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Central Park Bird Count Yields Rare Find

By DNAinfo Staff on December 19, 2010 7:18pm  | Updated on December 20, 2010 5:58am

By Olivia Scheck

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

CENTRAL PARK — Binoculared hobbyists gathered at a non-descript location in Central Park Sunday to catch a glimpse of what some say is an awesome sight – a rare bird known as the Varied Thrush.

It was the day of the 111th Annual Central Park Christmas Bird Count, the longest running citizen science survey in the world.

And, said birdwatcher Andy Gershon, the thrush was, "the star of the show.”

Gershon, 49, of the Upper West Side, was huddled near The Ramble, a wooded area inside the park, with fellow birder Wolfgang Demisch, 66, who heard about the Varied Trush sighting through an email list called EBirdNYC.

It seems the bird, whose species is native to the West Coast of the United States, especially Alaska, had taken up residence in an area east of a building marked “Ramble Shed.”

The Varied Thrush
The Varied Thrush
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Flickr/jessicafm

Demisch, an Upper East Side resident said of the wayward bird, “If he survives the winter …it’ll be an heroic feat.”

Robert DeCandido, an ecologist who leads weekly bird walks through Central Park, said the Varied Thrush had been spotted in New York once before – in 2006 – but agreed that it was an exciting find.

“It doesn’t look like anything else in the world,” DeCandido said.

While the center of Manhattan may seem an unlikely refuge for nature lovers, Sarah Aucoin, Director of the Urban Park Rangers, which co-hosts Christmas Bird Count with New York City Audubon, said the park is actually an “important resting spot” for birds migrating south.

Gershon, who began birding in Central Park while attending college at Columbia, insisted that, “There is actually quite a bit of wildlife in Manhattan.

“Last year a wild turkey was living out at Riverside Park,” Gershon, who grew up in Connecticut, recalled. “He made friends with a hot dog vendor who was feeding him, I guess.”

Central Park Christmas Bird Count participants have documented more than 6,000 birds from about 60 species during the past few years. This year’s count will be determined after an official tally by event organizers and participants.