Friday, May 2, 2008

Spring migration - Central Park - May 1st

After winter trips to Florida (Feb) and Texas (April 10-18th) I had spring migration almost backwards, seeing all sorts of migrant warblers/orioles/tanagers before they ever turn up in the New York area. But after recovering from the TX trip I made it into the park on April 26th (Louisiana Waterthrush was a nice find) and on May 1st.

I usually think of the first "big" day in the park as May 5th, but apart from a slow start on the west side - where a male Purple Finch was singing - there were decent numbers of warblers in the Ramble. I managed to see 10 species which is acceptable, but not epic, in spring when I'm carrying the camera. The warblers were mostly the usual suspects - best birds for the day were the Purple Finch, Eastern Kingbird, and an exceptionally drab Pine Warbler which was rather gray except for a little green on the crown.

Migrant list:

Chimney Swift
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Eastern Towhee
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch

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