Some Fall migration photos

I'm sorry I've been silent lately. It's been a tiring summer, is all. Also, there hasn't been much going on at once, so it has taken a while for the interesting things to build up to the size of a post.

Still, there's been a steady trickle of Fall migrants, like the proud young Redstart above (a first-Fall male, from the orangy bits), and the very nice male Hooded Warbler below, from Tanner's Spring a couple of weeks back.

The resident birds have held some interest, too. I was quite surprised to see this scene in the Ramble the other day:

That is a Common Grackle killing a mouse. I have never seen a Grackle stalk and kill prey before.I didn't know they even did that. This one kept chasing the mouse into the waters of the Gill--and occasionally grabbing at it with his beak--until the mouse drowned. Then the Grackle ate part of it, with some difficulty. A Grackle's beak is pretty big, but I don't think it's really suited to tearing up meat.

Other birds dined in a less violent manner.

I love watching birds eat berries, don't you? Also, woodpeckers are hard at work as always.

I'll wind up with a couple of more migrants. This shy Canada Warbler was in poor light, but I think it made a nice picture:

And a Great Crested Flycatcher was hanging around Maintenance for several days, giving uncharacteristically close views.

Hooded Warbler, or the frustrations and joys of bird photography

my best shot of this bird, from the second day

Sunday, I went into Central Park and ran into Pat Pollock, who told me that a Hooded Warbler--a beautifully-marked male--had been seen in the Ramble between Laupot Bridge and the Rustic Shelter. That's a small area with a lot of logs down in it, very nice terrain for a Hooded.

When I arrived, a couple of other birders and I quickly spotted the bird, very active around the logs.

peek-a-boo!

At one point he popped up with an insect in his beak. There was a moment's pause in his activity, and I got in a couple of snaps.

fuzzy meal

Normally, I don't like to blame my camera for my poor results. But I don't understand what happened with the autofocus here--he was right in the middle of the frame (the version here is a heavy crop), right under the center focus point, and he's quite contrasty, so the camera's (Panasonic GX-7) focus system should have been happy.

I still like the photo--I always like photos of warblers with prey.

The warbler disappeared after that, but since people told me he had been circling the area all day, I waited for another opportunity. Unfortunately, about twenty minutes or so later, another photographer walked into the area trying to get an angle on another bird singing in the treetops. I think that spooked him, and he didn't come back in the next half hour before I moved on.

However, another birder found him later that afternoon, and he was reported in the area again on Monday morning, so off I went again. I met Annabella and Sol, two of the regular birders, looking for him. They moved off to the other side of the stream near the bridge, where the bird had also been reported.

A bit later, I happened to glance that way, and saw a flash of yellow in a bush. That's when I got the photo at the top of this post. I called out, and Anabella and Sol got their eyes on the bird as well.

birders in front of me, birders behind me...

We tracked the warbler around the area. At one point it was in perfect light, maybe eight to ten feet away, and...my camera refused to focus on it. (I should point out that the lens I use for birding is not great for manual focusing.) Bah.

Of course, sometimes the camera (and the cameraman) work flawlessly:

Canada Warbler, posing about 8 feet away. Uncropped.

On Monday and Tuesday I also saw a Worm-Eating Warbler and my first-of-season Swainson's Thrush at Tupelo Meadow, several Blue-Winged Warblers, and as I left the Ramble on Monday about 6pm, a Common Nighthawk. The Nighthawk was flying low over the 79th Street Transverse toward Turtle Pond. Beautiful long, sharply-tapered wings with white bars underneath. It appeared to be evading some Robins, so I think it had been chased off it's daytime roost. I went to Turtle Pond, and found a several birders watching pale Male roosting in a tree. They hadn't seen the Nighthawk, and really it could have ended up anywhere.  A thrilling sight.

Kentucky Warbler

Wednesday morning, I saw a report online of a Kentucky Warbler in the Tanner's Spring area.

The Kentucky Warbler is a member of a small group of very secretive, ground-hugging warblers that used to be all in the genus Oporornis until the splitters got to work on it. But I digress. Anyway, the members of the group--the Connecticut, Mourning, and Kentucky Warblers, and the western MacGillivray's Warbler--are notoriously difficult to find, even when you know where they are.

In fact, I'd never seen a Kentucky Warbler, so off I went in pursuit.

When I entered the park, I saw a group  people with binoculars and big cameras looking into the vegetation just north of the Diana Ross Playground, always a good sign that there's a bird down there--and surprisingly shortly thereafter, the little skulking bird popped into view.

Kentucky Warbler!

I've now seen 34 of the 36 warbler species that normally occur in this part of the country, missing only the Connecticut and the Golden-Winged.

The Kentucky continued for a while poking along under the plants and occasionally popping up for a photo op. Eventually, I decided to escape the press of the crowd watching it, and went to nearby Tanner's Spring, where only one other birder was watching a great variety of birds coming down to drink and bathe.

Chestnut-Sided Warbler and Gray Catbird at Tanner's Spring

Elsewhere in the park there were a lot of Canada Warblers

O, Canada!

and more Swainson's Thrushes than I can recall seeing in one day before.

When you look at the Swainson's Thrush, the Swainson's Thrush also looks back at you.

Besides the Kentucky Warbler, the other notable rarities in the Park on Wednesday were Mourning Warblers reported in several locations (and I couldn't find any of them, darn skulky birdies), and a Bicknell's Thrush found by David Barrett at Strawberry fields.

Bicknell's Thrush winters in a few isolated spots in the Caribbean and breeds only on a few mountaintops in upper New York State, New England, and Ontario. It is not distinguishable from the Gray-Cheeked Thrush except by song--and I've listened to recordings of both, and I can't distinguish them that way either. So I decided not to chase a bird I can't ID.

---

The Kentucky Warbler was my 161st species of the year in New York County It was also my 202nd life-list species in the county according to eBird--number 200 was the Summer Tanager--but that list includes a couple of obvious escaped birds (Budgerigar and Yellow-fronted Canary), so the Kentucky is my "real" 200th life bird here.

(The list also includes European Goldfinch, but that bird was flocking with House Finches the whole winter of 2012-2013 after first being seen in spring 2012, and I don't see why it couldn't have been a true accidental. So I'm counting it.)

---

Thursday had more reports of Mourning Warblers, and a lot of Empidonax flycatchers (including Acadian and Yellow-Bellied). I'll write about them later.

For the May Day is the great day...

Wednesday nigh the winds were generally southerly, and the rain mostly ended before dawn. So there was a pretty good migratory movement into Central Park, and I had a really good day: 43 species, ten first-of-year, ten warblers.

In the morning, I started off with a Blue-Winged Warbler at Maintenance meadow (it stayed around there all day).

Blue-Winged Warbler and prey

A Northern Parula warbler and a Warbling Vireo were high in trees above the Gill source; I saw Wood Thrush in various places, and heard their echoing songs; Gray Catbirds popped up here and there.

In the late afternoon, I returned--a Worm-Eating Warbler had joined the Blue-Winged, and down the Riviera were Canada and Chestnut-Sided Warblers.

Canada Warbler posing

Finally, as I was leaving, I joined a group looking at a Scarlet Tanager high in the trees near the "captain's bench".

Scarlet Tanager, suspicious

Yellow-Rumped and Palm Warblers remained ubiquitous, Black-and-white warblers were around in small numbers; a Yellow Warbler sang very loudly just south of Willow Rock, and a Prairie Warbler sang at Tupelo Meadow.

Prairie Warbler singing

In other warbler news, the Yellow-Throated Warbler was again seen near Tavern on the Green, and Black-Throated Blue Warblers and both waterthrushes were reported.

Winds look to be westerly, maybe West-southwest, tonight, so I expect there won't be a lot of movement out. Maybe I can still catch up with the Yellow-Throated.

Yellow Warbler on the move

(I'm now at 120 species this year in New York County; 14 species, or 9 days, ahead of last year.)