Dickcissel - May 10th 2008 - Central Park

Along with a nice list of migrants - Cape Mays singing at Bow Bridge, Wilson's Warbler at the Lower Lobe - came news of a very exciting find. Leslie Beebe et al had discovered an adult male Dickcissel at Falconer's Hill. Dickcissels turn up in fall each year, particularly on Long Island, but spring Dickcissels are much rarer, especially in Central Park. This particular male was a little spooky but eventually everyone got decent looks at it, and it attracted a lot of attention.

Princeton area Grasslands - May 7th 2008

After an uninspiring stint in Central Park on May 6th I decided to look locally on May 7th at three local grassland preserves: Griggstown, Six Mile Run and Negri-Nepote, all of which are in Franklin Twp which seems to value its open space in contrast to other localities.

Starting at Griggstown there were swallows looking for mud on the ground, including a Northern Rough-winged Swallow that dropped down into the parking lot. There were four Bobolinks around the parking lot, which left when I arrived, but I kept seeing male Bobolinks in the preserve - they weren't being vocal or displaying however. There were also (silent) Savannah Sparrows but I heard no singing Grasshopper Sparrows. Griggstown appears to be getting a slow start. Wood Thrushes were to be heard from the woodland, at least.

Next I went to Six Mile Run, where the usual Chipping Sparrows were in the parking lot and Brown Thrasher, Baltimore Oriole and Yellow Warbler were in the scrubby area nearby. One interesting thing was watching a female Yellow Warbler gather silk strands from a Gypsy Moth caterpillar tent for nest building. She visited various tents several times for this. In the fields Eastern Bluebirds, Tree Swallows and Field Sparrows are inevitable. Two Indigo Buntings were singing, along with a Blue-winged Warbler. Further down the trail I came across the first of four singing Grasshopper Sparrows - in fact the first one was a very brightly-marked male. Since they starting singing later in the morning it's conceivable that they hadn't started at Griggstown.

After Six Mile Run I went to Negri-Nepote, where a Prairie Warbler sang near the parking lot, another Grasshopper Sparrow at the first of the grasslands. At the freshwater pond there were Hooded Merganser, several Least Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpipers, a full breeding plumage Spotted Sandpiper and a Lesser Yellowlegs. The sun was high enough that I didn't waste time photographing them, but it was interesting to see how they use any little bit of water they can find. Near Negri-Nepote I noticed other undeveloped private land that looked like it could be good for grassland species, although the two lots on the corner of Skillman Rd right next to the preserve had For Sale signs on them.

Finally I visited Princeton's Institute Woods to check that there hadn't been a warbler dropout - apart from Rose-breasted Grosbeak and singing Yellow Warbler things were relatively quiet at 11am and I left without spending too much time there.

Cerulean Warbler - Central Park - May 4th

Well, not actually in Central Park - the Cerulean was on 89th Street near the park, attracting quite a lot of attention between excited birders and bemused passers-by. Hopefully groups of binocular-toting strangers didn't freak out the locals too much.

I was in Central Park for another day's birding, and while numbers may have been marginally lower than the previous day the diversity was right up there - I found my highest total for seen/heard warblers so far this spring, but still just shy of the iconic 20 with a nice total of 18. Other nice birds were a late Junco, a heard-only White-eyed Vireo, three Rusty Blackbirds with a Louisiana Waterthrush in the Gill, and a singing Blackburnian Warbler just as I was leaving at Shakespeare's Garden.

There's still a mix of early/mid-spring birds, although today I did see my first Magnolia Warbler. However Blue-headed Vireos and Louisiana Waterthrushes are more characteristic of late April. Migration might lag a little, but it's about to play catch-up.

But back to the Cerulean. Doug Futuyma apparently found this bird while going to his car, and then word of it spread rapidly through the park. I saw it around 1:30pm and took a few photos: see the Cerulean Warbler link off my home page or the Cerulean Warbler page at my gallery. My previous best neighborhood bird was a Yellow-throated Warbler I once found along E65th Street in 2005 - a species that's a pretty good find in NYC but it was during a year in which several were found in Central Park. I think the Cerulean trumps it.

Migrant list:
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Louisiana Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Chipping Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch

Spring migration - Central Park - May 3rd

Since May 2nd apparently spawned a dropout while I cooled my heels at work in Princeton, I went into Central Park for the morning of Saturday. Migrants were numerous and I reached my highest warbler species of the spring: 16

Migrant list:
Solitary Sandpiper
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Northern Flicker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Blue-headed Vireo
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Worm-eating Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Eastern Towhee
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole

Pale Male and Lola - nest failure (again)

It's May, and by now the Red-tailed Hawk watchers are usually eagerly anticipating the mid-May fledging of this year's juveniles. Instead we have a New York Times piece on the failure of the classical Central Park Red-tailed Hawk nest for the fourth year in succession. It's difficult to say where the problem lies here - the nest disturbance in the winter of 2004/5, or the fact that Pale Male is now 17 or 18 years old - at the upper limit of wild Red-tailed Hawk life-expectancy. The current female (Lola) is considerably younger.

Marie Winn's page is usually the best place to go for information on that pair of hawks, if you're interested in more.

Spring migration - Princeton - May 2nd

Overnight rain combined with a southerly wind raised the prospects of migrant dropouts, and before I even got into Princeton there'd already been mention of them in a couple of places in NJ. The road towards the water facility at the Institute Woods had a couple of trees with many warblers in them - most of them Yellow-rumped Warblers. Quite a few singing species including multiple Black-throated Green Warblers and Blue-winged Warblers. I heard and tracked down a Blackburnian Warbler, which together with Black-throated Blue Warbler were new birds for the year. Overall, however, diversity wasn't that high although I did make it to 10 warbler species in about 1/4 of the time it took me the previous day.

Twenty minutes later, by 10am, these same trees were empty and the flock had moved on.

Migrant list:
Warbling Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Gray Catbird
Blue-winged Warbler (multiple)
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch

Spring migration - Central Park - May 1st

After winter trips to Florida (Feb) and Texas (April 10-18th) I had spring migration almost backwards, seeing all sorts of migrant warblers/orioles/tanagers before they ever turn up in the New York area. But after recovering from the TX trip I made it into the park on April 26th (Louisiana Waterthrush was a nice find) and on May 1st.

I usually think of the first "big" day in the park as May 5th, but apart from a slow start on the west side - where a male Purple Finch was singing - there were decent numbers of warblers in the Ramble. I managed to see 10 species which is acceptable, but not epic, in spring when I'm carrying the camera. The warblers were mostly the usual suspects - best birds for the day were the Purple Finch, Eastern Kingbird, and an exceptionally drab Pine Warbler which was rather gray except for a little green on the crown.

Migrant list:

Chimney Swift
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Eastern Towhee
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Baltimore Oriole
Purple Finch

Out of area - Texas trip - April 10th-18th

Just made it back from a very productive trip to Texas. Starting off in San Antonio the route led through the hill country, down to the Rio Grande Valley where I spent most of the time, then back up to the coastal bend before flying out of San Antonio.

Here's the trip report for this April 2008 Texas trip (under edit) .

Experiencing a remarkable string of luck, I found life birds on each of the first five days: Black-capped Vireo, White-throated Robin, Red-billed Pigeon, Hook-billed Kite, White-collared Seedeater, Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, Groove-billed Ani and Aplomado Falcon.

I'm sure the mosquito bites will go away eventually.

Sapsucker-assisted vagrancy

In the late half of this winter we've seen two noteworthy NYC vagrants - the Union Square Scott's Oriole and the Central Park Western Tanager - help their survival prospects by taking advantage of a less conventional food source of plant sap. Both the Oriole and Tanager have been seen drinking from sapsucker holes. Both of these sites happened to be on Viburnam bushes - an exotic hardy evergreen shrub that is present on both of these city parks. Later in the winter the Scott's Oriole was re-found in Thompkins Square Park doing exactly the same thing - drinking sap from Sapsucker holes in Viburnam.

Last winter an almost-overwintering Cape May Warbler in Riverside Park in Manhattan was seen drinking sap from Sapsucker holes, although these were probably from more native trees than Viburnam shrubs. Exploitation of sapsucker holes by Cape Mays is not an uncommon thing to observe in the Pinetum region of Central Park in late fall or early winter.

Shai Mitra, via the NYSBirds-L list made the observation that the numbers of overwintering Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers have been greater in recent years. Unfortunately I can't locate a reference for that observation. The BNA account for this species illustrates that it has a wide wintering range, with NYC being at the extreme north-eastern edge of it. It remains to be seen what influence non-native plants have on this range, because the Sapsucker doesn't appear to be all that picky over which plant to use. So a lot of unanswered questions. Certainly vagrants aren't obliged to exploit Sapsuckers - the 2006/7 Western Tanager in NJ was eating Juniper berries - but perhaps it indicates that the vagrants or out-of-seasonal rarities that we observe are the ones that are most resourceful in exploiting local food sources. Memorably the Scott's Oriole may have chosen to hang around the small corner of Union Square Park because the fruit offerings at the Ghandi statue offered it a supply of palatable food - it's a nectar drinker during the summer but eats fruit on the wintering grounds in Mexico.