This morning I led the first of the season's series of walks in Bryant Park with NYC Audubon. It was a lovely morning, and the park had a nice diversity of birds, in spite of the large numbers of humans and the relative lack of plant cover. The highlights of the morning included two male Eastern Towhees hopping around out in the open in the middle of the lawn, along with at least a dozen Song Sparrows and three Dark-eyed Juncos. I suspect they all landed together last night. Later in the season the towhees tend to hide in hedges, but while migrating unexpected behaviors can be seen. The other highlight was not one but two American Woodcocks sheltering in the vegetation of the hedgerow on the south side of the lawn. One of the birds was actively bobbing along and probing the soil for worms, the other was hunkered down sleeping under a yew shrub, seemingly as oblivious of the numerous people hurrying to work on a path a few feet away as they were of it. One of my favorite aspects of birding in Bryant Park is seeing how many people can walk right by such a remarkable bird as a woodcock without even realizing it's there; even better is when the commuters see a group of people staring with binoculars, and are surprised to discover what they're looking at. Other species seen were many White-throated Sparrows, two Hermit Thrushes, a Northern Flicker, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and a small flock of American Robins. Onward, Gabriel WillowNYC Audubon --
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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
