Central Park, April 14th/15th

In a series of days with strong south-westerly wind components I did a rare mid-April "double" weekend, traveling by train into Manhattan on both Saturday and Sunday. Usually in mid April there's not enough volume of diversity to pull me in on both days.

While diversity was lacking, there was a lot of volume on both days. Warblers dominated Saturday but sparrows put in a good showing on Sunday. Multiple Louisiana Waterthrushes on both days, year firsts like Brown Creeper and Winter Wren, my House Wren early date for the north east, and Brown Thrasher my earliest date for the park by about 10 days. The aggregate list did not contain anything remarkable, but the number of birds for the middle of April was surely one of the best migration movements for that date I'd seen in years.

Also of note was a leucistic White-throated Sparrow that I saw in Strawberry Fields on both days (photos obtained on Sunday) which had a striking mostly-white head.

Double-crested Cormorant
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Blue-headed Vireo
House Wren
Winter Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch

Central Park, April 18th

A decent mid-April migration day with the usual suspects including a few Palm Warblers, a Pine Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Eastern Towhee. Migrants present in good numbers were: Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Winter Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch

Migration moves on

New arrivals for me:

Louisiana Waterthrush: April 12th, Central Park
Yellow-throated Warbler: April 12th, Central Park
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: April 16th, Princeton
Yellow-rumped Warbler: April 18th, Central Park (first migrant one?)
Pine Warbler: April 18th, Central Park
Palm Warbler: April 18th, Central Park
Northern Parula: April 17th, Princeton (new early date for me by one day)

Central Park, April 12th

My first foray into Central Park for the year, and a smallish number of early spring migrants were present. Several Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Hermit Thrushes, one Fox Sparrow, a few Pine Siskins at the feeders and around the Ramble. Only two warblers: Louisiana Waterthrush in the Gill (seen singing) and a Yellow-throated Warbler at the south side of Conservatory Water. The latter was feeding on the roof of a concession stand and on the edge of the pond - rather atypical behavior for this species.

After that I went to Edgewater NJ to find Monk Parakeet, now that they had recently been added to the NJ list. Then down to South Amboy where I failed to pick out Little Gulls from the Bonaparte's Gull flock there in windy conditions but found other spring arrivals: Forster's Tern, Snowy Egret and Laughing Gull. A handful of Gannets were hunting in the bay.

Central Park list:
Great Egret
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Eastern Phoebe
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Yellow-throated Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Chipping Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Brown-headed Cowbird
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch