[nysbirds-l] yes on great gray owl massena

[George Steele]

Spent about 5 hours on Monday, Feb 13, searching for the Great Gray Owl that's 
been seen in the area of Robert Moses State Park in Massena.  Finally found it 
as I was heading out.  Had plenty of good looks at it as it was perched in a 
tree snag along side of the road, at one point flying to another snag, then 
flying back and forth across the road.  I found it on the exit road just before 
the turnoff to the northern observation lookout to the canal and the canal 
underpass.  It was in an area of fairly open field with sparcely spaced 
deciduous trees and tree snags.  The owl seemed to like tree snags about 15 
feet in height.


In addition to the owl there were about 30 Common Goldeneye and twice that many 
Common Mergansers in the open water at the Power Authority Visitor Center.  
Several other birders told me that there was a Northern Shrike seen several 
places along Robinson Bay Road and two Peregrine Falcons on the bridge on 
Barnhart Island Road.  I missed the shrike and peregrines but couldn't miss the 
several hundred American Robins and European Starlings feeding along the road. 


George


-
George Steele
Website:  www.georgesteele.webs.com
Blog:  www.schoolyardnaturalist.blogspot.com


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[nysbirds-l] FW: Queens County Bird Club - Wed. Feb 15 - Donna Schulman presents: South Africa Safari

[Nancy Tognan]

The Queens County Bird Club will be meeting at the Alley Pond Environmental
Center, 228-06 Northern Blvd Douglaston, NY 11362   
>Map of location<  

at 8:00 pm on Wednesday,  February 15, 2017.  Free admission.  Refreshments
served.

Public transit users:  Meeting location is one mile from Bayside LIRR
station;  you may either walk, take the Q12 bus, or use car service located
at the station.

 

QCBC member Donna Schulman will present "South Africa Safari, from Capetown
to Kruger to Wakkerstroom" featuring her own fabulous photos and videos.

  Safari is the Swahili word for journey.  Donna's 2014 journey took
her from Capetown, where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean and African
Penguins frolic near the Cape of Good Hope; to Kruger National Park, where
Lions, Leopards and Zebras (oh my!) distract even the most dedicated birder
from Hornbills and Eagle-Owls; to the KwaZulu-Natal province in eastern
South Africa, where the Wakkerstroom fields are full of larks and pipits,
and the sand forests hold Narina Trogans and Pink-throated Twinspots. The
first two parts of Donna's South Africa Safari were with the American
Birding Association, and the trip through Eastern South Africa was a small
group extension. With photographs and video, Donna will talk about the
birds, mammals, and other creatures she encountered, South African habitats,
and the unique advantages of each type of travel.

   Donna learned how to bird on QCBC field trips and now uses
that skill set in NY, NJ, Florida, and around the world. Her photographs
have been used by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, NJ Audubon, and other
organizations, and her Black Oystercatcher photo was featured in the
Fieldcraft section of Birdwatching Magazine. She is an adjunct professor at
the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers, a past editor of News
and Notes, and a book reviewer, currently for 10,000 Birds and Birding
magazine. 

   

Nancy Tognan 

nancy.tog...@gmail.com 

Vice President, Queens County Bird Club 

 

See http://www.qcbirdclub.org/   for more information on trips, speakers,
and other events.

See our 'Birding Maps & Locations' page for directions to and info about
many local birding hotspots

 

* QCBC is a tax exempt, charitable organization {501c3}.  *


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[nysbirds-l] Killdeer - brookhaven town hall

[leormand]

There was a killdeer in the parking lot this morning at brookhaven town hall 

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[nysbirds-l] City Island Surf Scoter

[Jack Rothman]

City Island, Bronx

Approximately 35 Surf Scoter off the north end of City Island at Belden Point 
by Johnny’s Reef/Tony’s Pier Restaurants, today at 2:30PM. They are easily seen 
in the bright sun with a scope.
These Scoter have been here since early December. Their numbers were much 
greater for the CBC.

I’ll check another morning to see if this is just a small group that splintered 
of a main group, that may be further out. 

There were also a few Greater Scaup and three Red-throated Loons nearby.

Jack Rothman
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[nysbirds-l] Central Park NYC - Tuesday Feb. 14, 2017 - Common Loon continues at Reservoir

[Deborah Allen]

Central Park NYC - Ramble & Reservoir
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
OBS: Robert & Meg White, Deborah Allen

Highlights: The first-winter Common Loon first reported by Kevin Topping on the 
13th continued on the Reservoir in the SE at around noon today along with the 
Red-necked Grebe released by the Wild Bird Fund at the beginning of the month. 

All birds reported from the Reservoir were seen from the SE near the gate 
house. The condition of the track around the Reservoir should improve with the 
weekend's warmer weather. 

Canada Goose
American Black Duck - 2 Reservoir & a couple of Mallard x Am. Black Duck hybrids
Mallard
Northern Shoveler - at least 100 on the Lake
Bufflehead - 7 males & 2 females Reservoir
Hooded Merganser - 4 Reservoir
Ruddy Duck - not many in SE Reservoir
Pied-billed Grebe - reported at the Reservoir
Red-necked Grebe - WBF release continues Reservoir
Mourning Dove
American Coot - 3 Reservoir
Ring-billed Gull - numbers increasing Reservoir
Herring Gull - outnumbered by Ring-billed Gulls
Great Black-backed Gull - adults & immatures
Common Loon - first-winter bird Reservoir
Cooper's Hawk - Ramble & Cleopatra's Needle
Red-tailed Hawk - at least 3 seen at least 8 locations
Red-headed Woodpecker - tweeted by E. Eckholm at the usual location approx E. 
68th Street 
Red-bellied Woopecker - residents
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Common Raven - vocal birds reported near E. 96th Street entrance by 2 observers
Black-capped Chickadee - at least 6
Tufted Titmouse - at least 20
Red-breasted Nuthatch - reported at feeders
White-breasted Nuthatch - 4
American Robin - small flock between Alexander Hamilton Statue & Reservoir
House Finch - at least 6 feeders
American Goldfinch - at least 10 at feeders, others elsewhere
Fox Sparrow - 1 north of source of Gill, 2 near feeders
White-throated Sparrow - easily 100
Red-winged Blackbird - small flocks at feeders and Upper Lobe
Common Grackle


Deb Allen

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[nysbirds-l] East End Birding (Suffolk Co.)

[Ken Feustel]

We headed out east today to bird the Montauk area. We began the day at dawn at 
Montauk Pt. where Sue quickly spotted a female King Eider with two Common Eider 
in front of the restaurant. Birds were scarce at the Point, with many of the 
eider and scoter well offshore. A dismal Razorbill flight (6 birds) did not 
dampen our enthusiasm as we were soon rewarded with great looks at a winter 
adult Little Gull, flashing his dark underwings as he leisurely passed the 
restaurant (photos on my flickr site) with a few Bonaparte’s Gulls. 

After leaving the point we turned our attention to locating the previously 
reported Black Guillemot at Lake Montauk. We were having no luck looking south 
from the commercial fishing dock until reinforcements arrived in the person of 
Ed Becher and Bob Proniewych. Ed quickly found the bird in the channel east of 
Star Island. We then proceeded down West Lake Drive to the jetties where a 
snappy looking first winter Iceland Gull was observed. While watching the gull 
we were suddenly surrounded by two Town of East Hampton police cars. We were 
informed that Coast Guard personnel had alerted the police that two suspicious 
characters had been training their cameras (spotting scopes) on the Coast Guard 
Station. The Coast Guard had obtained our license plate number and the EH 
police presumably ran our plates - we were caught! Things were quickly 
straightened out but the police wanted to know about a gray car with two males 
(Ed and Bob) who were also observed behaving suspiciously. We briefly thought 
about telling the cops we did not know these men but we thought they were 
speaking Russian and were headed for Montauk Pt. We thought the better of the 
idea, and our fellow birders never realized how close they came to being 
apprehended.

The rest of the day we headed back west, stopping at Wainscott Pond - no 
Sandhill Crane but our FOY Eastern Meadowlarks (4). At Shinnecock Inlet we 
picked up Harlequin Duck (3), Snowy Owl (1), and Iceland Gull (1). The Dune 
Road American Bittern briefly showed in the marsh grass before stalking off. 

Happy birding,

Ken & Sue Feustel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kfeustel/
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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[nysbirds-l] NYS eBird Hotspots: New/Renamed Shared Locations (13-Feb-'17)

[Ben Cacace]

Thanks to @Team_eBird for their dedication keeping eBird.org running
smoothly and for the group of New York State hotspot moderators for working
on shared location suggestions.

New and renamed shared locations (hotspots) have been updated for the 62
county wiki pages. You can find a summary of the changes below with
clickable links where a dedicated hotspot (shared location) page exists.

http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/NewHotspots
http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/RenamedHotspots

These links now appear on the home page (see below) on the line 'Shared
Location Updates' so you don't have to refer back to this message:

Home page: http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/Birding+in+New+York

Clickable map:
http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/Birding+in+New+York#ClickableMap

Alphabetical list of counties:
http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/Birding+in+New+York#Alphabetical
-- 
Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC
Wiki for NYS eBird Hotspots

Facebook Discussion for NYS eBird Hotspots


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[nysbirds-l] Central Park (& Jamaica Bay WR news), NYC 2/14

[Thomas Fiore]

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] yes on great gray owl massena

[George Steele]

Spent about 5 hours on Monday, Feb 13, searching for the Great Gray Owl that's 
been seen in the area of Robert Moses State Park in Massena.  Finally found it 
as I was heading out.  Had plenty of good looks at it as it was perched in a 
tree snag along side of the road, at one point flying to another snag, then 
flying back and forth across the road.  I found it on the exit road just before 
the turnoff to the northern observation lookout to the canal and the canal 
underpass.  It was in an area of fairly open field with sparcely spaced 
deciduous trees and tree snags.  The owl seemed to like tree snags about 15 
feet in height.


In addition to the owl there were about 30 Common Goldeneye and twice that many 
Common Mergansers in the open water at the Power Authority Visitor Center.  
Several other birders told me that there was a Northern Shrike seen several 
places along Robinson Bay Road and two Peregrine Falcons on the bridge on 
Barnhart Island Road.  I missed the shrike and peregrines but couldn't miss the 
several hundred American Robins and European Starlings feeding along the road. 


George


-
George Steele
Website:  www.georgesteele.webs.com
Blog:  www.schoolyardnaturalist.blogspot.com


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[nysbirds-l] FW: Queens County Bird Club - Wed. Feb 15 - Donna Schulman presents: South Africa Safari

[Nancy Tognan]

The Queens County Bird Club will be meeting at the Alley Pond Environmental
Center, 228-06 Northern Blvd Douglaston, NY 11362   
>Map of location<  

at 8:00 pm on Wednesday,  February 15, 2017.  Free admission.  Refreshments
served.

Public transit users:  Meeting location is one mile from Bayside LIRR
station;  you may either walk, take the Q12 bus, or use car service located
at the station.

 

QCBC member Donna Schulman will present "South Africa Safari, from Capetown
to Kruger to Wakkerstroom" featuring her own fabulous photos and videos.

  Safari is the Swahili word for journey.  Donna's 2014 journey took
her from Capetown, where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean and African
Penguins frolic near the Cape of Good Hope; to Kruger National Park, where
Lions, Leopards and Zebras (oh my!) distract even the most dedicated birder
from Hornbills and Eagle-Owls; to the KwaZulu-Natal province in eastern
South Africa, where the Wakkerstroom fields are full of larks and pipits,
and the sand forests hold Narina Trogans and Pink-throated Twinspots. The
first two parts of Donna's South Africa Safari were with the American
Birding Association, and the trip through Eastern South Africa was a small
group extension. With photographs and video, Donna will talk about the
birds, mammals, and other creatures she encountered, South African habitats,
and the unique advantages of each type of travel.

   Donna learned how to bird on QCBC field trips and now uses
that skill set in NY, NJ, Florida, and around the world. Her photographs
have been used by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, NJ Audubon, and other
organizations, and her Black Oystercatcher photo was featured in the
Fieldcraft section of Birdwatching Magazine. She is an adjunct professor at
the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers, a past editor of News
and Notes, and a book reviewer, currently for 10,000 Birds and Birding
magazine. 

   

Nancy Tognan 

nancy.tog...@gmail.com 

Vice President, Queens County Bird Club 

 

See http://www.qcbirdclub.org/   for more information on trips, speakers,
and other events.

See our 'Birding Maps & Locations' page for directions to and info about
many local birding hotspots

 

* QCBC is a tax exempt, charitable organization {501c3}.  *


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[nysbirds-l] Killdeer - brookhaven town hall

[leormand]

There was a killdeer in the parking lot this morning at brookhaven town hall 

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[nysbirds-l] City Island Surf Scoter

[Jack Rothman]

City Island, Bronx

Approximately 35 Surf Scoter off the north end of City Island at Belden Point 
by Johnny’s Reef/Tony’s Pier Restaurants, today at 2:30PM. They are easily seen 
in the bright sun with a scope.
These Scoter have been here since early December. Their numbers were much 
greater for the CBC.

I’ll check another morning to see if this is just a small group that splintered 
of a main group, that may be further out. 

There were also a few Greater Scaup and three Red-throated Loons nearby.

Jack Rothman
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[nysbirds-l] Central Park NYC - Tuesday Feb. 14, 2017 - Common Loon continues at Reservoir

[Deborah Allen]

Central Park NYC - Ramble & Reservoir
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
OBS: Robert & Meg White, Deborah Allen

Highlights: The first-winter Common Loon first reported by Kevin Topping on the 
13th continued on the Reservoir in the SE at around noon today along with the 
Red-necked Grebe released by the Wild Bird Fund at the beginning of the month. 

All birds reported from the Reservoir were seen from the SE near the gate 
house. The condition of the track around the Reservoir should improve with the 
weekend's warmer weather. 

Canada Goose
American Black Duck - 2 Reservoir & a couple of Mallard x Am. Black Duck hybrids
Mallard
Northern Shoveler - at least 100 on the Lake
Bufflehead - 7 males & 2 females Reservoir
Hooded Merganser - 4 Reservoir
Ruddy Duck - not many in SE Reservoir
Pied-billed Grebe - reported at the Reservoir
Red-necked Grebe - WBF release continues Reservoir
Mourning Dove
American Coot - 3 Reservoir
Ring-billed Gull - numbers increasing Reservoir
Herring Gull - outnumbered by Ring-billed Gulls
Great Black-backed Gull - adults & immatures
Common Loon - first-winter bird Reservoir
Cooper's Hawk - Ramble & Cleopatra's Needle
Red-tailed Hawk - at least 3 seen at least 8 locations
Red-headed Woodpecker - tweeted by E. Eckholm at the usual location approx E. 
68th Street 
Red-bellied Woopecker - residents
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Common Raven - vocal birds reported near E. 96th Street entrance by 2 observers
Black-capped Chickadee - at least 6
Tufted Titmouse - at least 20
Red-breasted Nuthatch - reported at feeders
White-breasted Nuthatch - 4
American Robin - small flock between Alexander Hamilton Statue & Reservoir
House Finch - at least 6 feeders
American Goldfinch - at least 10 at feeders, others elsewhere
Fox Sparrow - 1 north of source of Gill, 2 near feeders
White-throated Sparrow - easily 100
Red-winged Blackbird - small flocks at feeders and Upper Lobe
Common Grackle


Deb Allen

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http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm

ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

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[nysbirds-l] NYS eBird Hotspots: New/Renamed Shared Locations (13-Feb-'17)

[Ben Cacace]

Thanks to @Team_eBird for their dedication keeping eBird.org running
smoothly and for the group of New York State hotspot moderators for working
on shared location suggestions.

New and renamed shared locations (hotspots) have been updated for the 62
county wiki pages. You can find a summary of the changes below with
clickable links where a dedicated hotspot (shared location) page exists.

http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/NewHotspots
http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/RenamedHotspots

These links now appear on the home page (see below) on the line 'Shared
Location Updates' so you don't have to refer back to this message:

Home page: http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/Birding+in+New+York

Clickable map:
http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/Birding+in+New+York#ClickableMap

Alphabetical list of counties:
http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/Birding+in+New+York#Alphabetical
-- 
Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC
Wiki for NYS eBird Hotspots

Facebook Discussion for NYS eBird Hotspots


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ARCHIVES:
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2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

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[nysbirds-l] East End Birding (Suffolk Co.)

[Ken Feustel]

We headed out east today to bird the Montauk area. We began the day at dawn at 
Montauk Pt. where Sue quickly spotted a female King Eider with two Common Eider 
in front of the restaurant. Birds were scarce at the Point, with many of the 
eider and scoter well offshore. A dismal Razorbill flight (6 birds) did not 
dampen our enthusiasm as we were soon rewarded with great looks at a winter 
adult Little Gull, flashing his dark underwings as he leisurely passed the 
restaurant (photos on my flickr site) with a few Bonaparte’s Gulls. 

After leaving the point we turned our attention to locating the previously 
reported Black Guillemot at Lake Montauk. We were having no luck looking south 
from the commercial fishing dock until reinforcements arrived in the person of 
Ed Becher and Bob Proniewych. Ed quickly found the bird in the channel east of 
Star Island. We then proceeded down West Lake Drive to the jetties where a 
snappy looking first winter Iceland Gull was observed. While watching the gull 
we were suddenly surrounded by two Town of East Hampton police cars. We were 
informed that Coast Guard personnel had alerted the police that two suspicious 
characters had been training their cameras (spotting scopes) on the Coast Guard 
Station. The Coast Guard had obtained our license plate number and the EH 
police presumably ran our plates - we were caught! Things were quickly 
straightened out but the police wanted to know about a gray car with two males 
(Ed and Bob) who were also observed behaving suspiciously. We briefly thought 
about telling the cops we did not know these men but we thought they were 
speaking Russian and were headed for Montauk Pt. We thought the better of the 
idea, and our fellow birders never realized how close they came to being 
apprehended.

The rest of the day we headed back west, stopping at Wainscott Pond - no 
Sandhill Crane but our FOY Eastern Meadowlarks (4). At Shinnecock Inlet we 
picked up Harlequin Duck (3), Snowy Owl (1), and Iceland Gull (1). The Dune 
Road American Bittern briefly showed in the marsh grass before stalking off. 

Happy birding,

Ken & Sue Feustel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kfeustel/
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ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01

Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/

--

[nysbirds-l] Central Park (& Jamaica Bay WR news), NYC 2/14

[Thomas Fiore]

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