| Observing Location | Metropolitan Avenue @ Mcgraw Ave (SW corner), Bronx, NY |
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| Observational Period | 1730-1830 EDT |
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| Atmospheric Conditions |
| Cloud Cover | Scattered Clouds |
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| Temperature | 72° F |
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| Wind | Calm |
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| Humidity | Moderate |
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| Barometric Pressure | 30.25" Hg
Steady |
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| Feels Like | Mild |
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| Instruments | Brunton 8x21 compact binocular - Charlie |
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| Observing Party | Charlie Ridgway
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I read Marie Winn’s chapter on species specific communal roosts, Birds Asleep, in Central Park in the Dark today and decided to go out tonight to observe the fly-in at the holly tree. For both the robins and grackles it occurred shortly after sunset so I went out about 45 minutes before that to be sure I was there in time. As soon as I stepped out of the front door of my building I knew I was too late. I could hear the racket in the tree already in progress and the tree is over 300 feet away across a major traffic street, and not far from the elevated subway.
When I got there the first thing I found was that the holly tree is really a Hardy Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) according to my old Master Tree Finder. The leaves are bent and curled which gave them the appearance of points like a holly leaf has. It is also the only tree around that still has full, dark green leaves.
There were birds flitting among the branches of the tree but I couldn’t get my binocular on any of them. It was very disconcerting trying to get the binocular on the branch I wanted to examine and it doesn’t focus close enough to focus on the closest branches. I did see a couple of dusky breasts on small birds so I think most of the calls wee twitters but they were a variety of other calls that all came from the same area of the tree and after a while a starling-sized bird flew out and alighted on a traffic light where I got a good look at it. I think it was some type of flycatcher but the variety of calls, which stopped when the bird left the tree and started again when it returned, suggests a mockingbird. It had a long sharp bill and a dark patch from the base4 of the bill around the eye. The breast an back of the neck were covered with black spots. The wings had broad bands of russet from shoulder to tip. I think the legs were dark. A couple of times the smaller birds would get into an argument and come racing out of the tree and back in in another location. They always appeared to be plump sparrows.
Several times the racket stopped abruptly. One time I realized that a man had removed a free paper from one of the ubiquitous corner distribution boxes and had let the spring-loaded door slam. Another time I couldn’t immediately identify the cause until I saw a cat come walking across the side street and under the tree. No further calls were heard until after it had disappeared for a while under a line of parked cars. About 1815 EDT the calls stopped abruptly for no identifiable reason. A short while later the started again at a decreased volume. At 1820 EDT they stopped again and only a few calls wee heard in the remaining 10 minutes that I stood there.
One similarity I noticed between my tree and the Great Lawn robin dormitory three is that they are both the most exposed trees around. At the Great Lawn the dormitory is at the end of a row of trees so is exposed on three sides. My tree is an isolated tree in a small island of grass in an “L” of the building. The three is at least 20’ from the nearest part of the building and completely exposed on two sides. The streets are lines with primarily London plane trees that lean out over the street away from the buildings. There are also trees in the island down the center of Metropolitan Ave. Most of the trees have interlocking crowns like the rows of trees around the Great Lawn. This is the only real solitary tree in the area.
