This U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service article links to many wonderful tributes to a great American ornithologist - https://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2017/3/21/Renowned-FWS-Ornithologist-Chandler-Robbins-Dies <https://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2017/3/21/Renowned-FWS-Ornithologist-Chandler-Robbins-Dies>
- - - - - - - - - - - - Wednesday, 22 March, 2017 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City On a 2nd (full) day of spring, that wind-chill & actual air temperature felt a bit wintry even as snow piled up just a few days before has been melting, most gone from this melting-pot-city park… (those under a certain age may look up “melting pot”) - 4 Killdeer were out on the south side of the Sheep Meadow in afternoon, at least one either ‘standing guard’ or simply transfixed by the views of an upper Manhattan sky-line… while the other three fed, somehow in rather chilled, but not entirely-frozen (at that hour) ground. The number of American Robins in the southern third of the park was approximately 100 times that of these 4 killdeer - yet as I made my way, against a lot of the wind, thru the park towards the north and then west, the numbers of robins seemed to diminish, a lot. In keeping with that theme, overall in the past few days, it seemed a great many birds that had been arriving, and perhaps a few of those wintering, have pushed on, after the storm loosened it’s snowy grip a bit. There are certainly few if any E. Phoebes in the past several days, & no signs of Pine Warblers I’ve been able to detect again, & precious few[er] Fox Sparrows, or Juncos, or of course - woodcocks… as so many of the latter, for which there were survivors and at least some that gained a bit - fed & fattened a little - and managed to move on, towards or to breeding grounds. Of waterfowl, many ducks seem to have moved on as well - oh, there are N. Shovelers galore still to be seen, and also a fair number of Ruddys, and even still today, an American Wigeon, a few Wood Ducks, a Pintail, & assorted others, as well as coots, a pied-billed grebe or two, and a motley few more waterbirds… but that next ‘wave’, the one that shows spring really has arrived here, will await… lots of buds and blooms are waiting as well… & with any bit of warmth beyond the freeze we are (briefly?) in now, many insects are awaiting emergence too. The Red-headed Woodpecker ,now in good coming-of-age color, is continuing in the area just west of East 68th Street within the park; in mid-afternoon today, its’ chatters seemed to be saying “enough with this wind, already”… A (lone?) Purple Finch sat & gave some song (in a female-type plumage) from a perch in the eastern edge of the Ramble. ——— "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." - Frederick Douglass, American. Good birding, 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/ --
