Saturday, May 24, 2008

Central Park, May 24th 2008

On what may prove to be my last Central Park visit for spring, birding at Tanner's Spring started out very slow, but the hot spot of the recent days - the bridle path along the south side of the Reservoir - was still productive. There were multiple Blackburnian Warbler males and at least on Bay-breasted Warbler along with a decent selection of other warblers.

Elsewhere Turtle Pond was quiet, as was most of the Ramble apart from the tail end of a termite hatch-out that we caught at the Oven. Cedar Waxwings, a Scarlet Tanager and a small number of warblers were happily fly-catching the slow moving flying termites. Other reports indicated that termite hatch-outs occurred at the Lower Lobe (Wagner Cove) and Upper Lobe at more-or-less the same time. This corresponds to what I've empirically observed about termite hatch-outs - that they always seem to occur around late morning. At one point it almost looked as if a Green Heron flew in to check out the hatch.

A visit to the Lower Lobe before exiting the park turned up Northern Waterthrush and multiple Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers. 14 warbler species in total.

Migrant list:
Solitary Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Lincoln's Sparrow

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