This past Monday I spotted an adult *Yellow-crowned Night Heron* perched in a tree on the island. Soon after I spotted some movement in a nearby stick nest and in the nest was another Yellow-crowned Night Heron sitting calmly. Both are adults.
I don't know if this is a first nesting attempt for the Borough of Manhattan (New York County). I've seen nesting records in the other boroughs. On Tuesday Gabriel Willow spotted the nest independent of my observation and got to share it with a group young students he was leading. Today the nest was flanked by two adult Yellow-crowned Night Herons and as I continued to watch a third popped up out of the nest. This last heron was attending to something at the bottom of the nest cavity for a prolonged period of time. I didn't see any movement other than the adult so its attention was probably directed at a couple of eggs. The other two herons were waiting on and one was preening. Today an *American Oystercatcher* dropped onto the gull nesting field on the west side of the island near a large puddle. It proceeded to bathe. Two decent New York County birds. -- Ben Cacace Manhattan, NYC -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
