Mokka mit Schlag

I spent a few hours in Prospect Park again this morning, mostly to try out the new Canon 400/f5.6L lens I’ve rented. The lens performed reasonably well, though the lack of image stabilization was a more serious impediment than I expected. I did get some nice shots, and 400 mm was really only too long for a few close gulls that were responding to chumming. Once again, the Park was extremely quiet aside from a few hotspots that featured relatively abundant food. The Vale of Cashmere had tufted titmouse, black capped Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal, Morning Dove, Blue Jay, White-throated Sparrow, but nothing unusual.

The feeders on Breeze Hill supported Red-winged Blackbird, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch, Black-capped Chickadee, and one Red-breasted Nuthatch. This is the only even remotely unusual bird I found. There haven’t been a lot of them in the park this season, and if there’s a good seed crop up north next winter, there might not be any. They’re an irruptive species. Some years they’re everywhere. Some years you have to struggle to find one or two in the county.
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Got a Canon 400mm f/5.6L from UPS today. I still have to take it out in the field, but despite the lack of image stabilization it’s possibly the sharpest lens I’ve tried:

This is handheld with flash but no tripod and wide open!
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I got to the Audubon Center about a quarter till 10 this morning when the mercury was still several degrees short of zero for the monthly Audubon walk. It was extremely cold. We were only out for about an hour and a half before calling it a day. Mostly it was the same story as yesterday, relatively bird free except for a few hotspots around the feeders and the Upper Lullwater. Nevertheless we managed a respectable 26 species including six new year birds: Rusty Blackbird, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Fox Sparrow, Northern Mockingbird, Red-tailed Hawk, and Wood Duck.

Rusty Blackbird was a particularly good find, because they’re not common in the park. The only place they’re reliably found in new York City is van Cortland Park in the Bronx. However, 1 to 4 have been hanging out in Prospect at least since the Christmas Bird Count on the 19th.

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This morning I took a quick spin around Prospect Park to see what was still hanging out in the cold, and perhaps start a BGBY list for the year. I haven’t yet decided how aggressively I want to pursue a BGBY list this year. It wouldn’t be too hard to cross 200 species in Brooklyn and the surrounding parts of Queens, especially using a bicycle so I can get out to the coast, but honestly the habitat around here is fairly familiar and not nearly as interesting as Orange County. Prospect Park is beautiful, but I’ve been visiting it weekly for over 10 years; and there’s just not that much new to see here anymore.

Before I even got to the park I found several White-throated Sparrows hanging out with the usual House Sparrows in the small gardens along Eastern Parkway. This is unusual. Maybe there’s too much snow cover in the park and gardens? Mostly the park was extremely quiet. There were only a few hotspots of activity, mostly where there was food for one reason or another. The first spot where I saw any bird at all was the Vale of Cashmere, where they’re a lot of ornamental plants that have berries throughout the winter. Here I found White-throated Sparrows, Tufted Titmice, Black-capped Chickadees, Mourning Doves, Northern Cardinals, a few flyover Ring-billed Gulls, and a surprising 2 Hermit Thrushes. At this time of year, even a single Hermit Thrush is a good find, but 2 visible at the same time is excellent.
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2009 wasn’t exactly a “big year”, but with 319 species it’s probably the biggest year I’ve ever had. Of course some of the species I ticked don’t really “count”. You can argue for Orange Bishop in California and Muscovy Duck in Louisiana, even if they are exotic; but Black Swan and Cockatiel are complete domestics. :-) I birded in five states and a dozen or so counties in three widely separated areas of the country. I took one pelagic trip. I got 18 countable life birds including the Verdin from Anza-Borrego, although I finished 24 short of my target goal of 500 birds for my life list.

My list certainly increased by birding both east and west coasts last year, though I did miss several easily chaseable life birds that showed up within walking distance of my apartment after I left Irvine: Mountain Bluebird, Green-tailed Towhee, and Bar-tailed Godwit, two of which I could have seen on my walk to work! I also neglected to chase a couple of Northern Wheatears that showed up within driving distance in Connecticut and New Jersey after I returned to Brooklyn. The BBC trip to Barnegat to look for Harlequin Ducks was canceled, and I broke my scope when I searched for them at Point Lookout. :-( I also missed the Barnacle Goose at Sunken Meadow State Park, though I did find the Pink-footed Goose. I also passed on a couple of Ivory Gulls that were reported south and north of me.

In 2010 I should finally be able to push my lifelist to 500 with just a couple of trips out of town. Harlequin Ducks are still regular at both Point Lookout and Barnegat. I’m still missing Mourning Warbler, and that’s regular in Prospect Park. (Opornis warblers are notoriously hard to find, even when they’re present.) Beyond that, if the TSA doesn’t get even stupider, I’m planning my first trip to the Caribbean in April which may just push me over 500. If that doesn’t, I’m looking at South Texas and Southeastern Arizona in the late summer and fall. See you next year!

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For birders the most important part of the solstice season is not presents under the tree or turkey (at least not domestic turkey) but rather the bird counts that end one year and start the next and that have done so for 110 years now. The annual Christmas Bird Count takes place globally for a couple of weeks around Christmas. You can usually find one near pretty much any significant human habitation. This year I did the Brooklyn count on the Saturday before Christmas, the Central Park count on the Sunday before Christmas, and then flew to New Orleans for the New Orleans East count on the Saturday after Christmas (and also to visit family, I feel compelled to mention). It’s especially fun to do bird counts in areas you don’t know all that well, because you’re virtually guaranteed to find something interesting and new.

On Saturday the interesting and new bird for me was an Inca Dove, or rather four of them I spotted in a Live Oak tree in a vacant lot along Hayne Boulevard across the street from Lake Pontchartrain. No photos I’m afraid. On bird counts I usually don’t bring a camera so I can concentrate on finding and counting the birds rather than on photographing them.
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