Hey, at least it's not raining!

Today was another AMNH winter walk and apparently we used up all of our good weather last week.  Ah well, at least it's not raining like it was yesterday!  The good news is, the walk was great and my rain boots are champions - 4 miles of city walking last night and who knows how far today, and they were totally fine.  Yay for good rain boots!  The bad news is, the light was terrible.  It wasn't raining, but it was ~almost~ raining the whole time.  Just a bit on the dismal side........

OK, yeah, anyway, on to what we actually saw.  Right away at the upper lobe we saw a whole bunch of northern shovelers, showing off their technique in a whirling mass on the water.  Also several were roosting on some branches, and this one intrepid couple came right over.

Northern Shovelers

Coots!  Hahaahahaha, every day is better with coots.  This is the best picture even though the coot is disappearing into the bridge.  They are hilarious to watch, it was great to see them up close.

American Coot

Into the ramble, where we saw lots of red-bellied woodpeckers, a few tufted titmouses, a few white-breasted nuthatches, house sparrows, and white-throated sparrows.  Here's one red-bellied woodpecker that we got to watch for a while - they are so pretty!

Red-bellied Woodpecker

This picture contains a white-breasted nuthatch.  Yes it does, look again!  :-)

White-breasted Nuthatch

Over to the feeders, which were pretty active.  Here's my favorite picture of house finches on the feeder.  It totally looks like there's a mirror and it's only one bird, or it's some sort of trick.  They are so in sync!

House Finch

This downy was extremely happy about this pine cone feeder.

Downy Woodpecker

Up past maintenance meadow and over to the area where the varied thrush was last year, and I found this fox sparrow.  My first time finding one myself!  I'm pretty sure I've seen them before when someone else pointed, but once I find a bird myself I really learn it in a different way.  They are so much more orange than I expected!

Fox Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

We went by turtle pond which had some lovely buffleheads.  We got to see them fly which was great, they look so little and frantic when they fly.  We tried to make them hooded mergansers but they stubbornly stayed buffleheads.  Then we headed back to the museum to try to see the hummingbird.  By the time we got there most of the people had peeled off, but those who stayed got a treat with the hummingbird.

Rufous Hummingbird

We were looking at it perched nearby and it flew over even closer to us, visiting these flowers.  A guy said, "Well, it can't get much closer than that!"  Of course the hummingbird took this as a challenge and came closer.  I said, "Say it again!" but repeating the phrase had no effect on the hummingbird.

Rufous Hummingbird

Then we turned around and the guy who charmed the hummingbird said, "Oh, that's why the blue jays are upset.  They are mobbing that red-tail."  And sure enough, there was a red-tailed hawk in the tree in the museum's courtyard.  As the other person from the walk said, "The smallest bird and the biggest bird - great finale!"

Red-tailed Hawk

AMNH Winter Walk with Paul

What a day!  It was crazy gorgeous weather - 56 and sunny.  Wait, what happened to winter?  We started out going up towards the theater and found this Eastern towhee along the way:

Eastern Towhee

We also saw a Cooper's hawk flying over briefly, I guess it saw my camera and took evasive action.  We swung by turtle pond, where there were buffleheads!  

Buffleheads

Continuing on, we came to a little area with lots of birds.  White-throated sparrows, this white-breasted nuthatch:

White-breasted Nuthatch

A red-bellied woodpecker was flying all around us, calling, zipping from tree to tree.  Then we saw this red-tailed hawk watching over the area with interest.  I wonder if the hawk made the woodpecker nervous?

Red-tailed Hawk

A bunch of tufted titmouses (titmice?) came through, they are so cute!  Seeing a titmouse always cheers me up.

Tufted Titmouse

As we were trying to follow the red-bellied woodpecker, this brown creeper came over to distract us:

Brown Creeper

This yellow-bellied sapsucker along with a downy that was too fast for me convinced us that this was a popular location with woodpeckers!  Finally we moved on to the reservoir.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Grebe!  This pied-billed grebe might look like she's flirting with me, but she actually seemed to shift nervously away.  So pretty.

Pied-billed Grebe

Ruddy ducks!  A few beaks are turning blue.  I hope they stick around until we get to see some ~really~ blue beaks, they are hilarious and awesome.  I mean, who wouldn't want to see a cute little duck with a blue beak?!

Ruddy Duck

Shovelers!

Northern Shoveler

Hooded merganser!

Hooded Merganser

Coot!

American Coot

Yes, it was a good day at the reservoir, that's for sure.  After that it was back to the museum, where we stopped off to see the hummingbird.

Rufous Hummingbird

The whole walk was delicious!  :-)

Rufous Hummingbird

Are we sure it's winter?

This afternoon was about 60 degrees and sunny.  Amazing!  How could anyone possibly resist walking through the park?

I started by Hallett where I had a nice view of the juvenile red-headed woodpecker.  There was one dead stump of a tree that was apparently made of woodpecker bait.  First a red-belly was on it, then a downy, then the red-head came over.  The downy left but the red-belly stayed:

The red-belly is in gorgeous light but the red-head was in the shadow, I wish they had switched a few times. They were both there for a few minutes, and then the red-head flew off.

Around the pond I went, stopping briefly to admire one of the wood ducks:

Up towards the boathouse and the ramble, with a quick break to admire these yellow-bellied sap suckers:

Look at that yellow belly - it ~does~ exist!  :-)

Into the ramble where there were lots of crews doing lots of work.  And this Cooper's hawk was right by a large portion of that work, seeming completely undisturbed by it:

Another birder pointed it out to me, I would have walked right by it.  I actually did hear a squirrel alarm call, but I figured the guys working had freaked out the squirrels.  They actually had more sense than I gave them credit for!

It was a great day to walk through the ramble, not nearly as crowded as I had feared, except of course for the work crews.  But I'm so happy to see them, hopefully the rest of the ramble will open up again soon!  My next excitement was this gorgeous red-tailed hawk at the upper lobe:

Yep, enjoying a snack.  I keep trying to make it a blue jay but I really don't know what it is.

On the way past the lake on the way home I saw one more hawk, making it a hawk trifecta!  This one was pre-snack, and a titmouse voiced its disapproval with surprising bravery.

The hawk did not seem to notice.

And back home I went, tired and happy.  :-)

Duck Day!

Today I met a friend in the park and we walked around the reservoir looking for fancy ducks.  I sort of started without her though, because I went by the pond on my way up there and saw that there were three male wood ducks there!

Male Wood Ducks among Mallards

They have one lady friend.  Good luck Honey.......

Female Wood Duck

Stopped by the see the red-headed woodpecker, who is getting a tiny bit of red.  And for some unknown reason a blue spot.  Weird.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Going through the ramble I saw this Cooper's hawk, just, you know, hanging out

Cooper's Hawk

Then it was reservoir time, and fancy ducks abounded!

Bufflehead!  There were a few buffleheads, and we even got to see a group of about 8 of them flying.  They are so funny!

Bufflehead

Shovelers!  A bunch of northern shovelers were there, mostly sleeping.

Northern Shovelers

Then we saw this Cooper's hawk fly in and went over to check it out.  Maybe it wanted a duck.  Pretty optimistic!  

Cooper's Hawk

Coot!  Last time I came up the coots stayed quite far away.  This time this coot came right over, apparently they are adjusting to being fed by tourists.  They have quite a head-bob when they swim, they do look a little crazy........

American Coot

Gadwalls!  To me these are the most elegant ducks.  I mean, if Frank Sinatra were a duck, I really think he would be a gadwall.  Don't they just look like they are dressed for a nice evening out at the opera, with a string of pearls and cufflinks?

Gadwall

Merganser!  This is the female hooded merganser, busily swimming along while being gorgeous.

Hooded merganser

This is the male, busily evading my camera's autofocus while being gorgeous.

Hooded merganser

It was a cold day but a great day for ducks.  Then we celebrated our ducky success with cocktails.  Yay for outings with friends!  :-)

Boxing Day Hawk

After having a cold for Christmas Eve and Christmas, I was very ready to go out on a walk today!  We went up to the AMNH to try to see the hummingbird again, but missed it.  A few folks were there with quite impressive cameras, they said they had been seeing the bird, but we decided not to stand around waiting for it.  To the park!

Almost right away once we got into the park I saw this gorgeous Cooper's hawk.

I guess I spotted a grackle too, but my focus was really more on the hawk.........

We went around as much as we could in the ramble (a big section is still closed from storm damage) and spotted a pretty big group of house finches.

What a beauty!  Sadly, we did not find the barred owl.  We headed over to the model boat pond to figure out some tree types from the Central Park Conservancy Tree Walk, and had great views of two red-tailed hawks in that area.  Presumably Pale Male and his lady friend, but I still cannot identify individuals, so I can't say for sure.  These are wise and canny hawks that know how to perch and fly such that the camera is incapable of focusing on them, even though we had great views.  Damn you autofocus!

We went around looking at trees and trying to guess what they were from the CPC brochure but it's very hard to tell them apart in the winter.  It was interesting though and if we stick with it I'm sure we'll be able to tell them apart at some point.

Twitching a Hummingbird

Although I don't really think of myself as a twitcher, or a bird-chaser, or a rarity-seeker, I must admit that I was happy to go to the American Museum of Natural History to see this gorgeous hummingbird.  What a treat during winter!  Apparently it is probably a rufous hummingbird, although it is a bit of an open question.  

After spending some time with the hummingbird I went into the park and by Tanner's Spring saw this red-tailed hawk hunting.

It looks like a juvenile from the tail.

This pair of northern shovelers were circling around each other in a very tight little circle.  My guess is that they are pair-bonding.  Duck flirting!  :-)

I found the pet memorial Christmas tree in the ramble, but there were too many people around to get a decent picture.  I love that tree!

Okay, I have seen squirrels beg from tourists many times, but this is ridiculous!  I don't thing the squirrel even wants some of the hawk's pigeon.........

This was a different hawk, an adult.

It's a great day that starts with a hummingbird and includes two perched hawks.  This brown creeper coming right over was a nice way to end the walk!