Wednesday, 28 December, 2011 - mid-day and early afternoon hours.
The RUFOUS Hummingbird was at the greenish-flowered shrubs, feeding and perching (and occasionally jumping out after what it apparently took for a small insect 9or, perhaps there actually were some miniscule insects, as despite a blustery wind & many dark clouds, the actual air. temp. is fairly mild for late Dec). in Manhattan, N.Y. City - at the entry area of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) at the "Rose Center" planetarium which is on West 81 Street between Columbus Ave. and Central Park West, inside the small park - the driveway to the entrance and parking and adjacent pedestrian paths lead to the flower plantings. Note that the hummingbird is feeding mainly in and on the greenish flowers, while what on first glance looks red and flowery, offers no sustenance to that bird. It seemed moderately active & also perched for periods, from 1 - 1:45 p.m., and it seemed not to be disturbed by the thousands of tourists and other museum-goers crowding near the flower beds as they worked along to get inside... it was nonetheless possible for me to get right up to the low walls by the plantings on each side of the museum - planetarium entry. The young (first-year, no red really visible yet) Red-headed Woodpecker was continuing in its favored territory in Central Park, in and near the north-NW side of the Hallett Sanctuary in the park's southeast corner - just north of the western narrow arm of the Pond. Also lingering in that area are a Brown Thrasher, Gray Catbird, Hermit Thrush, Fox Sparrow and many White-throated Sparrows. A Baltimore Oriole was still in and around the Ramble this a.m., and yesterday (Tuesday) what was virtually certain to be the same Orange-crowned Warbler of a month prior was seen by birder Dawn Hannay, at the Lasker rink area which is west of the Meer and right up by the Park Drive... that was the precise area that species was seen a couple of times 3- and-a-half to 4 weeks prior, as well as potentially moving about in that vicinity, at times. Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- 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/ --
