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

Central Park Sept 29th and 30th

As the month drew to a close a north wind lured me into the park for both days on the weekend.  It's not a bad point to take stock of what appears to be a slightly later fall migration - in particular I've seen very few Ruby-crowned Kinglets so far and no Golden-crowned despite the date and it has been a month with no really cool days to push birds south.  There has been a switch over to a mix with later species: Blue-headed Vireo being seen on Sat and Eastern Phoebe's being around for a while.  There were quite a few Palm Warblers on Saturday, Eastern Towhees have become easier to find, and there was clearly some sparrow movement on Saturday - many of them had moved on by Sunday.  A few Black-capped Chickadees were seen early on Sunday - you would think this was a species that would do rather better in the park than it actually does, and sightings of them get pretty sparse before the population gets filled out during the invasion years.  Tufted Titmice seemed more numerous than usual, which made me suspect they'd been migrating as well.

Heavy overcast made things a little tough going on Saturday, which was apparently the better migration day but still quite patchy - Sunday it appeared that most of the migrants had left.  Saturday was also accompanied by the sound-testing that preceded the mammoth free concert scheduled for the Great Lawn at 5pm and led me to exit the park sooner rather than later.  On Saturday interesting birds were reported from various locations: Summer Tanager, Grasshopper Sparrow and we had a Marsh Wren in the Maintenance Field.  Marsh Wren is probably about as rare in the park as Connecticut Warbler but has none of the cache of the latter since Marsh Wren breeds all over the place coastally.  It did play the Connecticut trick of vanishing after the initial sighting.  Sunday was sunnier but also quieter from the migration perspective but a female-type Hooded Warbler was a nice bonus.  The last two weeks of the month are fairly typical for Hooded Warbler migration but this is starting to get close to my latest-ever fall Hooded date (Oct 3rd 2000)

Sat:

Cooper's Hawk                          
Chimney Swift                          
Ruby-throated Hummingbird              
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker               
Hairy Woodpecker                       
Northern Flicker                       
Eastern Wood-Pewee                     
Eastern Phoebe                         
Blue-headed Vireo                      
Red-eyed Vireo                         
Blue Jay                               
Red-breasted Nuthatch                  
Marsh Wren                             
Swainson's Thrush                      
Wood Thrush                            
Gray Catbird                           
Brown Thrasher                         
Cedar Waxwing                          
Ovenbird                               
Black-and-white Warbler                
Common Yellowthroat                    
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
Palm Warbler                           
Black-throated Green Warbler           
Eastern Towhee                         
Song Sparrow                           
Swamp Sparrow                          
White-throated Sparrow                 
Scarlet Tanager                        
Rose-breasted Grosbeak                 
Indigo Bunting                         
Common Grackle                         
American Goldfinch                     

Sun:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird              
Belted Kingfisher                      
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker               
Downy Woodpecker                       
Northern Flicker                       
Eastern Wood-Pewee                     
Eastern Phoebe                         
Red-eyed Vireo                         
Black-capped Chickadee                 
Red-breasted Nuthatch                  
House Wren                             
Carolina Wren                          
Swainson's Thrush                      
Wood Thrush                            
American Robin                         
Gray Catbird                           
Brown Thrasher                         
Cedar Waxwing                          
Black-and-white Warbler                
Hooded Warbler                         
American Redstart                      
Northern Parula                        
Magnolia Warbler                       
Blackpoll Warbler                      
Black-throated Blue Warbler            
Palm Warbler                           
Yellow-rumped Warbler                  
Eastern Towhee                         
White-throated Sparrow                 
Scarlet Tanager                       
Rose-breasted Grosbeak