Another big bird on ice

Bald Eagle over Central Park -- 12/27/06
Photo by Lincoln Karim


Last Sunday, 2/11/07, at about 1 pm, Eleanor MacDonald, a hawkwatcher and a neighbor of mine on Riverside Drive wrote:

Dear Marie, I am home sick today -- can't even talk. I had wanted to go to the Park today but instead looked out of the kitchen window. There is a large bird on the river ice at about 91st street. We are not sure about it because we do not have a powerful scope in the house. Has anyone else seen it? Maybe I am feverish but it sure looks very dark with a white head and does not look like a gull. Should I be embarrassed? If so, please spare me. Eleanor MacDonald

I answered immediately:

Dear Eleanor,

Guess what? It's an adult bald eagle!! Someone else reported it on an ice flow at the 79th st boat basin a little while ago!!

Get well soon.

Here's the earlier report,posted on e-birds shortly before I received the e-mail from Eleanor

Date: Sunday, 11 February 2007
Time: Morning
Location: Riverside Park

The Red-headed Woodpecker wasn't seen this morning at 92nd Street, but in the immediate area were:
Three Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (2 females, one male), working furiously on a Norway Maple and Red Maple;
Two Downy Woodpeckers;
Red-bellied Woodpecker (male);
Northern Mockingbird (this was one friendly bird!);
Immature Red-Tailed Hawk;
and on the Hudson River, on the ice floating past the 79th Street Boat Basin at 11:30AM, was a Bald Eagle.  It flew north at 12:10PM.
Howie & Anita Stillman