Day 4: From Juilliard to Central Park Birding
Wednesday 29 March 2017
59 °F
Since yesterday was mainly just a rainy travel day, I do not have anything to post from it. Today, though, my mom and I took a tour of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, I went birding in Central Park, and later we saw a vocal performance at Juilliard.
At Central Park, I quickly came upon this seeming face-off between a nonnative Red-eyed Slider turtle and a male Mallard:
Male BUFFLEHEAD, my absolute favorite type of duck!
I definitely know what this ferocious reptile lurking in the water is, but does anyone else?
Pair of NORTHERN SHOVELERS:
NORTHERN FLICKER:
Although not containing the great diversity of warblers and migrants for which it is known in May, "The Ramble" was alive with birds such as many WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS, including this one:
FOX SPARROW:
Beautiful TUFTED TITMOUSE preening:
EASTERN PHOEBE which then performed a nose-dive as part of one if its many extravagant fly-catching maneuvers: 
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH:
BROWN CREEPER:
The "best" bird of the day was probably this roosting BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON I found, as one birder alerted me they hadn't been seen in Central Park yet this year!
After an interesting chamber concert of contemporary classical vocal music at Juilliard, we walked back to our hotel via the Lincoln Center:
And our hotel is literally a few feet away from Soup Nazi! (From Seinfeld)
Bird-of-the-day goes to my favorite BUFFLEHEAD with runner-up to the BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON! It was a fantastic day, and tomorrow I am excited for one sample voice lesson each with a teacher from Juilliard and a teacher from Manhattan School of Music!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 929 Species (no recent life birds)
Those are great pictures, Henry. I have especially enjoyed seeing pictures of you and your family and learning about your visits to different
schools of music. Your life is rich and full! Loved seeing the pictures in
Central Park-we missed going there last December so the pictures made up for that a bit. The reptile head looks like that of a turtle to me, but
maybe it's a more exotic creature...
by Karen Walsh