Good Weekend Part 1, April 30th

As Chris pointed out, what you don't normally get is multiple Blackburnian Warblers on April 30th. And yet here one was, singing 20 feet over my head. The day had started cloudy and slow, although with pockets of activity. When the sun came out the Ramble lit up in terms of migrants: Veery, Wood Thrush, Blue-winged Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo were the first-of-year birds. The Cerulean, while typically high, was quite vocal and gave decent looks.

I ended up with 16 warbler species, which is rather a high total for April, especially since I was carrying the camera. Cape May and Bay-breasted were reported from the north of the park, Worm-eating from the Ramble, so the multiple observer total was comfortably in the 20's.

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret (fly-over)
Northern Shoveler
Wood Duck
Chimney Swift
Northern Flicker
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo (1)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery (1)
Wood Thrush (1)
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Chestnut-sided Warbler (1)
Magnolia Warbler (1)
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler (several)
Blackburnian Warbler (2++)
Prairie Warbler (1 heard)
Palm Warbler
Cerulean Warbler (1 singing)
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole (1st year male at Polish Statue)
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch (Polish Statue and Maintenance Field)
American Goldfinch

Princeton - Hooded Warbler and Solitary Sandpiper

Although striking out on the Virginia Rail that was reported the previous day, a morning visit to Princeton's Institute Woods was quite interesting early. There wasn't a big migration there, with low numbers of warblers, but there were one or two interesting birds. On the pond: Great Blue Heron, Tree Swallows and two Solitary Sandpipers. The latter were new for the year to me. Along the drive toward the water plant were Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Yellow Warbler and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at the pond and off in the woods were singing House Wren, Ovenbird and Common Yellowthroat. However the best bird of the day was right back at where I parked my car - a female Hooded Warbler moving purposefully through the low undergrowth in the woods but showing itself clearly for a few seconds before darting across the road and vanishing.

Central Park 4/24 - good migration

On about as good a migration day as I've seen as early April 24th, a warm day following a wet day filled the park with migrants. Most of the migrants were Black-and-white Warblers (all male) and Yellow-rumped Warblers, but I did come up with 12 warbler species by the time I left around 1pm.

In the Maintenance Field things started off slowly, with two Brown Thrashers, Common Yellowthroat and Chimney Swift (first-of-year for me). Then Hermit Thrush and Northern Flicker put in an appearance and I had a brief look at Northern Parula flitting from tree to tree. Around Azalea Pond things were more active with multiple B+W Warblers and Yellow-rumped. My only Palm Warbler for the day passed through. Then I found by chance a silent Yellow-throated Vireo, for the longest time my only vireo of the day but I was to add Blue-headed Vireo later on. Northern Waterthrush was singing at Azalea Pond and there were several around including a very vocal one at the Upper Lobe. Near the Upper Lobe I also found a very mobile singing Yellow Warbler along with silent individual Blue-winged Warbler and Great Crested Flycatcher. Over at Sparrow Ridge (Sparrow Rock) near Tanner's Spring I found two Field Sparrows, a Black-throated Green Warbler and located a vocal Baltimore Oriole. Then up in the small flat area between Shakespeare Garden and Belvedere Castle I saw both the reported Hooded Warbler (first year male, by appearance) and tracked down the first year male Orchard Oriole by its chatter. The final hurrah for the day was a singing Black-throated Blue Warbler in the Oven.

Looking at the sightings logs I keep online, the Yellow-throated Vireo was by far my earliest one - previously May 1st was my early date. But the Black-throated Blue was more or less on time (my early date for that is the 20th). But there's still a lot of spring to come.

First of year birds in the following list are marked with FOY.

Red-tailed Hawk
Chimney Swift (FOY)
Great Crested Flycatcher
Blue-headed Vireo
Yellow-throated Vireo (FOY)
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Blue-winged Warbler (FOY)
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler (FOY)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (FOY)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler (FOY)
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird (FOY)
Northern Waterthrush (FOY)
Hooded Warbler (FOY)
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole (FOY)
Baltimore Oriole (FOY)

Princeton 4/18

With the prospects of a better migration day on Monday, I spent a little time at Princeton's Rogers Refuge before work. Along the road were several Yellow-rumped Warblers along with Ruby-crowned Kinglet (singing), Brown Creeper, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe. Near the pond I had a singing House Wren and back toward the car a Carolina Wren. A pair of Wood Ducks were on the pond.

The Lesser Calendines are in full bloom here, carpeting the ground in many places in an attractive display. Shame then that they are a nasty little invasive and crowding out the native species.

Central Park after the deluge, 4/17

Saturday ended amidst a storm of epic proportions, which cleared out too late to provide much of an overnight migration. So while I traveled into Central Park on Sunday I had to work hard to see any migrants at all. I came up with a single drab female Pine Warbler for the new world warbler list, although it was perfect habitat for Waterthrushes or Rusty Blackbird given the amount of water in the Ramble. Most interesting bird for me was an immature Sharp-shinned Hawk sitting in the Evodia Field, which showed little interest in making a pass at the American Goldfinches working a way at the last remaining feeder.

Double-crested Cormorant
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Pine Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
American Goldfinch

Princeton: Bittern, White-eyed Vireo 4/14

A quite cooperative American Bittern had been at Princeton's Rogers Refuge most of the week. After a quick check on Monday, when I found only a few Wilson's Snipe, I returned on a warm Thursday evening where I found the bird out in the open at the edge of the phragmites. Not a bad bird for NJ. I also saw one Wilson's Snipe again as it flushed from further back in the pond.

Additional birds were Wood Duck, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and a White-eyed Vireo. The vireo is noteworthy because my personal early date for WEVI in the north-east was April 22nd 2008 (Sandy Hook), so this bird was 8 days early.

Migrant yard birds Saturday 4/9

After a week away working at Brookhaven National Lab, I returned home to see that spring had progressed in my absence. On Saturday morning I was watching feeder birds and thought that the House Finches looked odd. On retrieving my binoculars the birds were still there and proved to be two male Purple Finches - a first for the feeders, and for my year list, although they've flown over the yard before. The finches stuck around throughout the morning. Another first-of-year was Chipping Sparrow, which had clearly had a major influx during the week from other NY/NJ reports. Dark-eyed Junco numbers seemed to be down, so possibly some have moved on.

Two FOY's before even leaving the house. Although I was still lethargic from the Brookhaven trip I did head out to a local birding spot. Plainsboro Preserve is an old gravel pit with surrounding woodland and farmland. The visitor center had held a good collection of US birding travel books but their selection was poor this time - they've clearly stopped stocking them. At the feeders were a predictable mix of molding American Goldfinch, Brown-headed Cowbird and Red-winged Blackbird. Tree Swallows have also moved in en masse this past week and several were staking out nest boxes. I also found Golden-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush (FOY) and Eastern Phoebe but the preserve was relatively quiet, as is typical here. The lake can sometimes pick up Common Loon but all there was were a few Canada Geese and two Mallards.

Redpolls

Common Redpolls were forecast to be an "invasion bird" this winter. And invaded they have, but they started invading really late in the winter, around February. It's not likely that they are still heading south, but there are some lingerers around. Two such birds turned up at the Central Park feeders and I went to see them on April 3rd. I found one adult male and a much drabber bird that on checking my photos turned out to be a first winter male. They didn't stick around for long (and certainly not close to as long as the long-staying Varied Thrush, still present in the park on April 14th).