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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

From my Manhattan Window (3 Viewers)

Hi Arthur

Glad to hear that you are safe and well after the storm been keeping updated from Tv news and internet

Stay Safe

Dave
 
Hello all,

Yesterday, a hermit thrush visited my window, along with white throated sparrows. This morning the temperature was 4ºC. This is affecting those millions without electricity, hard hit by Sandy.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:
 
Good evening Arthur, things getting back to normal over there now?

I had a vacation to Canada last year, and the bird I most wanted to see was a black capped chickadee, seemingly one on the most common bird, and guess what?... didn't get a snifter of one! Got mountain chickadee though :)
 
Good evening Arthur, things getting back to normal over there now?

I had a vacation to Canada last year, and the bird I most wanted to see was a black capped chickadee, seemingly one on the most common bird, and guess what?... didn't get a snifter of one! Got mountain chickadee though :)

Come back to NYC, visit Arthur and take a stroll through Central Park.
You will see plenty of them.
 
Hello DMKSlater,

I am sorry to read that your Canadian visit was marked with a disappointment.

As I wrote, I had little inconvenience from Sandy, but there has been much damage, loss of property and loss of life, throughout the region. There are some still without electricity, more than two weeks, later. Thousands are homeless or without heat as central heating plants do not take kindly to salt water.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur
 
Chickadee

A happy New Year to all,

In the last few weeks, only blue jays, white throated sparrows, northern mockingbirds, and chickadees have visited my window. I think that today, a Carolina chickadee may have turned up, but I am not certain. I do not recall seeing any white wing feathers so it may have been a Carolina chickadee rather than a black capped chickadee.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :scribe:
 
Thanks for your entertaining reports through the year Arthur. A happy 2013 to you and your family.
 
Titmouse

Hello all,

This morning a small, gray bird showed me some of its rufous feathers. From behind, I managed to see the tuft on its head. I am certain that it was a tufted titmouse, the first one to come to my window.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur
 
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Spring is in the air...so Central Park will be alive soon...isn't there another park someplace near by that is also a bird park......? jim
 
Spring is in the air...so Central Park will be alive soon...isn't there another park someplace near by that is also a bird park......? jim

Hello Jim,

A bit less than 5 km, from Strawberry Fields is the Riverside Park Bird Sanctuary:

http://www.riversideparkfund.org/visit/riverside-park-bird-sanctuary/

Riverside Park sits along the Hudson from 59 to 129th St, Central Park's western boundary is about 1 km from Riverside Park.

Farther away, are Greenwood Cemetery and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Still farther, but reachable by public transport is the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:
 
Thanks Arthur....Riverside park...that was the one I was trying to think of..... I have been to Prospect and have birded Jamaica Bay many times...love that place! thanks, jim
 
An excursion

Hello all,

I managed an excursion to Central Park, today.

My most significant sighting was of a Carolina chickadee. I have no problem recognizing chickadees, but I have had to work on distinguishing between black capped and Carolina chickadees, by the white wing bar of the black capped variety. I saw two Carolina chickadees, long enough to satisfied, that i had made the identification.

From my home window, I am still seeing tufted titmice and white throated sparrows, so it was no surprise to see them in the park, along with:

Buffleheads
Ring billed gulls
Northern Cardinal
Bluejays
Northern shoveller
mallards [including a hybrid]

Apparently, the weather has warmed enough, today it was 6ºC, for the turtles to emerge from hibernation and bask on the rocks in the Lake.

Some tourists from Argentina wanted to know how to go, from the Park, to 420 Ninth Avenue. There is an algorithm for determining cross streets in much of Manhattan, so I thought that it was near West 35th Street. They then showed me a map with a place on note indicated at West 34th Street and Ninth Avenue. I looked them in the eye and asked, "Do you want B&H Photo?" The answer was positive.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :scribe:
 
More Central Park

Hello all,

I should have included this link to a map of Central Park, as many are not familiar with its 320 hectares, 25% of which is water.

Today, I had an appointment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view the Matisse exhibition, so I decided to walk through Central Park in the rain. Nothing much new, but I did see more tufted titmice. Upon reaching the Belvedere Castle, I looked over Turtle Pond and saw a hawk in a tree, on an island in the pond. I had to walk around the pond, a detour, to be sure that it was a red tailed hawk.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :scribe:
 
Hell all,

Last Sunday I was in the Park, and crossed paths with Birding Bob, who was leading a group of about 18. It was on the shore of the Lake, near Oak Bridge, where he spotted a pair of wood ducks, a ruddy duck, and buffleheads,, which I had already spotted. He used a recording of a female wood duck to attract the male, but none too successfully. After I said "hello," I moved away from his group, as seemed proper. I did manage to get a better view of the wood duck than his group. Of course, Bob does a whole tour of the Park, so his patrons probably did very well.

Today, my best bird was an early sighting of a double crested cormorant, at the Lake.

I was told that there was a lot of activity near the feeders.

At home, nothing new, but tufted titmice are still visiting my window.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:
 
Hello all,

I got to the Park, today. The daffodils are up and the turtles have returned to basking on the rocks, after a couple of weeks of cold weather.

My best bird of the day was a northern flicker, but I also saw a slate covered junco, which I associate with colder weather.

I am including an image from the 1910, Birds of New York, of a mourning dove, which I saw today, and of an extinct relative.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur
 

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I need the exercise

Hello all,

The temperature was about 1ºC, this morning, cold for early April, but during my short walk in Central Park, I did see a some birds of note. I had another encounter with a northern flicker, I saw some white throated sparrows which have become rather scarce, a black capped chickadee and a red bellied woodpecker.

I also note the absence of shovellers from the Lake.

I am also including an illustration of a white throated sparrow and a white crowned sparrow, probably by Louis Agassiz Fuertes, from Frank Chapman's Handbook of Eastern Birds, 1904.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :scribe:
 

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