Date: 1/23/25 5:52 pm From: Alan Drogin <drogin...> Subject: [nysbirds-l] Riverside Ravens and Ducks
My first inclination when I sighted what looked like more than two Common Ravens was to think, no they don’t commonly congregate around here, must be crows chasing not more than a pair. And certainly I’ve seen just that in early December - dozens of crows chasing a pair across the skies of Central Park.
While leading a 2024 CBC in Riverside, a group of 4 or 5 black corvids flew north past the Sailors and Soldiers monument and over our heads like wispy Dementors in Harry Potter, a couple of them croaking. Could there be more than two? A couple of weeks later by the Harlem Meer, I did distinctly see four Common Ravens, flying around 110th street, mostly in pairs, but following each other. Today while birding Riverside Park, once again I heard the croaks and saw more than two Common Ravens fly briefly across the canyon of pre-war high-rises of West End Avenue. I took chase until they alighted just down the corner of the street from me - two pairs, each pair staking out a window ledge, scaffolding or water tower together, following each other in flight. Possibly the parents and the two young they raised behind the Cathedral of St. John the Divine?
So yes, we’re seeing more than a pair of Common Ravens around here!
We’ve had a good month for waterfowl and gulls at the Central Park Reservoir. Nevertheless, the counts of waterfowl over by the 79th Street Boat Basic have been abysmal the past few winters - possibly due to the construction of the old rotunda started in 2021. Back before 2021 I'd see large flocks of Mallards, Canada Geese, and even a Northern Pintail and Muscovy. i ventured out Wednesday with temperatures in the teens to see the ice floes of the Hudson River from the boardwalk. I was happy to see over 50 Mallards curling up on the docks against the frigid cold. Among them a male and female Wood Duck - first for the basin.
With temperatures more comfortably in the twenties today, I found over 100 Mallards having a lively party, quacking away, mating up among the slowly breaking ice, just like winters ago. There on the edge of an ice floe was a lone sleeping male Ring-Necked Duck, black back and peaked head, white spur. Perhaps the one seen earlier this week at the Central Park Reservoir - and according to eBird, the first seen on the eastern side of the Hudson below the George Washington Bridge.
Happy birding and stay warm,
Alan Drogin
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