Welcome, Rosy Birdies!

The autumn leaves are not yet falling, but the feathered autumn visitors are starting to arrive. Hawk-chasing season is giving way to fall migration and little-yellow-birdie chasing. So far this season I've seen hooded warblers, redstarts, common yellowthroats, black-throated blue warblers, red-breasted nuthatches, a great-crested flycatcher, black and white warblers and more. My photography success is very, very limited with the small birds, which is why I flood my site with pictures and videos of ducks, hawks and herons!

But I'm now putting together some videos of the migration newcomers (plus some additional videos of birds I see more frequently). The other day I posted the Filming the Feathers videos of a Virginia rail and a redstart bathing beauty.

An adult rose-breasted grosbeak, April 28, 2015, at the feeders in the Ramble, Central Park

Today I offer the rose-breasted grosbeak, a frequent visitor to Central Park during migration. These beautiful birds like to forage in the jewelweed or eat berries in the shrubbery. They also eat lots of insects. This short video features photos and footage from April 2015, September 2015, and two days this September, the 8th and 12. The video is short, and set to music by Franz Joseph Haydn. Read more about the grosbeaks on the Audubon Web site.

The adult grosbeak was photographed April 28, 2015, at the feeders in the Ramble in Central Park. The next grosbeak was photographed in September 2015. The last photograph, of a juvenile male grosbeak, was shot September 12, 2016, in Tupelo Meadow, but the video was taken both in the meadow and at Azalea Pond.

A New Bird, and a Joyful Bather

I'd never seen a Virginia rail, but I got the chance on Sept. 9th to see one at Swampy Pin Oak and near the Lake in Central Park. This little visitor caused quite a bit of excitement among the bird watchers. My video is very short — it was hard to see the bird as it dug in the mud for insects.

A Virginia rail at the Lake, Central Park, Sept. 9, 2016.

I have been fortunate to see a lot of redstarts over the past few years, and always delight in their yellow spots on their tails. But I must say that on Sept. 10, I was grinning my face off as I watched one young redstart take a bath at Triplets Bridge. I've taken videos of a lot of birds bathing, and there will be a Bird Bath II coming soon. But I just couldn't wait to share this bird's joy of bathing, which I set to music by Charles Gounod.

A young redstart pre-bath at Triplets Bridge, Sept. 10, 2016.

I set the Virginia rail Filming the Feathers video to Chopin.

Some more photos of the rail, and of our happy redstart.

More Hawk Chasing in Central Park

September 3, the evening after Pale Male hung batlike from a tree, he posed for pictures near the restrooms at Maintenance Meadow, then swooped down, caught a rat, and ate the rat on the ground. Did he mantle the rat because he remembered what happened when he flew too soon to a tree the night before, or did he mantle it because Octavia was nearby and he was not going to give her any until he was good and ready? At any rate, when he finished half the rat, he did give the remainder to Octavia on Cedar Hill, and she ate a lot of it before flying off.

Pale Male in the Ramble, September 3, 2016

On September 4, I saw Pale Male after he had raided a squirrels' nest and ate a baby squirrel. I was able to photograph him in the Ramble and on Cedar Hill. On September 5 after the Yankees game and before my singing workshop, I lucked into Fred Hawk over the bridle path south of the Reservoir, north of the west Pinetum. I hadn't seen him this close for quite a while, and it was nice to just watch him for a while.

Fred Hawk, over the bridle path south of the Reservoir, September 5, 2016

There is some rat eating in the first video. Just posing in the second.

Pale Male and Octavia, on September 3. The last two photos are Octavia.

Pale on September 4, and a grieving squirrel.

Fred Hawk, over the bridle path south of the Reservoir. He flew here after a brief stop in the Pinetum across the transverse.