Mother's Day Fallout

Prairie Warbler

One thing you will hear birders talk about is "fallout". This doesn't have anything to do with nuclear weapons--it's about bird migration. Sometimes during the spring migration, when conditions are just right--southerly winds at night, then rain a little before dawn and heavier storms just to the north--you wake up in the morning to find that migrating birds have descended on local parks and green spaces in huge numbers. They've been forced to fly low by the rain, and some have had to turn back from the storms in the north, and they all fall out of the sky after a long night's flight to frantically feed and then rest for the next night's flight.

On Mother's Day, May 8, New York City had an epic fallout event. By noon, according to one experienced birder's compilation of observations over a hundred species of bird had been seen in Central Park, including two dozen kind of warbler.

American Bittern

In the Ramble, three very unusual migrants were within a hundred yards of each other. In the area called the Oven, and American Bittern spent the day hunting in the tall reeds. It's bulbous form was clearly visible from the rocks overlooking the Oven from the west ("Willow Rock").

After the early rain, it turned into a beautiful day, and many people rented rowboats on the Central Park Lake. When they approached the Oven, birders would call to the rowers to turn back so as not to disturb the Bittern by coming too close.

Chuck-Will's-Widow

Fifty yards to the northeast, a Chuck-Will's-Widow roosted very close to a path. Chuck-Will's-Widow (named for its call) is a nighttime hunter of insects. By the time it was discovered in the mid-morning, it had eaten its fill and was quietly waiting for evening, relying on its cryptic coloration to hide it from the large mammals only a few yards away.

Let me digress here. On twitter, I saw a drawing by Alan Messer of the Chuck and environs. It's a great example of how drawing can sometimes be much truer than photography. The detail and depth-of-field of the drawing were simply not possible in a photo under the dim lighting.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Fifty yards in the other direction from the Bittern, a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron hid out at the end of the Point, red eye glaring balefully out of the depths of a willow tree. So, three birds, all rare visitors to Central Park, sen within about ten minutes.

Veery

Of course, there were a lot of more expected migrants. All the brown thrushes were in, like the Veery above. On the south slope of Summit Rock, right by Central Park West, Tom Fiore had sixty thrushes in an area about 40x50 feet, including Hermit Thrush, Veery, Swainson's Thrush, Wood Thrush and Gray-Cheeked Thrush at least.

Cape May Warbler

Maybe the biggest story was the warblers. According to Tom Fiore's end-of-day roundup of sightings, people saw at least 28 species of warbler in the park (among 115 or more total species) by day's end.

Hooded Warbler

Considering that there are only 35 or 36 species of warbler that move through the area in migration, and three of them are normally done migrating before May, 28 in a day is really impressive. (I had only twelve that day, myself, and 48 total species, but a big chunk of my day was spent on social obligations.)

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

And of course, the full complement of permanent resident birds were on hand. Here's a Red-Bellied Woodpecker portrait to finish up.

Luck and local rarities

the Savannah Sparrow who inadvertently led me to the meadowlark

I decided to swing by the Great lawn this morning, because birders who uses th3 Twitter handle @Dendroicist was in the park at 6:30am and had a Savannah Sparrow in the NW corner. A bit later he reported a Louisiana Waterthrush at Azalea Pond, but I decided to chase the Savannah--they're slightly harder to find and I hoped to get to work quicker if I didn't ramble the Ramble.

I walked past the east and north sides of Turtle Pond. The crowd of Palm and Pine Warblers that was there a few days ago had tinned out, but there were a bunch of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets. Oddly, I still didn't see any Swallows on the pond.

Walking up the west side of the Great Lawn, I scanned the grass. Amidst the Robins was a pale bird, holding itself parallel to the grass. I could see it had a chevron on its chest, and thought at first it was a Flicker. But it was small, and the back pattern was not right, and it was not really acting like a foraging Flicker. In the binoculars it had a dark eyestripe and when it raised its head I saw a straight bill and yellow on the breast and belly. Meadowlark! A life bird for me, and rather rare in the City.

Pure luck. If it hadn't been for the Savannah report, I'd never have been looking at the Great Lawn. The bird was distant but I took a bunch of photos.

Meadowlark and colleagues

Park workers were cleaning up the ballfields. They were nowhere near the bird, but when a motor started, it flew a bit south. I circled back to follow it, hoping for a closer look, but the second time a motor turned over it flew up high, in a big flat curve high into the trees across from the northeast part of the lawn.

I didn't find it on the fields north of the Lawn (next to the Pinetarium), and it didn't come back when the workers left. I did find the Savannah at the backstop of ballfield #5, just where Dendroicist's report said it was. I wasn't early for work.

Then, at my desk, I saw eBird reports of a nightjar in Bryant Park, just a few blocks away. At lunch, I had an appointment to pick up stuff from my tax accountant, and I was able to twitch the bird on my way to and from it.

Chuck-Will's-Widow, a rarity in New York

People were saying this is a Chuck-Will's-Widow--the largest and rarest of the northeastern nightjars. I ID'd it mostly on the size--a Downy Woodpecker and a White-Throated Sparrow passed through its tree, and I could see it was about twice their length, so it was maybe 12 inches long; Whippoorwills and Nighthawks are about 9 inches. Also, it was browner than those birds, and the big flat head is fairly distinctive.

another view of the Chuckie

Chuck-Will's-Widow (named for the sound of it's call) is quite rare in the area, although this is the third year in a row there's been a sighting in Manhattan. A lot of people (fifty-six reports on eBird!) were able to take advantage of the convenient midtown location and very good views of this one (including Elena, who came by after work).

I was happy to learn later, that at least a couple of people had managed to refind the Meadowlark. The only think better than finding a rarity is finding one that other people get to enjoy too.