November 16 - Inwood Hill Park: mainly watching the river

Hoping to get some interesting migrants on the Hudson River I met Hilary Russ on the Dyckman Street pier at 7:30 am. A few other birders had similar ideas and a friend of Hilary's joined us a little after 8:00. We got reports of a female Common Eider seen down river at West 70th Street flying north. We watched for it but finally heard it had turned around and was seen again there later headed south. We did see Bald Eagle and later two Peregrine Falcons chasing a small passerine (unsuccessfully) but the river was quiet except for the usual gulls. After a while we headed north on the ballfields and met up with Danny Karlson. The fields were also quiet. Hilary, her friend, and Danny left and I was joined by Diane Schenker. We continued to scan the river. Finally, Diane and I were rewarded with three Greater Scaup (two males and a female) flying up river. They settled on the water and drifted north. This is a relatively infrequent visitor to the park and are the first I have seen in the park since the winter of 2014. After leaving the ballfields Diane and I spent some time on the ridge, but it was very quiet. On our way out of the park we encountered a large flock of Mourning Doves (two dozen) feeding on the soccer fields at the north end of the park.

Part of a flock of 24 Mourning Doves on the soccer field - November 16 2020

As we left the park we stopped at Muscota Marsh where we spotted the lone Brant from yesterday feeding along the shoreline on the north side of the ship canal. My bird list of 30 species is below.

Brant  1

Canada Goose  8

Mallard  4

Greater Scaup  3

Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  4

Mourning Dove  24

Ring-billed Gull  70

Herring Gull  20

Great Black-backed Gull  8

Double-crested Cormorant  1

Great Blue Heron  1

Turkey Vulture  2

Bald Eagle  2

Red-tailed Hawk  3

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  1

Peregrine Falcon  2

Blue Jay  8

American Crow  2

Black-capped Chickadee  5

Carolina Wren  1

Northern Mockingbird  2

American Robin  1

House Sparrow  12

American Goldfinch  2

White-throated Sparrow  1

Song Sparrow  2

Red-winged Blackbird  20

Common Grackle  30

Northern Cardinal  1