Sunday, 17 Feb., 2013 - Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City Perhaps least common of the regularly-occuring species seen today was a drake Common Merganser (not at all common in N.Y. City, & less so in Central Park), photographed at the Meer. A few Rusty Blackbirds were also around, singles being found at the "oven", at the Pond (south end) & Strawberry Fields (the latter in scruffy condition); a fairly good icterid tally on the day as a Baltimore Oriole is still in the park, today visiting the Ramble feeders at least once (and moving around the area), with 30+ Red-winged Blackbirds around (including a few females), & ongoing mobs of Common Grackles (in the Hallett Sanctuary and Ramble). I did not see any finches besides the typical House & Gold (of the American species), but perhaps some among the many observers going to the feeders & etc. did see another species.
A young Iceland Gull persists at the Lake & was seen & photographed in flight over the water as well as on it, as usual with several dozen Ring-billed Gulls. More than 100 N. Shoveler are also present at the Lake. In the park entire (I walked all of the length & breadth in 6+ hours time) were over 250 American Robins, from the south end thru the north & in multiple feeding parties - with one individual standing out, amongst a smallish flock, immediately west of the reservoir track in a low gully between there & the old bridle path; this robin was as pale as any I've ever come across, indeed the plumage was as if "bleached" and the bird was easy to pick out when I passed the area a second time late in the day. A list of all species I encountered is below: Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Canada Goose Mute Swan (1 continues, Meer) Wood Duck (7 on reservoir & 1 on the Pond) Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Northern Shoveler Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser (1 drake, Meer) Ruddy Duck Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel American Coot Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Iceland Gull (1, Lake) Great Black-backed Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern [Yellow-shafted] Flicker (1) Blue Jay American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch (2) White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren Winter Wren (Loch) Hermit Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird (near the Pond) Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher (Strawberry Fields) European Starling Eastern Towhee "red" Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco (20+ in one flock) Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird (3 locations) Common Grackle Baltimore Oriole (lingering, Ramble) House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- 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/ --
