Sunday, July 20, 2014

Fall migration begins

Ed Gaillard: birds &emdash; Louisiana Waterthrush, Central Park
We're baaaaack!

It's mid-July, and the first warblers are returning to Central Park. There were reports this week of Black-and-White, Northern Parula, and Common Yellowthroat in the Ramble; on Saturday I came upon a Louisiana Waterthrush on the Gill, just upstream of Laupot Bridge.

It's also the start of shorebird season. On Tuesday afternoon (July 15) James Knox found an American Avocet on a dock in the Hudson just south of Dyckman Street, "loafing with the gulls" in the words of one of the several lucky observers who saw it afterwards. It was gone the next day.

There've been a couple of reports of a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron in the saltmarsh at Little Hell Gate on Randall's Island. I didn't see it when I was there on Thursday--just a juvenile Spotted Sandpiper at the marsh on the north shore. Both the southwest shore and the northeast ball fields were full of Barn Swallows, so I have no complaints about the trip.

No comments:

Post a Comment