London Coots - 30th July 2019

Whilst in East Sussex last week, Jayne and I went up to London for the day to visit the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. After going there, we went for a walk around St James' Park, where, in amongst the "exotics", including a lovely female Hooded Merganser, we saw, and photographed, 10 darvic-ringed Coots.

Coot HHX

My nephew, Luke, has seen some of these before, so we knew that they'd been ringed by West London Birding. I sent details off, and heard back very quickly that 9 of the 10 birds had been ringed in St James' Park, between September 2016 and March 2019, with the exception of D67, who had been ringed in Regent's Park, 4km away. Not the most exciting movements, but interesting none the less, and, hopefully, as more data comes in the project will provide a good insight into these birds' lives.

New York!!

I have just returned from a few days with my family in New York. We were last there in May 2014 (see here) and when we left, we said we'd return in the winter to see the city in a different light. Suffice to say, we weren't disappointed, with all the Christmas lights, but, more importantly for this blog, the wildlife. I saw 38 species of birds whilst there, which included 13 "lifers", as well as a few old favourites (American Robin, for example!)

American Robin

Most of the bird species were seen in and around Central Park. The first species we saw was White-throated Sparrow. They turned out to be pretty common around the park, feeding in the flower beds, and were seen on all visits.

Whit-throated Sparrow

Another common winter visitor that was seen daily in good numbers, was the Tufted Titmouse (the first lifer of the trip), a beautiful bird.

Tufted Titmouse

We visited The Pond in the southern section the park because there had been reports of a male Mandarin Duck there. Although it was an escapee (complete with plastic ring), we decided to look for it whilst there. It was present on the pond with a couple of Wood Ducks, dozens of Mallards, Shovelers, 2 American Coots (lifer) and the first Cardinal of the trip.

Whilst there, Jayne and I went for a guided walk with Birding Bob (see here). We spent two hours walking around The Ramble and Turtle Pond area, were we saw 30+ species, including 3 species of owl (Barred, Great Horned and Northern Saw-Whet - all lifers), 2 species of hawk (Cooper's and Red-tailed - Cooper's was a lifer), American Black Duck (lifer), Bufflehead, American Crow (lifer), Red and White-breasted Nuthatches (both lifers), Blue Jays (everywhere), Black-capped Chickadees, Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Great Blue Heron (1), Mourning Dove (11), Common Grackle, Eurasian Starling, House Sparrows and American Goldfinch (lifer)!!

Northern Saw-Whet Owl

On the same day I also visited the Reservoir in Central Park, where, along with another 13 Buffleheads, I also recorded 112 Ruddy Ducks, c.200 Canada Geese, 17 Mallards, 4 American Coots, 1 Great Black-backed Gull, 10+ American Herring Gulls, 50+ Ring-billed Gulls, 1 Pied-billed Grebe and 4 female  Hooded Mergansers (lifer).

Ring-billed Gull

The final site we visited was The Highline. Not a birding site, but definitely worth a visit, and we managed to see a few nice birds (Ring-billed and American Herring Gull, House Sparrow, Eurasian Starling, White-throated Sparrow, American Crows, a Mourning Dove, and my last lifer of the trip (and year), Northern Mockingbird (2 seen).

Northern Mockingbird

UPDATE: Whilst going through my photos with my nephew, we noticed one bird that I'd originally identified as a Downy Woodpecker. A closer look, and some conformation from America, revealed it to be a juvenile/1st winter Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - my 14th lifer of the trip!!!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker