Common Grackle on thin ice – a composite.
Grackle on Crackle
Wildlife
Here’s Looking at You
This White-throated Sparrow came right up to me to look me over. It was hard to focus so close in.
December Ducks
OK, so the first two are not ducks. I photographed these on December 31, 2016 at the Pond at the south end of Central Park. I added some effects in Photoshop and OnOne.
Downy on Downed Log, Centraql Park 12/31/2016
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Central Park 12/31/2016
Pintail, Central Park 12/31/2016
The Mallards are in mating mode. They splashed around and chased each other making a ruckus.
Mallards, Central Park 12/31/2016
Mallards, Central Park 12/31/2016
Mallards, Central Park 12/31/2016
Mallards, Central Park 12/31/2016
Mallards, Central Park 12/31/2016
Mallards, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal
A Green-winged Teal is the last bird I saw in 2016 at the Pond at Central Park. Best wishes for a happy and productive year.
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Green-winged Teal, Central Park 12/31/2016
Robins come to NYC
A holiday composite of Robins from London in December 2015 and a lamp in the snow, Washington Street, New York City, January 2015.
City Tanager
Yesterday at 9-10:30 am on November 27, 2016, I went to City Hall Park in Manhattan to see the vagrant female Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) that I heard about on social media.
It is amazing how many unusual birds find their way to NYC. This robin sized bird drinks sap in holes made by a local Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I also observed it hawking for insects. There were at least 30 birders there on Saturday morning peering up into the large trees.
A local American Kestrel showed up and the birds laid low.
Resources:
Trinity 1 of 2
Almost every birder in New York City knows about the vagrant Yellow-breasted Chat at Trinity Church at the end of Wall Street in Manhattan. I too went there to photograph it. It took me three tries to get good shots.
On one of the days that I failed to see the Chat I was gifted with the sight of a tiny Winter Wren. I used Corel Painter on one photograph of the wren.
Hermit Thrush, Trinity Church 11/17/2016
Winter Wren, Trinaty Church 11/108/2016
Winter Wren, Trinaty Church 11/108/2016
Winter Wren, Trinaty Church 11/108/2016
Finally, the star of the show:
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Yellow-breasted Chat, Trinity Church 11/19/2016
Trinity 2 of 2 — the buildings (posted 11/21/2016).
Not so Darling Starlings
These rascals, who strut around like little Mafioso, converge on diners at the Boat House in Central Park and the minute a person isn’t looking they steal their food.
@BHEventSpace #BHPortDev
Starlings are very smart and are mimics. I read a charming little book about one called Arnie, the Darling Starling: Margarete Sigl Corbo, Diane Marie Barras, Leslie Morrill: Amazon Books:
“The true story of a talking starling and the grandmother who raised him is as heartwarming a book as you will ever read. When Margarete first came upon Arnie, he was just a familiar springtime sight: a baby bird lying helpless in the daisy patch. After unsuccessfully trying to return him to his nest, she took him into her Texas home and raised him as carefully as she had raised her own child, teaching him to perch, to fly, even to talk. Arnie resisted all attempts to restore him to the wild, preferring steak and canned corn to worms, which frightened him, and even developing a taste for wine. Arnie is full of life, laughter, and love. It is a completely irresistible book.”
The spectacular aerial feat that a murmuration of starlings performs (Video by Dylan Winter):
Eugene Schiefelin, a member of The Acclimatization Society, wanted to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare. He released about a hundred starlings in New York City’s Central Park in 1890 and 1891. By 1950 starlings could be found coast to coast, north past Hudson Bay and south into Mexico. Today their North American numbers are over 200 million. (Source: “Call of the Reviled” Scientific American).