Thursday: a nice little foray into Staten Island netted Eurasian Wigeon at Tottenville Train Station - this bird had been reported last year and is likely the same individual that sometimes was seen at Perth Amboy waterfront last winter. This time I was far luckier than my Perth Amboy forays and actually saw it in a small flock of American Wigeons. Then the maint target for the day: Cave Swallows at Cemetery of the Resurrection adjacent to Mount Loretto. This flock had been upwards of 60 birds a week earlier but between 8 and 20 still persisted when I was there, visiting the pond to hawk insects. The number is ambiguous because I wasn't sure if I saw the same flock 3x or three different flocks. A single Tree Swallow was present and also fly-by Pine Siskin and Purple Finch. Then back into NJ with a visit to Roselle where finding the Greater White-fronted Goose and Cackling Geese wasn't especially hard at Warinanco Park.
Friday: back into NYC in Central Park, where there was no Brant on the Reservoir, no Rufous Hummingbird at the Conservatory Garden, a single Barred Owl in the usual location and a few Fox Sparrows in the Ramble but not a great deal else. Noteworthy was so many Tufted Titmice it almost constituted a plague.
Saturday: despite strong winds following the passage of a cold front I went out to Barnegat Inlet hoping for a little coastal finch movement - to no avail. However in challenging conditions I found a late Brown Pelican flying up the inlet, a Royal Tern amongst the Forster's Terns and a larger Bonaparte's Gull flock, and the usual Harlequins. The rest of the sea duck count was very low, with only two Long-tailed Ducks and 20 Black Scoters. Down at Brigantine div. of Forsythe NWR where the violence that Hurricane Sandy had done to the wildlife drive (closed even to walking) was quite evident, I did snag a Cave Swallow over the open section of drive toward the gull tower. Otherwise things were quite distant (abundant waterfowl) or keeping their head down in the strong wind.
Sunday: failing yet again to find Crossbills in NYC - this time in Prospect Park - I did manage to find a single Rusty Blackbird, and a couple of Pine Siskins at the Breeze Hill feeders.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Inwood and Central Parks, Nov 17th: Barred/Bluebird/Brant but no Barnacle
The possibility of a Barnacle Goose lured me all the way up to the tip of Manhattan and Inwood Hill Park early on Saturday. The Barnacle was nowhere to be found, although I checked all the grassy areas. A consolation prize - and apparently my first ones for Manhattan - were a flock of 10 American Pipits on the eastern ball fields.
The rest of the day turned out rather more successfully, and by the time I limped off to the train I'd covered a few miles and added three Central Park birds to my list, which now numbers 199. A little walk across the north end of the park brought me to the Conservatory Garden where the northern (circular) flower garden is an absolute riot of color. It's understandably lured in a Rufous Hummingbird that's been there for about a week - I got enough poor tail-spread photographs to be sure it was a female Rufous and not any other Selasphorus, and the incomplete emergent gorget spot suggests it's an immature although I'm not totally certain on age. This is not the first hummingbird seen in this location - there was an Allen's in 2002, and it's not the first Rufous I've seen in the park since there was an adult female Rufous in 2004. As long as those flowers keep going and there's not a hard frost the hummingbird should do well for some time at this location. (Update: it was gone by the following Friday). I spent some time at this very colorful and warm location and also noted two Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker but not a great deal else - although there were crossbills reported from more coastal locations there did not seem to be a flight over the park.
I met Junko at the hummingbird who told me about a Brant at the Reservoir. I managed to miss this on the way down the park the first time but looped back up there on my way out of the park and got good looks at an immature Brant hanging out with Canada Geese. Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead and Ruddy Ducks were some of the more interesting waterfowl on the Reservoir, mostly clustered at the north end.
The I headed down to what has become a reliable spot for Barred Owl. Barred Owl would normally be exceptionally rare in the park but there was one on the western edge of the park last winter (also roamed the Upper West Side, apparently) and this winter there may be as many as three Barred Owls here. Despite once being a pretty regular Long-eared Owl roosting spot, Central Park hasn't hosted any regularly roosting owls in years. Thankfully (and rather unlike the Long-eared) the Barred Owl roost is a long way off the ground, immune to curious onlookers. A lot of passer's by were curious about this owl, so my skyward-pointed camera turned out to be mostly used a spotting scope. I've accumulated a pretty good list of owls seen in the park (Long-eared, Northern Saw-whet, Great Horned, Barn, Barred, Boreal) but this was one of the better ones and one that I never expected to see here.
Finally, I was alerted to an Eastern Bluebird feeding at Sparrow Rock. This bird seemed pretty tame for a Bluebird, considering a small crowd of birders gathered to admire it, and was in immature male plumage - still pretty resplendent in deep sky blue and red but with a little brown shading to the blue color on the scapulars and nape and pointed retrices. Also there was a Hermit Thrush, which the Bluebird seemed to be using at times to detect insects and then attempted to steal them from it. The Bluebird seemed to be doing fairly well on insect hunting, and the continuing fairly sunny and milder conditions (high in the 50's) suggest that all the park rarities should do fine for at least the next week.
Brant
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Northern Shoveler
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Barred Owl
Rufous Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
American Kestrel
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
Update: the Barnacle Goose seems to be more reliably seen at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, which is geographically close to Inwood.
The rest of the day turned out rather more successfully, and by the time I limped off to the train I'd covered a few miles and added three Central Park birds to my list, which now numbers 199. A little walk across the north end of the park brought me to the Conservatory Garden where the northern (circular) flower garden is an absolute riot of color. It's understandably lured in a Rufous Hummingbird that's been there for about a week - I got enough poor tail-spread photographs to be sure it was a female Rufous and not any other Selasphorus, and the incomplete emergent gorget spot suggests it's an immature although I'm not totally certain on age. This is not the first hummingbird seen in this location - there was an Allen's in 2002, and it's not the first Rufous I've seen in the park since there was an adult female Rufous in 2004. As long as those flowers keep going and there's not a hard frost the hummingbird should do well for some time at this location. (Update: it was gone by the following Friday). I spent some time at this very colorful and warm location and also noted two Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker but not a great deal else - although there were crossbills reported from more coastal locations there did not seem to be a flight over the park.
I met Junko at the hummingbird who told me about a Brant at the Reservoir. I managed to miss this on the way down the park the first time but looped back up there on my way out of the park and got good looks at an immature Brant hanging out with Canada Geese. Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead and Ruddy Ducks were some of the more interesting waterfowl on the Reservoir, mostly clustered at the north end.
The I headed down to what has become a reliable spot for Barred Owl. Barred Owl would normally be exceptionally rare in the park but there was one on the western edge of the park last winter (also roamed the Upper West Side, apparently) and this winter there may be as many as three Barred Owls here. Despite once being a pretty regular Long-eared Owl roosting spot, Central Park hasn't hosted any regularly roosting owls in years. Thankfully (and rather unlike the Long-eared) the Barred Owl roost is a long way off the ground, immune to curious onlookers. A lot of passer's by were curious about this owl, so my skyward-pointed camera turned out to be mostly used a spotting scope. I've accumulated a pretty good list of owls seen in the park (Long-eared, Northern Saw-whet, Great Horned, Barn, Barred, Boreal) but this was one of the better ones and one that I never expected to see here.
Finally, I was alerted to an Eastern Bluebird feeding at Sparrow Rock. This bird seemed pretty tame for a Bluebird, considering a small crowd of birders gathered to admire it, and was in immature male plumage - still pretty resplendent in deep sky blue and red but with a little brown shading to the blue color on the scapulars and nape and pointed retrices. Also there was a Hermit Thrush, which the Bluebird seemed to be using at times to detect insects and then attempted to steal them from it. The Bluebird seemed to be doing fairly well on insect hunting, and the continuing fairly sunny and milder conditions (high in the 50's) suggest that all the park rarities should do fine for at least the next week.
Brant
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Northern Shoveler
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Barred Owl
Rufous Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
American Kestrel
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
Monday, November 12, 2012
Northern LapwingS
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| Northern Lapwings at a distance - record shot only |
I birded Central Park on Sunday morning (Nov 11th) and drove into NYC with the strategy that if the Lapwings were re-found I'd head out to Montauk. Central Park had a modest finch flight, so I had Pine Siskins and Purple Finches but alas not the elusive White-winged Crossbills or Evening Grosbeaks. More conventional early winter species like Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-crowned Sparrow and quite a few Hermit Thrushes were around. Much of the Ramble was closed off for post-storm tree clean-up (both Sandy and the following week's Nor'easter had an impact on the park).
Then I saw an email reporting the Lapwings and I was back in the car by 10am.
The Midtown Tunnel had re-opened just the previous Friday after being flooded by Sandy so after leaving Manhattan the first part of the trip was speedy (L.I.E., Rt. 27/Sunrise Highway). But the problem with Montauk - and the reason I rarely go there any more - is that the next 35 miles are a tortuous wind through Southampton, Bridgehampton, Easthampton, Amagansett and other picturesque towns with very low speed limits. There's a couple of fantasy 55mph zones near Montauk but most of the time you're closer to 35mph, which is about half the speed you were doing to for the last hour+.
Nevertheless, I made it out the east side of Montauk and to Deep Hollow Ranch (aka Theodore Roosevelt County Park) and found the Northern Lapwings without a problem. This location is where I saw both Barnacle and Pink-footed Geese in 2007. Here's where it got both surreal and mundane. I've seen thousands of Lapwings in Britain where they are relatively common on arable land, but it was a species I'd never really anticipated seeing in the United States, much less two of them hanging out together. I had spent the preceding morning (Saturday) looking for the Lapwing that had been reported near Allentown NJ on Thursday with no success. Lapwings look quite exotic to American birders, with the irridescence, crest and face pattern, but less so to Brits like me. However Lapwings as a family are often quite spectacular in plumage.
Much of the time these Lapwings were distant and somewhat wary, being flushed by a passing Red-tailed Hawk (which looks pretty similar to the Common Buzzard, Buteo buteo if you're a prey species) or people on horseback. So I did see them in flight and their relaxed flight style on broad wings belies the fact that these birds are long-distance migrants in Europe. Which explains how they made it this far in the first place - something like a Greenfinch would splash down in the Atlantic from exhaustion.
The ABA blog for Hurricane Sandy also speculates that this amazing Lapwing event is correlated with a high pressure system that was present over the north Atlantic Ocean. It's stretching the correlation to beyond breaking point to suggest that the Lapwings were related to Hurricane Sandy - but if their simulations are right one of the weather systems that led Sandy to turn westward and make landfall in NJ are the same weather systems that made quite a few Lapwings make landfall in the USA. It just wasn't Sandy that did it.
Update: as of December 8th the one Lapwing on mainland MA and the two on Nantucket Island are still present, the two Montauk birds have long since left, and there was a fleeting report of one in Virginia. Likely all of them are still on the east coast, but there's a lot of farm land out there.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Post-storm Birds (NJ)
After getting hammered by wind all night and losing power (still out 2.5 days later; was out for 5 days) I went out around 10am to slowly wind my way to local water spots in search of hurricane-displaced birds. I found a little, but nothing tremendously interesting - most of the action was in New York Harbor or down on the Delaware, out of the range of any sane driving the morning after that hurricane. Lots of power poles split or downed and multiple downed trees with the inevitable widespread power outages.
Mercer Meadows - Rosedale Park lake:
2 Forster's Terns; 2 Ospreys; 1 Bald Eagle; flock of Tree Swallows; 1 Cave/Cliff Swallow - appeared quite dark on forehead and throat but also wet so ID inconclusive but likely a Cave - seemed to be passing through
Mercer County Park lake:
3 Common Loons (1 adult and 2 immatures) plus one fly-over
1 Forster's Tern; 2 female Surf Scoters; 3 Bald Eagles (2 adults and 1 immature). This amounted to a few extra birds on my Mercer County list but not much else.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Storm Birds
Hurricane Sandy did not drop any shearwaters in my back yard but it was remarkable how determined the local birds were to keep feeding even during the strengthening storm on Monday. Sparrows mainly had their heads down (a few Juncos, one White-throated, one Chipping) but the Chickadees and Titmice were at the feeder all day, so much so that I switched to the larger one and zip-tied it to the feeder stand to stop it from swaying wildly when the winds started to gust >35 mph. By the time the eye passed to the south the wind had been gusting to 60mph but the feeder stayed intact.
I also finally had Pine Siskins, being apparently the last feeder in the whole of NJ to get them. On Sunday I had a short visit from a flock of ~5 of them, aggressively defending perches on the seed and thistle feeder. On Monday I had a single individual.
Now we'll see if the hurricane eye deposits anything unusual on the local water spots as it blasts through the area overnight.
Postscript: nothing new on the passerine front after the storm, save one Red-breasted Nuthatch on the Wednesday and a roving flock of Pine Siskins on Thursday - I'd been getting one Pine Siskin but this flock was 10+ birds. The birds seem to have survived, at least based on feeder activity, although very enthusiastically using the seed feeder perhaps to make up for all that lost energy (or lost food sources?).
I also finally had Pine Siskins, being apparently the last feeder in the whole of NJ to get them. On Sunday I had a short visit from a flock of ~5 of them, aggressively defending perches on the seed and thistle feeder. On Monday I had a single individual.
Now we'll see if the hurricane eye deposits anything unusual on the local water spots as it blasts through the area overnight.
Postscript: nothing new on the passerine front after the storm, save one Red-breasted Nuthatch on the Wednesday and a roving flock of Pine Siskins on Thursday - I'd been getting one Pine Siskin but this flock was 10+ birds. The birds seem to have survived, at least based on feeder activity, although very enthusiastically using the seed feeder perhaps to make up for all that lost energy (or lost food sources?).
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
More sparrows
Tuesday and Wednesday morning's have seen pretty strong sparrow movements through my yard in central NJ. On Tuesday it was mainly Chipping Sparrows - I rarely see one during the coldest months to these are headed straight through. On Wednesday it was Dark-eyed Junco's, which may be moving past or settling in since I get a fair number each winter along with the White-throated (some of which have already been hanging around).
At nearby Rosedale Park I got a look at the Le Conte's Sparrow found the day before, although I had to head into work and couldn't spend much time there. Not altogether too many sparrows at this location, just Song, one Field and a possible Swamp with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet or two and Yellow-rumped Warblers. This was my first Le Conte's east of Texas (the only ones I've seen are in TX and ND).
At nearby Rosedale Park I got a look at the Le Conte's Sparrow found the day before, although I had to head into work and couldn't spend much time there. Not altogether too many sparrows at this location, just Song, one Field and a possible Swamp with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet or two and Yellow-rumped Warblers. This was my first Le Conte's east of Texas (the only ones I've seen are in TX and ND).
Pole Farm (Sat), Randall's Island (Sun)
While spending a weekend coming down with something flu-like, I went out locally on Saturday morning to "Pole Farm", which has been renamed as Mercer Meadows from the old name of Mercer County Park North West. Mercer Co are doing some work there - questionably they are laying in an asphalt path that runs adjacent (or right through) good Bobolink/Meadowlark territory. However on the flip side of that they are actively going to be managing some of the lower fields just below the Federal City Road access road as native grasslands. If they pull that off that'll mitigate things somewhat.
Turned out to be quite a decent quick visit to Pole Farm, with one American Kestrel and two Northern Harriers, one of which was aggressively harassing a Red-tailed Hawk. Eastern Meadowlarks were singing in the mown field and sparrows put on a decent show. Song Sparrows are resident here but on this morning I added Savannah Sparrow (2) and White-crowned Sparrow (3) to my Mercer Co list. Formerly I used to go to Griggstown Preserve for those sort of species but Franklin Twp have taken to over-mowing that site. Had I been feeling stronger I think a longer walk through Pole Farm would have netted a lot more sparrows.
Pine Siskins continued their epic invasion year, with a few heard flying by and one being chased by the over-optimistic Kestrel. I might have heard Purple Finch and American Pipit (both likely under the circumstances) but they were a little too far away to be certain. Finally I had a 30-strong flock of Killdeer flying over from a nearby farm field.
On Sunday I drove into NYC and Randall's Island - technically a part of New York County but not physically connected to Manhattan. The targets were two Ammodramus sparrow species - Nelson's and Saltmarsh - that had been reported from a small salt marsh on the north side of the island. Finding them is easiest at high tide and this was half way down and dropping - I had no luck with those species although ironically I've seen both in Central Park over the years (Nelson's once, Saltmarsh twice). I did have a nice run of luck with other sparrows - one Vesper with a very strong eye-ring in with numerous Savannah and Song, a few Swamp, a few White-crowned, a flock of Chipping Sparrows. This was my first ever Vesper in NYC (and perhaps NY State) although I haven't been looking hard for them. Nashville Warbler was good, Yellow-rumped Warbler numerous and there was also a single Common Yellowthroat. Again, Pine Siskins and Purple Finches were heard as fly-overs (and in one case actually seen). I'm not sure the 120+ mile round-trip did my flu symptoms any favors, but the Vesper Sparrow was a good find.
Turned out to be quite a decent quick visit to Pole Farm, with one American Kestrel and two Northern Harriers, one of which was aggressively harassing a Red-tailed Hawk. Eastern Meadowlarks were singing in the mown field and sparrows put on a decent show. Song Sparrows are resident here but on this morning I added Savannah Sparrow (2) and White-crowned Sparrow (3) to my Mercer Co list. Formerly I used to go to Griggstown Preserve for those sort of species but Franklin Twp have taken to over-mowing that site. Had I been feeling stronger I think a longer walk through Pole Farm would have netted a lot more sparrows.
Pine Siskins continued their epic invasion year, with a few heard flying by and one being chased by the over-optimistic Kestrel. I might have heard Purple Finch and American Pipit (both likely under the circumstances) but they were a little too far away to be certain. Finally I had a 30-strong flock of Killdeer flying over from a nearby farm field.
On Sunday I drove into NYC and Randall's Island - technically a part of New York County but not physically connected to Manhattan. The targets were two Ammodramus sparrow species - Nelson's and Saltmarsh - that had been reported from a small salt marsh on the north side of the island. Finding them is easiest at high tide and this was half way down and dropping - I had no luck with those species although ironically I've seen both in Central Park over the years (Nelson's once, Saltmarsh twice). I did have a nice run of luck with other sparrows - one Vesper with a very strong eye-ring in with numerous Savannah and Song, a few Swamp, a few White-crowned, a flock of Chipping Sparrows. This was my first ever Vesper in NYC (and perhaps NY State) although I haven't been looking hard for them. Nashville Warbler was good, Yellow-rumped Warbler numerous and there was also a single Common Yellowthroat. Again, Pine Siskins and Purple Finches were heard as fly-overs (and in one case actually seen). I'm not sure the 120+ mile round-trip did my flu symptoms any favors, but the Vesper Sparrow was a good find.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Central Park, Fri/Sat/Sun, Oct 12-14th
The best migration day was the Saturday, by far, but there was useful birding on the day before and the day after the large migrant movement. On Saturday there was a huge influx of late fall birds like Yellow-rumped Warblers (abundant) and Hermit Thrushes (numerous) as well as fairly good numbers of other late fall birds like Winter Wren, Eastern Phoebe, both kinglets, Song Sparrow. On all three days the number of other warblers were somewhat low - Palm Warblers put in a decent showing but other species were in ones and twos.
All three days had the ongoing Red-breasted Nuthatch invasion with a couple of them found repeatedly in the hemlocks near Belvedere Castle and others turning up all over the Ramble. Pine Siskins put in an appearance on Sat and Sun with one perching on a camera lens right next to me on Saturday, and a flock of 15 alighting briefly in Strawberry Fields on Sunday. I saw or heard multiple Purple Finches on all three days.
Friday: low-ish numbers with the best bird being a cooperative Lincoln's Sparrow - no longer a rare bird in the park but still never numerous and the first one I'd seen all year. Tanner's Spring was the most active on this the least voluminous day with Swainson's Thrush and Gray-cheeked Thrush seen there. Warblers: Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Magnolia, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat.
Saturday: amongst the Yellow-rumped, which were literally everywhere, the best bird was a Mourning Warbler (immature, likely female) which was near the Tupelo tree. This unfortunate bird turned out to have only one leg with no trace of a second leg - either a birth defect or an injury that happened a very early in life and completely healed. It seemed to feed OK, albeit awkwardly, and otherwise was in good feather condition. My first Mourning of the year. Another unfortunate bird was an American Woodcock which was handed to the Parks Dept - it did not seem inclined/capable of flying so the attempted release near the MOWA location was abandoned and the bird picked up again. Woodcocks suffer a fair amount of attrition through building collisions on migration. Warblers: ubiquitous Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning. Perversely I found some species to be less numerous: Eastern Towhee and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Sunday: a lot of residual birds from the previous day's big migration, held in place by the southerly wind direction. The Mourning Warbler was still present, many Yellow-rumped Warblers persisted and it was really a scaled-down version of the previous day. Warblers: Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning. An adult Cooper's Hawk was vocalizing at an immature Red-tailed Hawk that was sitting in the low canopy in the Ramble - I wasn't sure if this was one of the two rehab Red-tailed that were released nearby on Saturday, but clearly the Cooper's was not at all happy that the Red-tailed was working the same territory.
Not a bad three days, mostly in terms of volume rather than diversity, which is showing the usual drop-off for late fall. Commuting into Manhattan via the more-inept-than-usual NJ Transit had its upsides on Friday and Saturday since attendees of Comic-Con trekking through Penn Station were sometimes dressed in superhero outfits - memorably including one woman I was following who was dressed up as the John Candy character in Spaceballs (the Wookie parody) complete with tail. See: short NYTimes video on the convention. On Sunday I only saw a single person dressed up as part of the Borg, almost a let-down.
All three days had the ongoing Red-breasted Nuthatch invasion with a couple of them found repeatedly in the hemlocks near Belvedere Castle and others turning up all over the Ramble. Pine Siskins put in an appearance on Sat and Sun with one perching on a camera lens right next to me on Saturday, and a flock of 15 alighting briefly in Strawberry Fields on Sunday. I saw or heard multiple Purple Finches on all three days.
Friday: low-ish numbers with the best bird being a cooperative Lincoln's Sparrow - no longer a rare bird in the park but still never numerous and the first one I'd seen all year. Tanner's Spring was the most active on this the least voluminous day with Swainson's Thrush and Gray-cheeked Thrush seen there. Warblers: Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Magnolia, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat.
Saturday: amongst the Yellow-rumped, which were literally everywhere, the best bird was a Mourning Warbler (immature, likely female) which was near the Tupelo tree. This unfortunate bird turned out to have only one leg with no trace of a second leg - either a birth defect or an injury that happened a very early in life and completely healed. It seemed to feed OK, albeit awkwardly, and otherwise was in good feather condition. My first Mourning of the year. Another unfortunate bird was an American Woodcock which was handed to the Parks Dept - it did not seem inclined/capable of flying so the attempted release near the MOWA location was abandoned and the bird picked up again. Woodcocks suffer a fair amount of attrition through building collisions on migration. Warblers: ubiquitous Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning. Perversely I found some species to be less numerous: Eastern Towhee and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
Sunday: a lot of residual birds from the previous day's big migration, held in place by the southerly wind direction. The Mourning Warbler was still present, many Yellow-rumped Warblers persisted and it was really a scaled-down version of the previous day. Warblers: Yellow-rumped, Palm, Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Mourning. An adult Cooper's Hawk was vocalizing at an immature Red-tailed Hawk that was sitting in the low canopy in the Ramble - I wasn't sure if this was one of the two rehab Red-tailed that were released nearby on Saturday, but clearly the Cooper's was not at all happy that the Red-tailed was working the same territory.
Not a bad three days, mostly in terms of volume rather than diversity, which is showing the usual drop-off for late fall. Commuting into Manhattan via the more-inept-than-usual NJ Transit had its upsides on Friday and Saturday since attendees of Comic-Con trekking through Penn Station were sometimes dressed in superhero outfits - memorably including one woman I was following who was dressed up as the John Candy character in Spaceballs (the Wookie parody) complete with tail. See: short NYTimes video on the convention. On Sunday I only saw a single person dressed up as part of the Borg, almost a let-down.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Ewing, Oct 7th
A less-dire-than-forecast morning had me doing local birding. So local I had to travel all of 40 feet to a corner of my back yard to watch a mixed flock of chickadees, titmice and migrants feeding in my big oak and flitting into other neighboring trees. I netted:
Red-eyed Vireo
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Black-throated Green Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
with these heard nearby:
Red-breasted Nuthatch (still not on my yard list)
Eastern Towhee
Purple Finch
so not the world's largest migration but not at all bad for one's own backyard. In fact a brief visit to Princeton's Institute Woods netted less diversity (mainly Yellow-rumped, big flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, two Wood Ducks) than in my own back yard. However my back yard thistle feeder has yet to prove an irresistible lure to migrant Pine Siskins.
Red-eyed Vireo
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Black-throated Green Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
with these heard nearby:
Red-breasted Nuthatch (still not on my yard list)
Eastern Towhee
Purple Finch
so not the world's largest migration but not at all bad for one's own backyard. In fact a brief visit to Princeton's Institute Woods netted less diversity (mainly Yellow-rumped, big flock of Red-winged Blackbirds, two Wood Ducks) than in my own back yard. However my back yard thistle feeder has yet to prove an irresistible lure to migrant Pine Siskins.
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