Subject: move: winged migration and central park birdies
Date: Apr 16 11:14:13 2003
From: Devorah A. N. Bennu - nyneve at amnh.org



hello tweets,

i am listening to a radio interview on WNYC with the director of
the film, winged migration. (i'd imagine this interview will also
play on KUOW if someone peeks for the schedule on the web).

after listening to this interview, i have decided that i am very
excited to see this film! it sounds like a real winner! the film
was nominated for an oscar and it opens this friday at the paris
theatre, not sure if that's located in paris or NYC, so i guess i
will be poking around on the web today too, to figure out the answer
to this question.

yesterday and today are 80 degrees! wow, NYC is unbeatable on a warm
lightly breezy day! the weather is so unbelievably warm that it's
hard to imagine that we had a blizzard ten days ago.

i walk home from work through central park now and so far, i am seeing
white-throated sparrows, american robins, european starlings, rock
doves, dark-eyed juncos, downy woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers,
blue jays, common grackles, red-winged blackbirds, american crows,
double-crested cormorants, several gull species including the delicate
ring-billed gull that is so familiar in seattle during winter, occasional
mourning doves and peregrine falcons, and the central park red-tailed
hawks that were made famous in the book "red-tails in love." the
red-tailed hawks perch on the gold ball that tops the flag pole outside
my office window or they sit on my window sill and look out over central
park. i have even seen an incredibly pale red-tailed hawk ("pale male"?)
on several occasions.

the first wood warblers that appear in NYC are pine and palm warblers,
but i also heard a report of an early louisiana waterthrush in central
park. the big influx of wood warbler migrants will occur in two weeks.
i have been listening to all my new eastern birdsong CDs, hoping to
figure out all the warblers before they arrive.

the trees are starting to bloom, the maples with their tiny fists
of yellowish-green flowers, the pears with their white flowers and
the dogwoods. the trees on the north and west side of the streets
are blooming first while those trees on the south and east side of
the streets look like their blooms are about one week behind. i also
saw some really gorgeous pink trees in central park and wonder if
those are cherry or hawthorne? i need to investigate this soon, while
the blooms are still intact.

there is plenty for the warblers to eat when they arrive!

regards,

Devorah A. N. Bennu, PhD
email:nyneve at amnh.org or nyneve at myUW.net
work page http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/personnel/bennu.htm
personal pages http://research.amnh.org/users/nyneve/