Central Park, April 28th

In one week numbers have dropped because of indifferent migration weather, but diversity has exploded.  Somehow - and many of these were heard-only - I racked up 15 species of warbler in a morning while spending chunks of it looking for a Kentucky Warbler.

The Kentucky had been seen the previous day and stuck around the same place in Shakespeare Garden on the Saturday.  I was told it had not been seen in an hour, but Kentucky's often make regular circuits of the same terrain and vanish for quite some time between appearances.  I first saw it - a ventral view - scooting into a tree and dropping onto the ground whence it did a very Kentucky thing and vanished entirely.  Subsequently found by others it eventually ante'd up by perching on the fence and the semi-exposed rock.  Right on time, that Kentucky, in the last few days of April.

Also right on time was the Nashville in Strawberry Fields, the singing Prairie Warbler in the Upper Lobe and the Blue-winged singing on top of Shakespeare Garden.  Two of these were heard-only, but at least I found a Northern Parula near Belvedere Castle while being taunted by an elusive Black-throated Green.  Challenging Kentucky for the best bird of the day was a singing Orange-crowned Warbler in the big oak still standing in Maintenance Field.  Another decent bird was a Chestnut-sided Warbler also in the Maintenance Field.  Despite a warm winter and prematurely warm March the migrant timing is pretty much as expected - some early appearances but most of them are clamped by the need to fly a couple of thousand miles during spring.  Kind of tough to speed that up.  This is still a transitional stage in spring migration, as evidenced by more early spring species like Blue-headed Vireo and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Hermit Thrush as the only Catharus.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Blue-headed Vireo
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Blue-winged Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Kentucky Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Eastern Towhee

Kentucky Warbler, western Fox Sparrow

The excitement in Strawberry Fields on May 13th was an unusual Fox Sparrow that had been found by Steve Chang. Apart from the fact that it is beyond late for an eastern red Fox Sparrow, it also didn't look a great deal like one (see the above pic). It was clearly one of the western subspecies of Fox Sparrow. This is interesting, but even more exciting if you consider that the Fox Sparrow is fairly likely to be split into different species in the not very distant future.

Although there wasn't much of a migration it turned out to be a decent day even without the Fox Sparrow exotica: a Kentucky Warbler in the Evodia Field turned up on it's grand circle while I was there, a female Hooded Warbler was nearby and there were two singing male Cape May Warblers. Lacking were flycatchers of any sort, or cuckoos, but it's never a bad day when you see a Kentucky.

Chimney Swift
White-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
House Wren
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Kentucky Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Baltimore Oriole

Baldpate Mountain, May 9th

Faced with overcast, lines of storms and a howling wind I didn't do all that much birding on the weekend of the 8th-9th, but did make a visit to Baldpate Mtn (Titusville NJ) on the mid morning of Sunday May 9th. Blue-winged Warbler and Yellow Warblers were singing along the entrance road to the parking lot. Things along the blue trail (ridge trail) were quieter and many of the birds were heard-only in light of a lot of wind-induced movement in the canopy. Highlights were most certainly the singing Kentucky and Hooded Warblers - and I managed to see both of them after the Kentucky popped up to investigate why the cardinals were agitated (they must have been nesting close to the trail).

After Baldpate Mtn I made a brief visit to Bull's Island SP where I found 3 species of swallows (Cliff, Barn, Northern Rough-winged) and a fly-by young Peregrine was an unusual find. Around noon there was little activity along the canal-side nature trail and in particular no Acadian Flycatchers (it probably being a little early for them).

Red-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Blue-winged Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Kentucky Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Field Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Baltimore Oriole