birding

birding

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I signed up for a bird watching course with the American Museum of Natural History. We meet every Thursday morning at 7 am and watch birds in Central Park until 9 am. Some of you may know that Central Park is among the top bird watching sites in the country because it is situated along major migratory paths for so many of our feathered friends.

I've learned that some birds in the park are not native to this continent. Some were introduced in the 1890s in an effort to bring culture to this country - they are birds that are mentioned in the works of Shakespeare, like the European Starling.

In this video you will see some footage of a typical walk through the park. We follow a similar path, meeting at the corner of 77th Street and Central Park West and tramping over to the pond. On this day we saw two Green Herons at the pond, they were simply brilliant in the morning sun. We also sited a Great Egret and a few Cormorants.

We then make our way through the rambles to Belvedere Castle, where we look out over Turtle Pond. This is where there is some commotion when Chimney Swifts are spotted, we later see several over the maintenance meadow. We proceed east along the path south of Turtle Pond and this is where the Red-winged Blackbird approaches. You can hear one of the women call him Larry, as there was a very social blackbird last summer in the park, who came to be known as Larry. We heard reports of an Orchard Oriole near Bethesda Fountain and went to check it out. Did we spot it? You'll have to watch to find out.

I can tell you what's not in the movie - I didn't get any footage of the woodpeckers (Downy, Red Bellied and Sapsucker) even though I talk about them. They were simply too beautiful so I enjoyed them in the moment. I didn't shoot the two snapping turtles mating in the swamp. Out of respect for their privacy of course. They were really going at it. It is spring after all.