After my bird walk at NYBG I decided to try my luck at Pelham Bay Park. Although I had read a Sedge Wren had been found near the picnic area I had no luck in finding it. So I headed to my new favorite place to bird, the little bridge by Turtle Cove. During the summer there are marsh wrens everywhere and now during migration the brackish swampy area is full of sparrows. Migrating sparrows pass through NYC during the month of October. That is it really - just one month to see all different species of sparrow and today I had a sparrow bonanza at the Garden and had hopes of adding more at Pelham Bay Park. As I scanned the mugwort I could see flickering and flitting through the reeds and bushes. Swamp, song - in all different plumages- field, house finch, American Goldfinch and two very agressive Belted Kingfishers passed within view of my binoculars. The Kingfishers put on quite an aerial display, which may have caught the attention of a passing Peregrine Falcon. All of sudden I heard screaming from two different type of birds and I looked up to see the Peregrine had caught the Kingfisher in mid-air. The Kingfisher was screaming and the Peregrine was screaming back at it. To tell you the truth, it was a horrible sight. The sounds of death, the agony of the Kingfisher and the screaming of the falcon were deafening. The Peregrine flew around the Cove three or four times before it carted away its prey. Just as I started to recover from that sight a very large Osprey appeared before me holding a squirming bunker in its talons. It had just picked up the fish from the shallow water of the cove and the fish was desperately wiggling to get free as the osprey also flew around the same area many times. I am guessing the predator uses the time flying to let its prey die before eating it. Even though it is the circle of life - it is hard to bear witness.
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