AMNH Walk - Blustery and Beautiful!

Today was another walk with Paul, and although we still did not find an owl, it was a great walk.  I will miss next week, so there will probably be multiple owls...... We started out with a bunch of shovelers in the lake.........

Northern Shovelers

 ..... with one gadwall joining in!  The shovlers seem unimpressed.

Garwall, Northern Shovelers

We saw a hawk flying nearby and I took a quick side trip to see it - everyone knows I cannot resist a hawk.  Got a quick picture, then rejoined the group.  Heading towards a possible owl sighting!

Red-tailed Hawk

 At the upper lobe there were several white-throated sparrows and tufted titmice.

White-throated Sparrow

Tufted Titmouse

 It was a good day for woodpeckers.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

 I thought I saw a kinglet flying around and heading for this tree, but I couldn't find it again, so who knows.  I did find this sapsucker though so all was not lost!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

 Paul was very excited about this grackle.  There were about a half dozen there, I'm just glad they kept quiet.

Common Grackle

Another hawk!  Or possibly the same hawk again, we're pretty closeby.  Cool up close sighting, with bad light.  Oh well, can't have everything!  :-)

Red-tailed Hawk

 No owl, so on to the reservoir for some fancy ducks.  Our first was a grebe, which is not a duck!  No, it's not.  Yes, it floats like a duck, but it's actually different.  Yes it is!  Okay, it's not ~completely~ different.  Yeah, it pretty much looks like a fancy duck.  But it's not a duck.  It's a grebe.

Pied-billed Grebe

 This one is a duck!  A wood duck.  This is a duck that makes its nest in cavities in trees.  And the little ducklings have to dive out and fall onto the ground, often bouncing, and waddle with extreme cuteness to the water.

Wood Ducks

 There were several male wood ducks and just one female.  So a nice peck on the cheek is a good idea.

Wood Ducks

Cormorant flying - there were actually several there, but only one swimming about and flying.  The others were just sitting around.  Can't blame them, it was quite chilly. 

Double-crested Cormorant

Bufflehead!  I can't say bufflehead! without the exclamation point.  Look at them!  They deserve it, right?

Bufflehead

 Among the geese were several coots.  I missed seeing them swim around though, I love watching that, when their heads a going like crazy.

American Coot

 These mallards played like they were going to mate, but it didn't go well.  It seemed like the male just had no idea what came next.  He just stayed next to the female (who is clearly doing her part) bobbing his head up and down.  Maybe he's a young guy who just needs a bit more guidance.

Mallards

A Quick Stroll to the Apple Store

We had some errands to run and decided to walk up through the park, so that I could practice with my camera and we could have a more pleasant walk to the store.  No binoculars and moving pretty quickly, we didn't expect to see much exciting.  So when I saw this handsome fellow close to the path I decided he deserved some pictures.

Mallard

I wasn't his only admirer!

Mallard

Sometimes it's good to be a handsome duck.

Mallard

Also on the lake were a few ruddy ducks keeping the shovelers company.

Ruddy Duck

 I love female mallards.  Not too impressive from far away, but more and more beautiful the closer you get.  Look at how gorgeous she is!

Mallard

This juvie red-tail was perched across the way.  It's such a treat to see them perched!

Red-tailed Hawk

At the upper lobe bridge the ducks were figuring out how to handle the soft ice.  Most of them walked on it a bit and then flew to wherever they wanted to go.  This one looks like it was a source of inspiration for Star Wars.

Mallard

 This one chose to be an icebreaker!  She was working pretty hard to plow her way through the ice.

Mallard

And the great blue heron was hanging out up there too!

Great Blue Heron

Stopping back by the hawk, it decided it was time to go.  For a quick walk through we saw quite a bit! :-)

Red-tailed hawk

They are all lovebirds today

What's better than a bird walk with AMNH on Valentine's Day?  Not much!  We started with the goal of finding the Iceland gull that has been hanging out on the lake.  First we got distracted by some other birds though.  Like this gorgeous woodpecker.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

And this nuthatch, who was moving so fast I barely got a picture!

White-breasted Nuthatch

 See?  He was in quite a hurry.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Paul spotted the gull from the bridge and we decided to go over there.   Making our way we passed this raccoon who was attending to personal business.  I haven't seen one in a while so I was happy.

Raccoon

 So, this is what an Iceland gull looks like.  Yep, it's a gull all right!  Apparently its big distinguishing feature is that there is no black on the wing tips.

Iceland Gull

 Confirmed - no black!  Also, this guy is pretty feisty when there's bread to be had.  He's a little bigger than the other gulls on the lake (I think they were all ring-billed gulls) and liked to throw his weight around.

Iceland Gull

 Once the bread ran out, this gadwall walked away over the ice rather quickly.........

Gadwall

 ......until more bread appeared!  It was hilarious seeing her run back.  :-)

Gadwall

 How gorgeous is this gull?

Iceland Gull

 Okay, here is the Iceland gull flying with some others.  Pretty easy to spot, right?

Iceland Gull

 We eventually left the gull and headed over to the feeders, and found that this Cooper's hawk had basically the same plan.  Hanging out at the feeders is fun for both birders and hawks.

Cooper's Hawk

 This downy was not impressed.

Downy Woodpecker

 There were plenty of little lovelies at the feeders.  This house finch looks delighted that the titmouse is leaving.

House Finch, Tufted Titmouse

We even got to see the European Goldfinch that's been hanging around!  I saw one of these a few months back, I wonder if it's the same one.  They sometimes end up in the park after escaping from someone's house or an aviary.  It must be discouraging to finally escape and then not be able to find any of your own kind.  Gorgeous to see though!

European Goldfinch

European Goldfinch

A Crowded Winter Wonderland

Like just about everyone else in Manhattan, we decided to go to the park in the snow today.  Wheeeee! It was hilarious, people were sledding on everything even resembled a hill.  Puppies frolicked about with astounding cuteness.  And the ducks!  Ah, the ducks.

As soon as we got to the reservoir it started with the hooded mergansers coming over to show off.

Hooded Mergansers

There were a couple of buffleheads around too, but they had to go.

Bufflehead

I love seeing them fly!  Pictures don't capture the best part - they look so frantic, as if they are panicked that if they pause even for a nanosecond the whole business is done for.  They know that flying is hard!

Bufflehead

There were more hooded mergansers by the geese, and they were displaying at each other.  It was awesome, I think it's the first time I've seen them do that live!

Hooded Mergansers

Further along were three wood ducks, in the classic sit-com plot of Two Guys and One Gorgeous Woman.

Wood Ducks

Mystery goose - maybe a barnacle goose?  Maybe just a weird Canada goose?  Maybe -------- a hybrid?

Mystery Goose

Grebe!  There were three pied-billed grebes there.  Yes, the reservoir was good to us today.  :-)

Pied-billed Grebe

We tried to find the barred owl but failed, failed, failed.  I hope to see it again someday, but maybe it's just as well that it didn't happen today.  We did however find this Cooper's hawk!  It showed off for us.

Cooper's Hawk

And a nuthatch.  You can never have too many nuthatches.  Well, as far as I know, anyway.

White-breasted Nuthatch

 Down to the ramble, where we quickly found another Cooper's hawk!  It's in this picture.  Yes it is!

Cooper's Hawk

See?  There it is!  Okay, this is a different angle, but it's the same hawk.  Then it was time to go, having a nice but distant look at the northern shovelers on our way out.  A great walk on a snow day!

Cooper's Hawk

Mystery goose on the CP reservoir

This goose was on the reservoir among the Canada geese.  I have checked my field guide(s) and can't identify it.  Its face looks most like a barnacle goose to me, but its neck and body look like a Canada goose.  Thoughts?  :-)