A couple of weeks ago I returned to birding the Hudson Yards, a whole five months after the quarantine banned visits to the office, and a time of year notorious for low expectations. I did expect there would be more buildings going up and fewer vacant lots with wild vegetation - but now with a surreal absence of people.
What I hadn’t expected is that unlike last summer, I would find lush and fecund gardens, bisected by hidden woodchip pathways, and shaded by leafy orotund trees. No office workers, shoppers, or tourists around, but the same number of uniformed greeters, ground crews, and a pair of friendly gardeners watering the plants in the white noon heat. And then the surprise: a juvenile calico American Robin flying from tree to tree, following me. I was always disappointed that I’d encounter only the occasional Robin passing through, my last seen in October. Nary a sign of nesting last summer. Perhaps the micro-gardens were too young and artificial or the Robins couldn’t compete with all those other marauding scavengers of human lunches? But then, I could swear there were fewer House Sparrows, European Starlings, and Rock Doves around. Then it landed on the black earth behind the subway entrance to join a sibling and two parents and do what all Robins naturally do for sustenance – worming. Reminded me that even those followers of grain byproducts, the House Sparrows, will spend much of the summer feeding their fledgelings grubs. “Nothing but the best for my children…” Stay Safe 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/ --
