No, the numbers in the title of this post are not species totals for this morning. Last month my friend Sean Sime suggested that since I was having a good birding year, I really should try for 300 species in New York in 2014. I had not set out to do a big year this year, but since 300 is in sight, I thought I might as well make a little extra effort and try for it. Last week Nadir Sourigi told me he had had American Pipits on the parade grounds at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, about a mile north of Inwood, so I decided to try for that species this morning. I ended up sleeping a bit late (leading walks in Central Park four morning in a row can cause that), so I didn't get up to Van Cortlandt until a few minutes after 9 AM. The was already a fair number of people about so I thought I had missed my chance, but as I crossed the south end of the parade grounds an American Pipit flew over calling. I did not see it take off, so I don't know if it had been disturbed from the gound or was merely looking for a peaceful place to land. It continued off to the west. The pipit was 292 for the year, eight to go!
I didn't stay in Van Cortlandt long since I needed to get home to go to the farmer's market with Ann. Back in the apartment, I was sitting at the computer to enter the pipit in my year list when I heard a Common Raven calling outside the window. This is a species I have been seeing with increasing regularity in Inwood over the last year or so and one I have been expecting to add to my apartment list for some time. It is number 113 for my apartment bird list!
The forecast is for NW winds tonight. I am hoping for a flight and some additions to my lists tomorrow!
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