Welcome Back, Woody!

A Love Letter to the Prince of the Pond

I have loved a wood duck for more than four years. Woody resides at the Pond in Central Park, and his handsomeness and quirky personality bring me daily to see him and give him some peanuts. I put together a video in 2014 showing Woody in all his glory during the month of March. Woody! Woody! Woody! is still a joy to watch, for it shows his many moods.

Prince Woody, Sept. 16, 2016, back in full feather

In previous years, Woody would leave the Pond for maybe a week or a month, usually in May. This year, Woody left March 5 (or at least, I last saw him on March 4), and did not return. I kept returning to the Pond, but the worry and sadness got stronger and stronger as I didn't see him. I kept myself busy chasing hawks, but I really missed my friend.

But Woody returned!!! I saw him once again on June 16, and my joy was overwhelming. I put together my "love letter video" to Woody, and share it with you now. Woody is shown in full feather before his vacay, and then in the different stages of molting until he is back in full feather once again. It was filmed March 3 through Oct. 3, 2016. I set it to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, and he is worthy of that masterpiece!

This gallery shows Woody from March 3 through Oct. 2. You can really watch the progression of the molting. When he molts, Woody hides out in the reeds. He can't really fly and the sun must really burn. So I am always happy when he comes to see me, and never get upset that he wants to leave very quickly and return to the reeds. Woody is his own duck, and I respect that.

Woody! Woody! Woody! happy to see me! Oct. 2, 2016

More Hawk Chasing in Central Park

September 3, the evening after Pale Male hung batlike from a tree, he posed for pictures near the restrooms at Maintenance Meadow, then swooped down, caught a rat, and ate the rat on the ground. Did he mantle the rat because he remembered what happened when he flew too soon to a tree the night before, or did he mantle it because Octavia was nearby and he was not going to give her any until he was good and ready? At any rate, when he finished half the rat, he did give the remainder to Octavia on Cedar Hill, and she ate a lot of it before flying off.

Pale Male in the Ramble, September 3, 2016

On September 4, I saw Pale Male after he had raided a squirrels' nest and ate a baby squirrel. I was able to photograph him in the Ramble and on Cedar Hill. On September 5 after the Yankees game and before my singing workshop, I lucked into Fred Hawk over the bridle path south of the Reservoir, north of the west Pinetum. I hadn't seen him this close for quite a while, and it was nice to just watch him for a while.

Fred Hawk, over the bridle path south of the Reservoir, September 5, 2016

There is some rat eating in the first video. Just posing in the second.

Pale Male and Octavia, on September 3. The last two photos are Octavia.

Pale on September 4, and a grieving squirrel.

Fred Hawk, over the bridle path south of the Reservoir. He flew here after a brief stop in the Pinetum across the transverse.