Thursday, 2nd of February, 2017 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City A Red-necked Grebe found on the Central Park reservoir yesterday by Patrick Clair - continues this Thursday morning, seen & well- photographed by at least several observers including myself; thru about 8:45 am the R.-n. Grebe was diving & swimming nearest the northwest portion of the reservoir, sometimes near the shore, and swimming a bit to the south, but still in western-NW 'quadrant', at that hour; the grebe might go to any section of the reservoir & could take a while to discern if it os diving or riding low in the water as these birds are sometimes prone to do; the bird is in basic (winter) plumage, i.e. no red is obvious in the neck area.
Nearer the southeast corner were at least 2 Pied-billed Grebes which have been around for months, as well as 2 pairs of Hooded Mergansers and multiple American Coots. A somewhat small Canada-type goose was out farther from the SE corner, but photos of that goose suggest a smaII "Canada type" or simply a small-ish individual of "Greater" Canada Goose, rather than a Cackler or any such, due to its' bill size & proportions as well as plumage features. A young Red-headed Woodpecker continues its' winter stay in Central, at the area just west of East 68th Street, south of a park entrance at East 69th and the woodpecker regular near a modest-size Shagbark Hickory tree that is along the first path west of the above-noted streets. Standing to the immediate north of a rustic shelter atop the Dene area, on a rocky outcrop, or the path just below & north, may find the woodpecker which can be well above eye-level much of the time, but has been seen at ground-level also; it has been very active at times and is sometimes aggressive to other birds, & even to squirrels in its' "territory"; a wait of some minutes usually reveals this active Red-headed in the area as described. good birding, and thanks again to Mr. Clair for the find of the rarer grebe & his Wednesday eBird report w/ a photo! 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/ --
