species of gull), I saw & photographed extensively a bit of interaction between these largest of our corvids - two Ravens, and a minimum of 50 (fifty) American Crows which were going after the 2 ravens, but perhaps not in a very 'serious' way, however - the 2 ravens first went across the north end of the reservoir to around Central Park West (the western edge of the park), then wheeled around &, with crow-cacophony then at a maximum, the 2 ravens came across to the east side of the park and exited that air-space moving off east over Fifth Avenue, in the upper "90's" street-latitude; my photos captured the sequence & there may well have been a few more than 50 crows, as a few dropped out before my lens was aimed up & across the reservoir to the sky. While the reservoir continues to attract more observers, with the Common Loon & Red-necked Grebe (each in basic / winter plumage) ongoing there, the Meer (in the park's northeast corner) has had & today had Wood Duck, at least 5 Hooded Mergansers, American Coot, & other waterbirds as well as a modest number of gulls (& gulls rare to manhattan have been found at the Meer in the past, and could well show there again at some point; it seems to have been most attractive to the mid-sized gulls rather than the larger or smaller species.) Ruby-crowned Kinglet was found (a few seem to have made it part-way through the winter) by the AMNH (American Museum of Natural History) group on a mid-day guided bird-walk to the reservoir & back (contact the museum for info on joining these very informative walks with various leaders; most are by subscription-series). A small number of Snow Geese were observed moving over the park this evening, at near-dusk, their direction was towards the southwest (and these are not the first of the year seen as fly-overs here) - in other parts of manhattan & vicinity, a few Snow Buntings were noted and this may coincide with some other movements of species such as Lapland Longspur seen in other parts of NYC today & recently. There have been some modest movements of other waterfowl lately too, such as the very few Canvasbacks that are at best, intermittent now around Manhattan waters! (in comparison with the numbers of Canvasback seen say 2 or more decades ago.) Nathan Pieplow - who gave a fascinating talk & sound program on bird sounds, preceded by Ben Mirin speaking (& dancing!) on sounds in nature (in part) as well (the Linnaean Society of New York program, as was announced to this list very recently and was very well-attended) - found, thanks to some mobbing Blue Jays in the park, the year's first Great Horned Owl in Central - but do not fear, the owl's moved on and it may -or may not- be around for more mobbing in coming days (the big owl had already been reported to an "international" audience, via eBird). Mr. Pieplow, who is the author of the (new-forthcoming on March 7th?) book, the "Peterson Field Guide to Bird Sounds of North America" noted how impressed he was at being able to observe as many as 75 White- throated Sparrows in the heart of Manhattan (and, that just one of that sparrow species is rather a star-sighting in his current hometown of Boulder, CO). It's possible to connect with some of Ben Mirin's work in part thru: https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/ben- mirin/ & at https://benmirin.com/bio/ - and with Nathan Pieplow's work thru: https://earbirding.com & other web sources. "All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. ~ The
