An island of bird activity in an ocean of humanity

Pine siskins and white-throated sparrows scattered in all directions as the Cooper's hawk sliced through the trees, hoping to catch one of them. The hawk landed in a nearby tree and waited to see if the birds would return to feed on the ground -- where he would take another shot at them. Just down the hill, a wild turkey perched a few feet up in a tree, the early-morning sun reflecting off her bronze feathers.

If this sounds like a Carolina woodlands scene, nothing could be further from the truth. It was in the heart of New York during the holiday season when the city's streets are teeming with tourists, shoppers, hundreds of buses and a million taxis. Manhattan's island of concrete and steel is hardly a place for any self-respecting bird.

Unless it's in Central Park.

Birders welcome birders

With 25 million visitors a year, this 843-acre park is the busiest in the country, and yet it is a great place to go birding. I was meeting other birders at the Boathouse Restaurant on a Sunday morning. One of the first to arrive, I was fishing my binoculars out of the day pack when a woman came over and pointed out my first bird of the day, the wild turkey, perched in a London plane tree right in front of the restaurant. At 9 a.m. there were already dozens of runners, power-walkers and roller-bladers passing under the tree -- and yet this notoriously wary bird was sitting in plain view, although looking just a little nervous.

Soon, other birders arrived and we were joined by the leader, Bob DeCandido. Personable and knowledgeable, Bob leads walks in the park on Friday and Sunday mornings. It was clear that many in the group were regulars, as Bob greeted several by name. A couple of dozen people showed up and you knew immediately from their accents that they were mostly native New Yorkers. But while they don't sound much like folks from around here, they were as welcoming as birders anywhere.

After everyone had a good look at the turkey and Bob had given a brief orientation for the newcomers, we trudged up the hill into The Ramble, one of the wilder parts of the park. At a junction of paved paths, a series of bird feeders is kept stocked with seeds and other treats by a bird-loving volunteer. Chickadees, titmice, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches and goldfinches were busy at the feeders. It was here that the Cooper's hawk dashed through in its attempt to grab a meal on the fly.

The weather was unusually warm for late December, and there were lots of ducks on the ponds. Northern shovelers, buffleheads, hooded mergansers, a pair of gadwalls, and a hundred or more ruddy ducks paddled about, preened and just rested on the water. But a few days later, a cold front had moved in and all the ponds were frozen. Only the 100-acre reservoir in the middle of the park had open water and still held lots of ducks and gulls.

I had come back to the park to look for a long-eared owl. Looking a bit like a smaller, slimmer great-horned owl, the long-eared is rarely seen in North Carolina. But a few tend to spend each winter in Central Park. They like to roost in pine and fir trees where the dense evergreen foliage provides shelter from the weather and safe places to hide. And, like all owls, long-eareds are masters of camouflage. I must have searched 200 conifers that day but couldn't spot an owl in the lot. Some birds just won't give you a break.

If you find yourself in New York and want to try one of Bob DeCandido's bird walks, visit his Web site at www.BirdingBob.com.

■ Beginning in February, our Bird's-Eye View column will move to the first and third Friday of each month.

■ Bird's-Eye View is a joint column by Ron Morris and Phil Dickinson. Today's column was written by Morris. Morris retired after 24 years as curator at the N.C. Zoo. He has studied birds around the world and is currently the vice president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County. Dickinson is a legal writer. He has been an active birder for 15 years, and is a past president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County and heads the conservation committee. If you have a birding question or story idea, write to Bird's-Eye View in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101-3159, or send an e-mail to birding@wsjournal.com. Please type "birds" in the subject line.