November 14 - Inwood Hill Park: beautiful fall day

An absolutely beautiful fall day in the park. Crystal blue, cloudless skies. I started out at Muscota Marsh around 7:15 am. Shortly afterward I was joined by Diane Schenker. Later we met Danny Karlson on the soccer field. During the course of the day we met and birded a bit with Nathan O'Reilly, Nadir Souirgi, Elizabeth White-Pultz, and few others. Danny and I left the park around 2:45 pm.

When we started it was nearing high tide and with New Moon tonight, it was a very high tide. The little canal that connects Muscota Bay and the main bay was flooded and Diane and I found a Muskrat sitting in the open there.

Muskrat - Inwood Hill Park - 11/14/2020

On the north side of the soccer field the tide was so high the main paved path was flooded as was much of the fenced in area. In recent weeks there had been good numbers of Pine Siskins around and we usually found some in the lower Muscota Marsh area or a few at the fenced in area on the soccer field, however, they seemed to moved on since we did not see any today. Indeed, I haven't seen hardly any in the last week. It was another good raptor flight day. I recorded seven species, plus a Turkey Vulture that Danny spotted over the Palisades. The highlight among the raptors was a total of nine Bald Eagles, most of them immatures, but a few adults. There were also some flocks of blackbirds moving over and Danny and I encountered a group of Red-wings and Grackles that landed in a tree on the ridge as we headed down the Clove. For me, the highlight, or rather highlights, of the day were picking up two year birds: an American Pipit (finally!) on the Hudson River ballfields and an Eastern Bluebird up on the Ridge.

I ended the day with 49 species (full list below). I was also able to get some photos to add to My Inwood List page. I now have photos for 115 of 222 species on my Inwood list. 

I missed the best bird reported in the park today. Nathan and Nadir saw a gull flying south over the Hudson River in the morning. Nathan got some very poor quality photos of the bird which appear to show an immature Black-legged Kittiwake. This would almost certainly be a first record for the park.

Canada Goose  60

Mallard  5

Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  3

Mourning Dove  6

Ring-billed Gull  40

Herring Gull  15

Great Black-backed Gull  6

Double-crested Cormorant  3

Great Blue Heron  2

Black-crowned Night-Heron  1

Turkey Vulture  1

Osprey  1  (getting late for this species)

Sharp-shinned Hawk  1

Bald Eagle  9

Red-tailed Hawk  3 (probably more than this, but it is impossible to tell migrants from residents)

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  1

American Kestrel  1

American Kesrel - 11/14/2020

Merlin  1

Peregrine Falcon  2

Blue Jay  2

American Crow  3

crow sp.  16     One flock.

Common Raven  1

Common Raven - 11/14/2020

Black-capped Chickadee  6

Tufted Titmouse  2

Golden-crowned Kinglet  1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1

Carolina Wren  1

European Starling  1

Northern Mockingbird  2

Eastern Bluebird  1  (Nathan had a flock of 14 on the Ridge)  

Eastern Bluebird - 11/14/2020

American Robin  2

Cedar Waxwing  10

House Sparrow  10

American Pipit  1  

House Finch  4

Purple Finch  2

Purple Finch (female) - 11/14/2020

American Goldfinch  10

Chipping Sparrow  2

Dark-eyed Junco  10

White-throated Sparrow  2

Song Sparrow  4

Swamp Sparrow  2

Swamp Sparrow - 11/14/2020

Red-winged Blackbird  2

Common Grackle  20

Tennessee Warbler  1 (late for this species - spotted by Nathan on the Hudson River ballfields)

Northern Cardinal  1