I had my first sighting of an American Woodcock in Bryant Park this year the morning of March 13 in a hedge by the entrance to the Bryant Park Grill. My last sighting was dead in the very same spot this last Monday. The cycle has repeated itself for me now for 20 years, the ratio between White Throated Sparrows to House Sparrows tilts forward, the Song Sparrows show up on the newly sodded lawn and today in the very middle of the lawn, stands proudly my first Robin of Spring. 20 years of gradual change. The Met Life building, now Salesforce, cut its night time klieg lights and the variety of migrants dropped - no longer a Prothonotary, Marsh Wren, or Chat. But that’s okay, others kept coming, Sora, Brown Thrashers, Towhees, singing Swampies, ever bolder Common Yellowthroats, despite the outdoor yoga, HBO movie nights, concerts, fashion weeks, and sometimes even stuck around the winter because of the holiday ice rink food courts - the Hermit Thrush, Catbird, and the occasional Lincoln Sparrow.
But I will no longer be working just across the street - my work has moved to Hudson Yards - a concrete playground and mall surrounded by towers of glass and sheet metals. I expect I will experience the gradual changes of seagull varieties and look for what springs out of the weeds of nearby still vacant lots and hope for a different balance with nature. Happy City Birding, Alan Drogin -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
