The mandarin duck of Central Park has disappeared. I tried to find it.

NEW YORK – I can not even operate the binoculars.

I'm trying to watch a barred owl. These are not uncommon, but they are unusual to see in Central Park. Some striped owls arrived earlier this month and at least one of them remained in the park despite the New York marathon that took place on Sunday.

Apparently, there is one who is perched on a branch in front of me. And I can not see it. I can get the sharpness of my left eye with the binoculars, but the right lens refuses to work with my sight. And I'm not really sure how to use them in the first place; I try to hold them close to my face and I only see half the time inside binoculars.

I'm trying to refocus myself. But even when the binoculars seem to be working, at least through my left eye, I can not spot the owl. The leaves have fallen. There is a whole team of bird-birds here for the owl, and everyone can see it except me. Finally, I use the camera viewfinder Bruce Yolton, who blogs on hawks and other raptors in Central Park, to locate the position of the owl.

It turns out that I can even see it with my naked eyes. It's nice! It's pretty! I use the binoculars to watch closely watching the bird asleep for a few minutes. He does not even know that we are all watching him. Is it impolite to watch a sleeping bird? Perhaps the best is not to think about these things.

Of course, the real reason I'm here in Central Park is to see the Cool Duck. This is the male Mandarin duck, a bird from East Asia that made its appearance in Central Park last month. He is colorful and pretty. I like ducks. I wanted to see him.

On October 11, photographer Gus Keri saw the duck. The news was popularized by a post posted on the Gothamist blog and Twitter account. Manhattan Bird Alert (@BirdCentralPark). Things hit the head when the New York Times wrote about it last week. It's become the thing to do in Manhattan.

I thought it was better to go see the duck with a professional and I found one. David Barrett, who runs Manhattan Bird Alert, agreed to take me to birdwatch Wednesday morning in Central Park.

The only problem was that the bird was gone. The mandarin duck was seen last Saturday. But since then, nothing. "Playing poultry?" Wondered CBS New York. According to Barrett, the bird is probably right elsewhere in the city, perhaps the Central Park Reservoir. Or maybe the Hudson River: late October, someone spotted the duck New Jersey.

The duck, wherever it is, is not native to the region. This is not from any of the local zoos they confirmed. It is probably the pet of someone who has escaped or been released. Animals escaped from captivity are now reproducing in the wild in the UK, and sites in North Carolina and California now have populations of their own. But in Central Park, there is only that one, and since mandarin ducks have a unique number of chromosomes that prevents them from crossing with another duck species, this is the end of the line for the population of Mandarin ducks from New York.

Mr. Barrett is a finance specialist and a computer scientist – he himself created his robot-bird on Twitter – who lives near the Upper East Side Park. He started birding a few years ago while he was looking for a way to make his walks in Central Park more interesting.

It's quickly become an obsession. Barrett wrote a book, A great year in Manhattan: competition bird stories, about his attempts to find as many bird species as possible in the park in 2012. He also succeeds. His website explains that "[h]Total of 267 countable bird species during his lifetime in Manhattan … ranks second in eBird's all-time list in October 2018. "However, when I talk to him, I'm not sure about it. learn quickly that the information is out of date: he now has 268. (The latest addition was a sparrow of Harris, "a mega-western vagabond whose last record in Manhattan dates back more than 60 years.") He saw 222 birds in Central Park this year alone.

Bird watching – not "bird watching," as Barrett tells me when I'm wrong, is a sport of competition and cooperation. The 268 discoveries of Barrett's birds are not really rewarded. The bird tracking is done entirely on the honors system, but if someone says that he spotted a penguin in Central Park, he will be baffled.

But a penguin from Central Park would not count, even if someone spotted it. The mandarin duck either. Ornithologists can not count of natural origin species that they see. Barrett explains that some birdwatchers are actually upset by all the attention of the Mandarin Duck: For an amateur birdwatcher who is looking to increase his number of countable bird species under the AAC, he is sure to 39, is simply a pet escaped. Nevertheless, Barrett said the attention was great for him: his Twitter account doubled followers last month and he even gave a phone interview for this CBS story in New York while we watched the birds.

After seeing the owl, we walk around the park. We check the turtle pond to see if the mandarin duck is back in residence there; no chance. We hit the feeders placed by the Central Park Conservatory and saw quite a few birds: sad doves, crested tits, hermit thrushes, blackheaded chikadee and many sparrows.

We are going ahead, spotting blue jays, Canada geese and, of course, many breeding pigeons. Barrett is good at birdwatching: he identifies calls and points them out. Thus, the striped owl was first noticed: blue jays and other birds were making noise and were trying to harass it out of their territory, so that birders would find that predators were present . Today, Barrett helps me try to find a red-bellied woodpecker. I end up seeing one, which he reported, flying between trees. I only see it in the naked eye, but I think it matters.

We move on to another water scheme and Barrett is excited. "I think I see a purple finch!" S & # 39; he exclaims. "It would be huge!" But he corrects himself quickly: "I'm sorry – not huge – it's huge for us today." Purple Finch is not uncommon, but it's rare in Central Park at this time of the year, we spot it eating berries, it is pretty cute, and since we will probably not see the Mandarin duck, I feel it is huge for us today. 'hui.

Barrett did not expect to become an amateur ornithologist. "I thought bird watching would be a waste of time," he says. "I'm starting to quickly love birds for himself … I've started to see things I've never seen before, [including] the many birds in the park. The serene outdoor environment also constituted a welcome respite from the days that I had spent devoting myself to computer screens.

It's true: birds are a great way to go out, stroll and enjoy the outdoors. It allows birdwatchers to experience nature. The internet allows birdwatchers to quickly share their finds with other members of the community. "It's a treasure hunt," says Barrett. "Birding is the original Pokemon Go. "

David Barrett explains the common duck at The Pond while I film it.

We finally go to the pond, the southern end of the park and the most common duck. It's mostly mallards. We also see a common duck, a bird that is not native and that was probably the pet of someone who was released or escaped. It's cute. But he can not fly and he will not breed with other ducks. It will only be a duck from New York until his death.

Finally, Barrett and I see something special: three wooden ducks, a native bird related to Mandarin. (Mandarin and duck are the only two members of the genus Aix.) Like Mandarin, the wood duck is brightly colored. Its plumage is not so flamboyant, but it is cool. I focus on it with my binoculars and take a look.

Then he takes off and flies, and I keep him in my binoculars. It's just for me. With the help of the binoculars, it looks like it's in front of my face even though it's 25 feet from me. It was so pretty. And all – running the binoculars, keeping the duck in while it was flying to a different place, seeing it incredibly close – was awesome. I feel like a real ornithologist. Later, Barrett sends me his notes for the walk: We spotted 23 different species. I am climbing the eBird list.

As for Mandarin, we did not find it yesterday. But the duck was not gone. It was just in secret. This morning, one of Barrett's Bird Alert's followers received a message from her dentist.

The bird is back. It's in the pond. I am happy to know that he is alive and that he paddles. Sure, I could not find it. But someone did it, and that's enough.