February in Central Park
New York, NY
Friday 18 February 2022
48 °F
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16:
Today, I had a mainly free afternoon and temps were forecast to be milder (upper 40’s), so I trekked over to the north end of Central Park in hopes of finding a Great Horned Owl, among other birds.
I got off the bus by the Harlem Meer where NORTHERN SHOVELERS abounded:
The average photo of a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET is the same as the worst photo of one, I’m convinced.
Didn’t do much better with this YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER:
The Pool had its usual supply of MALLARDS and oddly enough this male WOOD DUCK which seems to have paired up with a female Mallard.
And the reliable hen GREEN-WINGED TEAL who always manages to hold her ground among the aggressive Mallards of the Pool:
RED-TAILED HAWK:
Then, I saw the Hawk take off and immediately two other large birds came straight for it, proceeding to harass it in the air over the Harlem Meer. You can see here, the bird on the left is the Red-tailed, and the bird on the right is my Manhattan life bird COMMON RAVEN, a nice little surprise for which I knew I was long overdue! Many folks don’t realize how large Ravens are and this is obvious when right next to a Red-tail in flight.
A second one joined too — here is the pair in flight with their characteristic fieldmark, the wedge-shaped tail, very conspicuous.
Unfortunately, I and and all the other birders were never able to spot the Great Horned Owl though that’s not a big miss as I’ve seen them in Manhattan dozens of times prior to the pandemic. Bird-of-the-day to the Common Ravens!
Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1128 Species
Ravens ! Pretty Shoveler pict. Attitude captured G.W.T. can feel the tension - only the Mallard side, Teal is a cool bird. If I could only write about these things. NY
by stephen fluett