"Roll over Beethoven - and tell Tchaikovsky the news.” "Roll over Beethoven - and dig these rhythm & blues.” - Charles Edward Anderson Berry, - Oct.18, 1926 - March 18, 2017 - R.I.P. ___________________________________________ Sunday, 19 March, 2017 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City A Glaucous Gull remained on the CP reservoir, & thanks to Peter Post posting quickly, the gull was observed by a number of birders in the afternoon. A Common Loon also continued there. At least 2 male Pine Warblers appeared in the park today, one seen by several observers in the north end of the park (on the great hill), and another ‘elsewhere'. (A modest number of Pine Warblers may have overwintered in the area, at least a few attempting to - and probably successfully - in New York City.) Eastern Phoebe was at least seen in a few areas in the north end, and there was very modest evidence of a smattering of other mid-March migrant activity. A Red-headed Woodpecker, now in near-adult-like plumage, is maintaining its winter territory just west of the East 68th Street area within the east side of the park. There were insects for these birds in the well-above freezing temp’s, with brilliant sun. The mega-occurrence and near-literal fall-out of American Woodcock in Central faded by this day, and was far less even by Saturday, but there were still some, now able to find more areas to feed & rest in, thru the areas of the park where they had been seen since the ice-snow storm this past week. Sadly, there were many casualties amongst the woodcocks, but I believe a far greater number (within the park, at least) made it & were eventually able to work their way to or towards breeding grounds as among our earliest of “spring” migrants. Nearly 70 species of birds continued this weekend in &/or over the park, a majority of those seen in the past week, with just very modest migrant influx, and a bit of exodus from the park, in particular as noted above. Further reports this week, with the arrival of spring on the calendar, and - just maybe - some evidence arriving in the form of further migrations.
- - - - - - “If you tried to give rock-and-roll another name, you might call: it ‘Chuck Berry’” - John Lennon Out there, beyond a small solar system with a planet its inhabitants call Earth - travel the NASA-borne spacecraft Voyager, with capsules that contain, among other gleanings of all of human civilization, a recording of the song “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry - the only rock-and-roll song included with other music in those two interstellar spacecrafts' capsules. Five pieces of recorded music from North America were among the other humans-on-Earth-music selected for inclusion on the first interstellar space mission, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California: “El Cascabel”, performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi Mexico; “Dark was the Night”, written & performed by Blind Willie Johnson; traditional Navajo 'Night Chants’; “Melancholy Blues”, performed by Louis Armstrong & his Hot Seven - and, “Johnny B. Goode” written & performed by Chuck Berry. A full list of the music aboard Voyager is shown here: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html <http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html> NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched in September 1977 and flew by Jupiter and Saturn before continuing on toward interstellar space. good birding, Tom Fiore, manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: 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/ --