Species 69-73: Spring is Here

This weekend and last, the sun has come back to warm up New York. OK, today was only 45 degrees F, but the sun made it a whole lot more bearable. Mixed with the remaining birds of winter, I'm starting to see more of the summer residents of New York. Lots of ducks still remain on the ponds of Prospect Park and Sunken Meadow. There are still Common Loons on Long Island Sound as of last weekend, as well (see prior post).

However, Common Grackles showed up in force this week, Eastern Phoebes are back in both Prospect and Central Parks, and in Central Park today I saw a Golden-Crowned Kinglet for the first time this year. Another oddly absent bird in the winter is the Double-Crested Cormorant. Two were at the Belvedere Castle in Central Park today, foreshadowing the onslaught of thousands that will decimate our fish populations in the summer.

Eastern Phoebe - its call is easy - "Phee-bee"

DC Cormorants aren't waterproof because they don't have oil glands like other waterfowl, so they have to air-dry.

Row #	Species	Count	Location	S/P	Date
69	Common Grackle	30	Sunken Meadow State Park	US-NY	20-Mar-10
70	American Coot	4	Prospect Park - Lullwater	US-NY	21-Mar-10
71	Eastern Phoebe	1	Prospect Park	US-NY	21-Mar-10
72	Golden-crowned Kinglet	1	Central Park--The Ramble	US-NY	27-Mar-10
73	Double-crested Cormorant	2	Central Park--The Ramble	US-NY	27-Mar-10