Audubon Eco-Cruise

Jack and I finally made it to the Audubon Eco-Cruise!  :-)  It was wonderful, led by Gabriel Willow who did a great job.  I would love to go again.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, I thought maybe it would be just basically a regular water taxi ride with some birders along in a separate little group.  But that wasn't it at all!  Gabriel had a microphone and narrated the whole tour, and the whole thing was looking at the islands in the East River that the cormorants and egrets and herons nest on.  It was great!  Jack and I sat up top, right at the front, on the right.  It was a great spot for viewing, terrible for telling Gabriel when we saw something.  I tend to see stuff, so it was not ideal.  The views were so great though, I would probably head right for that spot again!

Anyway, first we saw the cormorant island, which was great - I love these guys!

This one was a late arrival.

Next was an egret island, with lots of great egrets, but no pictures turned out at all.  Unless you like conceptual art pictures depicting flying egrets as angels.  In which case you're in luck!  We also a few black crowned night heron juveniles, and I thought I saw one yellow crowned night heron, but it flew off before I could point it out to Gabriel.  At least Jack saw it!

Then we tooled along, and I saw a great blue heron hanging out, and it stayed long enough to point it out to Gabriel.  First time ever for this tour!  I felt so happy!  :-)  We even got to see it fly away, which just looks like it's never going to work, and there's always a sense of waiting for the bird to just drop like a stone.

More egrets and black crowned night herons, we did get a good look at an adult, which was nice. And on the way back a falcon circling over us, another nice treat!

No snowy egrets or ibis, but a wonderful time.  :-)

Northern Waterthrush and Yellow Warbler!

Today I went into the ramble in Central Park briefly, mostly because I was nearby, and, well, why not.  I didn't really expect to see anything unusual, maybe a black crowned night heron (which I did, once at the upper lobe and again on the west shore of the lake a bit south of the upper lobe) and it was threatening to rain, so I brought my rain jacket and umbrella.  Which all adds up to a full heavy bag, which leads to a trade-off decision.  Yep, emergency binocs only, and no camera.  No camera!

So when I saw the northern waterthrush I could only take pictures with my phone!

I'm sure as phones go it's quite a nice camera.  However, taking bird pictures with it.........

Video was even more of a challenge.  Sorry for the shaking!

After that I did get quite a good look at a yellow warbler, but the pictures are much worse - I ~think~ the warbler is in the frame, based on my memory of taking the pictures...... but I cannot find it.  :-(  I'm so tempted to go back tomorrow with real binocs and my regular camera!

Hello, old friend.  I'm so glad to see you again!

Baltimore Oriole nest in central park south end

So today I walked around the pond - definitely the place to be in the summer - and saw some favorites.  More on that later.  Then I went over to see if that budgerigar would come around again, and to check for the pair of orioles I saw there on Sunday.  Well, no parakeets were evident, but the orioles were there, and so was their nest!

Baltimore oriole boasting about this amazing nest!

My most favoritest Baltimore oriole nest

I'm completely thrilled that I got to see this!  :-)  

The pond was great again today, with two black crowned night herons, a great egret having a snack, a bullfrog swimming and singing, an eastern kingbird, and the annoying music guy was not there!  Ah, bliss.

Black crowned night heron, this one likes trees

Black crowned night heron, this one likes water

Parakeet (budgerigar?) on lawn near the Pond

Jack and I went over to take a slow walk around the pond, but it was closed due to the Puerto Rican Pride parade.  I'm not really sure why.  We decided to sit on the rocks on the lawn across from the pond, and in flew in someone unusual!  At first I thought maybe it was a molting goldfinch, but it became clear that I had no idea what it was.

Looking it up later, I think it's a budgerigar.  I was thinking a parakeet of some sort.  I did not see a band, and it was not friendly - I didn't actually get very close, but it did not stay around long.  Probably for the best.  Next we saw a pair of Baltimore orioles being chased off by a robin, then a loud ruckus which resulted in a hawk coming over, apparently the blue jays and grackles had been mobbing it.

It was a pretty eventful 10 minutes!  :-)

Waxwings! Ducklings! And a performance-oriented egret.

I didn't really expect to see much bird-wise at the park, but it was such a gorgeous day I wanted to go regardless.  It started out with a great view of waxwings by the pond.  They were eye level and right by me, flitting about in a bush right by the bridge and flirting with each other.  There was a pair passing berries back and forth to each other, it was beyond cute.  :-)

I picked this out just for you!

Waxwings just look like James Bond to me

Then up near the boathouse this egret was hanging out.  I sat by the side of the water and just waited, and it pretty much came right over.  So pretty!

It turns out their eyes are basically those glue-on googlie-eye thingies from elementary school crafts!

Over to the oven, where ducklings emerged!  Mom was quite vigilant, keeping an eye out for danger.

She got worked up a bit when a huge koi came near them, it was duck v. fish.  At least from the duck's point of view.  I'm not sure the fish noticed them at all.  It seemed oblivious, but then again, it's a fish, so it's hard for me to tell, really.......

By the upper lobe, the egret (I think it was the same one although I'm not at all certain) was showing off, giving quite a performance.

posing

what grace........

hahahaha, this picture makes me happy!

Once around the pond

It's a nice day, Jack is not deathly ill, we're not super busy..... To the park!  :-)  We headed over to the pond and started out by the waterfall side - and it's on!  Yay!  There was a big frog, a pair of mallards, a piece of bread, and a bunch of minnows.  The ducks and minnows were all about the bread, the frog was just floating along, doing frog yoga.

Just past that little super-mini-waterfall thingie, there was a black crowned night heron posing for us on the Hallett side.  Hello Gorgeous!

And just past that guy we noticed a bunch of good-sized tadpoles and, looking way up into a tree, the second black-crowned night heron.  I hope they breed here and have chicks!

We checked the woodpecker nest but nobody was home.  At least that we could see.  And just as we turned away, we noticed cedar waxwings flying in to the tree almost next to the nest!  We watched them briefly and then they were off.  We saw them go between trees a few times, but never saw them perched again.  It looked like about a dozen or so, it was great!

A quiet but pretty day

We've had so much rain, and so many dismal days, I think most of us have completely given up on spring - including the birds!  With a beautiful day at last, I thoroughly enjoyed the park.  The birds, however, did not.  Maybe they have already been through, maybe they are just hiding..... but they were not cavorting joyously, that's for sure!

There was someone home at the woodpecker nest, calling, calling, calling.

Hahahahaha, I think this is the most bedraggled black crowned night heron I've seen so far.  And he's just sitting there!  Come on now, you've clearly got some preening to do!

I did see a red-tailed hawk flying over and being chased by a red-winged blackbird.  That was exciting!  The blackbird didn't chase for too long, the hawk flew over for a while.  That was pretty.

Then I saw this guy soaring in circles a bit further west - a Cooper's hawk?  I think it probably is, they are in the park and the shape looks right to me.  Up to the ramble!

This common yellowthroat teased me for a while before posing.  There was a wood duck going arund in the brush there, and several birders looking for a mourning warbler.  I'm not in a stand-around-and-look sort of mood, so, off I go.

I did see a few Canada warblers, I love them!

And this vivid Baltimore oriole bathing at the oven.  There was a female there too, but she was too quick for me.  All in all, a happy sunny day filled with gorgeous scenery punctuated by a few lovely birds.  I'll take that over the drizzle any time!  :-)