Astonishing

The variety of birds passing through Central Park this weekend was astonishing.  Let's start with this guy:

Wilson's all over

Wilson's Warbler. I saw my first of the season on Thursday. Sunday I saw sixteen. Possibly more--I tried not to count more than one in an area unless I saw them all at the same time. That's a crazy number. You see one or two Wilson's a day, if you're in luck. Not sixteen.

Wilson's wasn't the only very abundant warbler. Sunday we saw eleven Magnolia Warblers,

That's a Magnolia, sugar

which is a lot, and nine Redstarts, which is not too few.

American Redstart disapproves of you

Friday I saw eleven Ovenbirds, but they seem to have mostly moved on (only three on Sunday), or maybe they were just less noticeable with all the other activity. Other warblers were frequent as well. I even got a Tennessee Warbler on Friday, my first of the year, and a couple of Blackpolls on Sunday (also FOY).

And then there were rarities. This fella showed up roosting in a tree near Azalea Pond:

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Yellow-crowned Night Heron, a life bird for me, and I not something that shows up in Central Park often. If ever. And we (Elena and I and our friend Melissa) ran into a group of birders near the Weather Station who were looking at a Yellow-Billed Cuckoo.

Yellow-Billed Cuckoo

OK, those come through every year. One or two, anyway--so you don't necessarily see them every year. I didn't get a Yellow-Billed last year, for instance.

A couple of other first-of-year birds for me his weekend were Olive-sided Flycatcher (at the northeast corner of Azalea Pond, favoring the bare branches at the top of a tall snag--I think the same bird visits there every migration) and Eastern Kingbird (at least one at Turtle Pond).

any question as to why they call him the King-Bird?

That all puts me at 153 species in New York County this year.

Some nice birds continue, as well. A Summer Tanager has been hanging around Turtle Pond the last few days.

Summer Tanager

Scarlet Tanagers have been pretty frequent, as well.

any excuse is a good excuse to post a photo of a Scarlet Tanager

And, well, almost everything else. Really an astounding migration season.

A Magic Tree

Sometimes a tree becomes a "magic tree", filled with birds (especially warblers). Sometimes this is associated with a termite hatch-out nearby, or some other insect hatch-out, but often not.

Blackburnian Warbler in the magic tree

Today, a big oak tree on the south shore of Turtle Pond became magic for no visible reason. There were at least nine species of warbler in the tree at once, headed by Blackburnian and Cape May Warblers

Cape May Warbler in the magic tree

but also including Nashville, Black-Throated Green, Black-Throated Blue, Yellow, Prairie, Northern Parula, and Black-and-White Warblers.

The Cape May and Blackburnian Warblers (no, I don't know why it's called "Blackburnian" and not "Blackburne's") were new species for the year for me; I also saw my first Gray-Cheeked Thrush and Red-Eyed Vireo of the year, among 46 species for the day. I'm up to 145 on the year in the county; didn't get there until June last year.

I even got a good photo of the Summer Tanager (continuing at the Oven)

On the way out, I spotted a Winter Wren at Evodia, the first I've seen this year (though I heard one in the North Woods).

Cute little ball of feathers

At this point, there are too many birds in town to do a sensible rumors report. The warblers are there, go out and look up.

Yellow and Red

Migration slowed down a little the last couple of days. Sunday, Elena and I had a nice day out in Central Park, but I had no new species. We missed the big bird of the day, a Kentucky Warbler seen at Evodia north of the feeders about 5:30pm. Oh well, you can't get all the birds.

Monday afternoon, I went down to Madison Square Park to chase the Prothonotary Warbler that had been reported there for a few days. Got it!

Mister Yellow

Madison Square Park was amazingly birdy for such a small urban park. I saw several other warblers including my first-of-season Black-Throated Green Warbler there (141 species for the year in Manhattan now).

Earlier, I finally saw the Summer Tanager that has been seen for a few days in the Ramble.

Mister Red

Not a great shot, but hey, life bird.

In the morning, I had a great view of a Warbling Vireo singing and feeding in a flowering tree at Maintenance meadow. They are such secretive birds, normally you only hear their loud, cheerful song.

Mr. Elusive