Another twitch: Ash-throated Flycatcher!
Brooklyn, NYC
Friday 31 December 2021
38 °F
First off I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Thanks for following my adventures on here since 2013! Thank you especially to Mary, Poo, and everyone who always writes such kind comments on here — they always brighten my day.
Now, to the birds!
MONDAY, DECEMBER 20:
Upon hearing about a vagrant Ash-throated Flycatcher, I decided to make the trek to Owl’s Head Park in Brooklyn after doing some holiday shopping.
I arrived to the park around 3:30 and immediately started criss-crossing this smallish park in hopes of tracking down the bird. There were no other birders present apart from a couple who simply crossed the park and left, telling me where they had the flycatcher yesterday.
So, I concentrated on that area, and indeed there were birds present, namely this GRAY CATBIRD which is actually a decent find for wintertime!
Downtown Manhattan glowed through the trees in the evening light.
After a while of fruitless searching, I spotted a smallish Accipiter-genus hawk perched in a nearby tree. Ugh! I knew my chances for the Flycatcher, along with the quickly-diminishing light, were now greatly reduced.
At first I thought it might be a female Sharp-shinned, but the dark gray on the head only formed a cap, not a hood, meaning this is a male COOPER’S HAWK.
You can see why I thought it might have been a Sharpie with the hawk all hunched over like this.
Then, it suddenly took off, dropped into a tree, and appeared to catch an unidentified bird. Turns out it wasn’t the flycatcher because it was seen the day after by someone else, but this discouraged me from searching further. With sunset, it got dark and frigid fast, and I gave up. Ugh. Yet another miss. Welp, better luck next time as they always say!
Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1126 Species
Happy holidays and pretty pictures, thanks much, even thanks if there were no birds , the landscape is exotic to a Lake Michiganer
by stephen fluett