Monday, May 13, 2013

Central Park Sat/Sun (11th/12th): 21 warbler species + flycatchers + thrushes

When delayed, spring migration has a predictable way to reassert itself.  In this case the even more compressed migration timeframe saw a noticeable transition in species mix on successive days, as numbers dropped after the big wave day on Friday.

Scarce to non-existant on Friday, Flycatchers and Thrushes turned up Saturday and Sunday.  It was unusual to get first-of-year Least Flycatcher and Eastern Wood-Pewee on the same day, but multiples of the former were seen both days along with Great Cresteds and Eastern Kingbirds (reports from elsewhere suggested a big flight of Eastern Kingbirds).   "Earlier" warbler species were supplemented by later spring species - I saw my first Blackpoll of the year on Friday, and had my first female Blackpoll on Sunday, as Yellow-rumped showed a rapid fall-off in numbers and I had 3 Wilson's on Sunday - they're rarely numerous in the park.

The stars of the show were a cooperative Blackburnian Warbler on Saturday morning, a male Prothonotary Warbler on Sunday afternoon, and I found a Marsh Wren while trying to reacquire the Prothonotary ahead of the storm front on Saturday.  The Prothonotary was seen on Turtle Pond on Sunday morning but then flew north - illustrating the act of faith of migrating warblers since it doesn't know the Reservoir or the Loch is ahead of it when it set off over the Great Lawn.

I came up with an aggregated total of 21 warblers for Sat-Sun and 23 for the Fri-Sun "triple".  Migration still remains, for example few Gray-cheeked Thrushes have been reported and the Eastern Wood-Pewees were silent and as singles, but the majority of the marked migration lag has been removed with the major push over the last few days.  Remains to be seen if we're going to pick up many sparrows this year, with no Lincoln's so far and a single Field and Swamp on Sunday.


Green Heron
Spotted Sandpiper
Chimney Swift
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-capped Chickadee
Marsh Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Prothonotary Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

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