Big weekend

I started my weekend by taking Friday off from work. There had been a lot of rarities reported in Central Park on Thursday--Blue Grosbeak, Red-Headed Woodpecker, both kinds of Cuckoo--but I was responsible adult and went to work.

They were all gone Friday, but I quietly got a total of 49 species anyway. A lot of migrating warblers were in.

I'm on my way

And a lot of resident birds were going about their business--establishing territory

I am wren, hear me roar

bathing

Orchard Oriole and a Yellow-Rumped Warbler at the bird spa

and foraging.

yum!

It was a splendid day. I had 46 species by noon, and then went off to look for the Mourning Warbler seen between Balcony Bridge and Triplets Bridge. I found it--along with dozens of other people--and had some good views, but I spent the rest of the day trying to get a good photo of it. It was too wily for me, though.

Saturday was the Global Big Day, organized by the Cornell Ornithology Lab as a conservation-awareness and fundraising initiative. The idea was to get a lot of people out in the field and see how many species they could see. The Lab hoped to record 4500 of the 10000+ species--they got almost 6000.

But it was a bit slow in New York. I had only twenty species in the Ramble, so I went up to Inwood Hill Park. The tide was rushing in when I arrived, but I was lucky enough to see the previously-reported Greater Yellowlegs

skinny legs and all

which was a life New York City bird for me, and as a bonus there were a pair of Snowy Egrets--

Egrets, I've had a few

--first of the year for me, and a very good bird for Inwood Hill.

Since I was there, I decide to look for the Wild Turkey that had been reported recently, and on the way up the hill I met Nadir Sourigi, a really fine birder who leads walks for Audubon and so on, and we went off to look for her and for Cuckoos. No luck on either, but I highly recommend the experience of birding with someone who's massively better than you. Great fun, as well as instructive and informative.

Sunday was a little brisker in Central Park, and a lovely day for birding as well.

Northern Parula

Blue-Headed Vireo

I'll post more soon.

Just waiting on a wren

at long last / suddenly / a wren appears

Some birds appear rarer than they really are, because they are simply difficult to spot even when they're around. The Marsh Wren, for example, is mildly rare and only comes through New York in migration, but the real problem is that it is tiny and brown and well-camouflaged as it skulks in the reeds at the water's edge.

In the last week, there have been two sets of reports of Marsh Wrens in Manhattan. One is at Muscota Marsh up in Inwood Hill Park. It was probably there when I went to see the the Pectoral Sandpiper last week. Oh well. Then, a series of reports from a very careful birder named Adrian Burke of a wren, and then two, in Central Park at The Pond at 59th Street. That I could try for after work, and I did, twice, without success.

But hope springs eternal, and since the bird was apparently still there on Friday--and the Global Citizen concert was going to make things difficult in the Ramble-- Elena and I went downtown on Saturday. A quick trip around the Pond--there's clearly activity in the Hallett Sanctuary, and we saw a Hermit Thrush through the fence there--ended at the northmost end of it, where there's a little mud flat near the fence around the skating rink grounds. The bit of pond that extends into the fence area is good place for a Marsh Wren. Nobody's going to bother it in there, except maybe the rats, of which there are a really startling number.

We had a little excitement shortly after arriving, when a wren popped out of the fence. But it was a grayish plain-backed bird, a House wren. Marsh Wrens are browner and have prominent streaks on the back.

A pair of Northern Waterthrushes who didn't care for each other's company enlivened the waiting, as did a Northern Parula warbler who came down to bathe.

Northern Parula with a powerful urge to get clean

The parula splashed around and was joined by some House Sparrows, huge in comparison.

bathing with a friend

More waiting followed. Swamp Sparrows. Song Sparrows. A sparrow with a plain breast and a very streaky head, maybe a juvenile White-Crowned. A Pewee, being chased by a House Sparrow. A charming family of catbirds. It was a fun wait, but a long one. Other birders came...and went. a mile away from the Great Lawn, we could hear the bass thumping from the concert. After two and a half hours, we were thinking of giving up. I went over to the fence one last time and--something was down in the reeds.

got to be good-looking 'cause you're so hard to see

It was the Marsh Wren. I got a good enough look to confirm the ID, and called Elena over. The bird foraged near the fence for a couple of minutes, then melted back into the foliage.

We went home happy. A happy robin bade us goodbye as we crossed Barstow Bridge.

thanks for coming to Central Park, we hope you enjoyed your visit!

More warbler arrivals

Monday on my walk through the Ramble, I heard a House Wren singing in Mugger's Woods.  Since I'm always keen to get photos of singing birds, I followed him as he marked the border of his territory.  I never did get a long enough look for a photos, but on the path down toward the Ramble Arch, I found a Black-and-White Warbler doing what Black-and-White Warblers do.

...doing what Black-and-White Warblers do

White photographing her, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and high up. There was a Yellow Warbler, quickly gone, and then above that a Northern Parula.

oh, the Parulas have no tails in the Ramble...

The Parula seemed to be getting along fine without a tail, but I assume he'll be around until he regrows those feathers. I see a bird or two every Fall migration without tail feathers, usually a warbler or sometimes a sparrow. I wonder why they start migrating before their molt, or what else it could be.

I didn't see the Worm-Eating Warbler reported at the Upper Lobe. I also didn't see much at Randall's Island on Tuesday--Black-Crowned Night Heron, Great Egret, Spotted Sandpiper--but I assume the shorebirds will arrive in good time.

Still very birdy in Central Park

Northern Parula

Saturday was perhaps a bit less frenetically birdy that Friday, but still a lot of activity.

American Redstart singing

I had 46 species, seven of them first-of-year for me (up to 137 for the year). One of the FOY species was a Black-Billed Cuckoo (hiding deep in the leaves of a treetop near Warbler Rock), which doesn't always appear in Manhattan.

Lincoln's Sparrow

Two sparrows, Lincoln's and White-Crowned, usually show up somewhere but generally need some work to find.  The Lincoln's was hanging out in a marshy lawn area with just an Indigo Bunting, but the White-crowned was in a flock of seventy or so White-Throated Sparrows methodically working over a newly-seeded slope.

White-Crowned Sparrow with White-Throated Sparrows

The other four new species (Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Least Flycatcher, Swainson's Thrush, and Magnolia Warbler) are common visitors, but always nice to see. And of course, many species already present were seen everywhere.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak singing

It looks to me like the winds started out southerly tonight, but are turning westerly in the small hours. I think that means that some birds will move out, but fewer will come in. I could be completely wrong; we'll see.

Magnolia Warbler

I did miss one very good bird seen in the Ramble, a Summer Tanager.  Maybe tomorrow.  It's supposed to be a beautiful day again.