10/15, Central Park North

Cooper's Hawk over Wildflower Meadow

Autumn has definitely set in. The air was nippy late this afternoon, and Central Park's northern Wildflower Meadow seemed to have lost its color saturation, and almost all of its birds. The NYC bird report indicated that the blue grosbeak was there this morning, but when I passed through at 5:00, a single, solitary sparrow was the only bird to be seen within the confines of the meadow. All the monarch butterflies were history and even spotting a robin in the area took some time.

The one sighting of note, at least for ye olde hawkwatcher, was the hawk that appeared at 5:08. Heading south from somewhere over the northern woods, it circled once over the Wildflower Meadow and then headed off in the general direction of Mount Sinai. Hieing my way over to the loop road, I caught distant sight of it again circling about north of the hospital 2, 3, 4 times and then it was gone. My immediate reaction was that the bird's torso seemed a bit thin, and although none of the five photos I took turned out all that well, a very close look at the tail feathers in the best one (above) seemed to indicate the barring of a Cooper's hawk. Also, the bird report did say that a Cooper's had been seen in the area this morning.

The bird report also indicated that a hairy woodpecker had been spotted this weekend near the composting area, so on my way out of the park I made sure to check the area about Green Hill to see if I could spot the red-topped woodpecker I had briefly glimpsed a week ago. No dice. Just a couple robins, a half dozen sparrows and a blue jay.

Heading west along 110th St. just before 6:00, I caught a distant glimpse of something slowly but easily soaring toward the domed roof of the St. John's. But no luck spotting anything after making a 270° circuit of the Cathedral.

Reservoir Panoramas

I've been playing around with an OS X program which stitches together pictures to form a single panorama. The two panoramas here are of the Central Park Reservoir late the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 1, the day of the falconry show. At top is the view from the south end of the Reservoir, and below from the north end. Both of these are "thumbnails". Click on either one to go to the appropriate Flickr webpage, and then click on the small "All Sizes" button there to see the really big versions. (The full panorama from the south end is 5700 pixels wide.)

10/9, Central Park North

Male Northern Cardinal and Female Blue Grosbeak (?)

Monday late afternoon I made another pass through the north end of Central Park similar to those of Saturday and Sunday. After the usual meander past the Pool and checking out the ducks, I made my way via the Loch path over to the Wildflower Meadow.

I'd barely reached the meadow and started taking pix of the monarchs flitting about before encountering a couple birders looking for the blue grosbeak. I indicated the shady spot where I'd seen it the day previously, but that spot was quiet at the moment. I wandered off to the partially sunlit part of the meadow to see what might be over there. More butterflies.

Returning to the shady spot, I found the birders watching two birds, one they said was a female bunting and the other a female cardinal, although the latter was not in a particularly good spot to watch. A couple other birders appeared and there was a small bit of flying about amongst the birds. The female cardinal disappeared but a male moved into the same area.

Above are the two birds that were in view at about 5:40. The left is obviously a male northern cardinal, but the one at right? This would seem to be the same bird that the birders had said was the female bunting. However, it looks like the blue grosbeak pointed out to me on Sunday. Further, some on-line material indicates that female indigo buntings and blue grosbeaks can be difficult to tell apart, and that one should check the size of the beak. This bird does seem to have the larger beak of, ahem, a gros-beak.

Departure just before 6:00. No hawks seen in the north end of Central Park, nor along 110th Street or in a quick pass through Morningside Park.