Winter birding at Bryant Park is an affair of attrition, the contradictory activity of not finding, is it really gone? For those hardy species willing to stay, it is not changes in weather but sustenance that is the major decider, although the two are generally linked. The last surviving tiny flowers around the ice skating rink briefly attracted an unidentified hummingbird the weekend before Thanksgiving but the following night’s cold snap killed them off along with the chances of catching it again Monday morning before work.
The first major snow (where it covers the ground), is always a big demarcation. By the first major snow storm of December 10th, I no longer could find the Ovenbird of the northwest corner, the Hermit Thrush around the garden shed, or the bold male Common Yellowthroat that was begging along 5th Avenue. The unusually large number of Swamp Sparrows that arrived in the fall slowly declined in number, but the last of them toughed out the single digits with the other sparrows along the north side of the rink with a lone harried-looking Catbird. But once the holiday food vendors folded by the end of the first week in January, they and the Catbird were gone. Now all that is left are House, Common White-throated, and a few Song Sparrows. What I keep checking for, and continue to find with great cheer, is a lone female Eastern Towhee by the folded chairs south of the library entrance. Happy Birding, Alan Drogin -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
