Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City - Thursday, 23 December 2010
The lingering VARIED THRUSH has continued in Central Park, even as it
has also continued to show a bit of tendency to slight wandering,
usually within 50-75 yards or so from it's best-known location at the
Ramble's so-called maintenance field & shed (men's room & lady's room
available) which is just south of the E. 79 St. Transverse Road thru
the park and just west of the park's East Drive roadway - Thursday at
2:45 pm the thrush was with a rather large, 'loose' flock which at
times contained a Red ("eastern") Fox Sparrow, 2 male E. Towhees, a
pair of N. Cardinals, a few Blue Jays, at least one (and perhaps more
earlier) American Robins, 3-5+ Black-capped Chickadees, 6+ Tufted
Titmice and 50+ White-throated Sparrows in all directions. The Varied
Thrush appeared at least for a short time right by the low fence next
to the transverse road's upper slope, south side, about 25 feet east
of the Ramble area's "Maintenance" building men's room. This is the
area where the thrush has frequently been seen previously. However it
also ranges around, & skulks, and perhaps even sits quietly at times
thru the days since it's initial discovery weeks ago. If a flock which
includes some of these birds is about, I believe there will be a good
chance the thrush is at least nearby, or with that flock. I have more
often seen it when I have also found one or both of those male
towhees, but that may just be coincidence - anyhow, I like towhees so
it's nice to find them around, too. The flock in that area this
afternoon was mainly ranging all around the outer edges of the
maintenance field, which is just south of the building that includes
the restrooms on either side.
The additional areas where the Varied Thrush has been, in the past
week and likely at times well before that, include as far north as
Cleopatra's Needle (a bit east of the SE corner of the Great Lawn),
and rather regularly to the north side of the 79 St. Transverse Rd.
usually within sight of the Polish king statue (King Jagiello) which
is found on the east end of Turtle Pond, and also the thrush has been
east of the park roadway at Cedar Hill, which is a large sloping hill
with lawn and actually does have some cedar and other conifer trees
interspersed with a few low rock outcrops and a few deciduous trees,
and is located up-slope from Fifth Ave. and just south of the East 79
St. (south side) park entrance - walk uphill... the thrush has
actually gone to that hill rather regularly... and (I suspect) it may
even roost over there. In addition the thrush has gone a short way
into the Ramble at times but as far as I know it has not spent
significant time far from the maintenance field area of the Ramble -
but could be looked for at the nearest areas of fresh water where it
possibly goes to drink now & then. In the past 10 days, there are
very often few or no birders actively seeking this bird, but some
folks do. It seems likely at least a modest number of folks will re-
double their interest in it come 1/1/'11, the reason obvious to anyone
who maintains a "year" bird-list...
The non-adult plumaged RED-HEADED WOODPECKER continues on in the trees
on the north side of the 66 Street Transverse in Central Park, often
along a path south of Sheep Meadow & closer to the east end of that
path and the SE corner edge of Sheep Meadow. It also may wander just a
bit but apparently has remained faithful to that part of the park. It
occasionally gets to ground but may also stay higher in trees fort
some time.
There are a number of species present at the Central Park reservoir, &
a long look there could turn up as many as 15 species on the water.
Gulls are turning up in fairly good numbers during the day and so a
less-common species may well be found in the large daily gatherings.
At least one Red-throated Loon has also been present lately although
it was not seen on the count and may or may not have been added into
the overall CBC, which does get Red-throated Loon as a typical species
(on the waters of NY harbor, etc.) Ducks have also included at least
one Ring-necked, again a species which can turn up elsewhere in the
CBC, although less common. A number of additional waterfowl &
waterbirds are found in NY & NJ waterways. Incidentally in reference
to the recent bird counts, there is no (official) "Central Park CBC" -
it is merely one area within a standard diameter circle as with all of
the Christmas Bird Counts everywhere, and part of the Lower Hudson
Count which is (in the records) a New Jersey count - with a lot of
territory across the Hudson River (and a bunch of birds, too) and also
in and around Manhattan, with multiple other parks & areas that are
counted, by any number of folks not visiting Central Park on that day
which include among others, some parts of downtown Manhattan and the
Hudson River and East River as well as the parks & some areas in
northern / uptown Manhattan such as Fort Tryon & Inwood Hill Parks,
and the often-productive "new" Swindler Cove Park (which was a site of
a few interesting finds on the 2009 CBC) & associated section of the
Harlem "river". I went out for a short time on count day, searching
some parks that are never covered for the count in central & northern
Harlem - I did not find any species unique for the count, but did see
a good number of species that are always seen besides the usual &
expected "city 3" of Rock Pigeon, Euro. Starling, and House Sparrow.
In these various parks, the most numerous other species were Mourning
Dove and White-throated Sparrow, with fair numbers of Song Sparrow, N.
Cardinal, N. Mockingbird & in some places, Slate-colored Juncos.
Raptors were represented by a minimum of 6 Red-tailed Hawks and 2
Cooper's Hawks plus 3 American Kestrels. In one rather weedy area
were a foraging & moving flock of 40+ American Goldfinch, too hard to
count precisely, due to the nature of the trashed area. Also, in lower
Manhattan and in other areas as well, are multiple community gardens
which have a history, if not actually observed as much as could be, of
producing late-season species that are unusual in late fall or winter,
such as warblers & occasionally other unexpected species. A very close
look through each & every such smaller green-space in Manhattan (which
would actually require exhaustive effforts) could well turn up any
number of surprises, including potentially a vagrant or two on the
order of varied thrush or the like. The total numbers of White-
throated Sparrows alone would about triple in a count, were all small
bits of habitat included on a Manhattan portion of any year's CBC. The
limiting factor though would be snow on the ground as is usual in some
late Decembers but hardly regular any longer as once might have
been.This year there was zero snow cover, merely below-freezing temp's
for one week. Among the areas I visited were multiple parks between
the East River and St. Nicholas Park, up to Highbridge Park, and many,
many points between - with birds!
There had actually been up to 70+ species of native, non-introduced
birds in Central Park & Riverside Park (combined) as recently as the
weekend before the CBC period began, but the major chill may have sent
a few of the less-hardy species into hiding, or if they wised-up, to
points far south. Some who watch other state's birding lists will
have noticed that a rather late-season Northern Wheatear was
photographed at Delaware's Fox Point Park as of Wed., 12/22/2010.
(Location is just off of I-495 near Wilmington: Exit 4B, Edgemoor Rd.
Delaware - DE ), that wheatear still present thru Thursday 12/23. It
shows that rarities of the late-migration period can still be seen
even as official, calendar winter is now with us. Indeed a great many
vagrant birds may be around in winter and more would be likely found
than are were there CBC-style efforts made in later parts of winter
right through to the first hints of spring. "Off-course" birds may
turn up anytime & anywhere. The survival of some may be in question,
of course - such as insect-eating species that can't exist on a diet
of old fruits and minimal invertebrates. It is surprising how much
invertebrate life a bird may be able to glean even in winter, however:
witness Golden-crowned Kinglets in very northern places, in mid-winter.
Good birding,
Tom Fiore,
Manhattan
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