Migrants in Central Park

I had a great morning in Central Park yesterday, on a Bronx River-Sound Shore Audubon bird walk. Migration has been heavy the past few nights, and there were a lot of warblers around. I saw 16 myself, and in all of Manhattan 27 species were reported. I was too busy looking at the birds to take any photos though, so this post will be short.

In all I saw or heard 60 species. The highlights were great looks at an adult male Bay-breasted Warbler, a female Cerulean Warbler, my life Prairie Warblers, a Rusty Blackbird, awful looks at a flyover Red-headed Woodpecker, a Common Loon, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Brown Thrasher, Baltimore Oriole, Chiminey Swifts, Eastern Kingbird, and Great Crested Flycatcher. In addition to the three warblers already mentioned, I saw Blackpoll, Magnolia, Black-and-White, Ovenbird, Northern Parula, Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Nashville, American Redstart, and the ubiquitous Yellow-rumped.

Others saw Summer Tanagers, Cape May Warblers, and Blackburnian Warblers, and there was a report of Brewster's Warbler, Chat, and a male Cerulean (ours was a female), but even without those it was an really fun morning of birding.

Part 2- #250 at Doodletown

I am way behind on these blog posts, so this will be short. Actually, for this post and the next one, you could just go to Benjamin Van Doran's blog- warblings.wordpress.com. That would save me some time, and he was on both of the trips. Anyway- I went to Doodletown, NY with the NYS Young Birders club a long time ago (about 3 weeks- the day after the rails at marshlands) I had 248 birds on my life list when I got there, and was hoping for my 250th. Warbling Vireo, black vulture, and indigo bunting were in the parking lot, but after that it was quiet until we stumbled across a small group of warblers. Hooded sang and then appeared right next to the trail. 249. Worm-eating warbler called and then was spotted in a more distant tree. 250!! Cerulean was found preening in a very distant tree. 251. Yay. Things were quiet visually (doesn't make any sense, but you get the idea) for a while, despite more vocal ceruleans. A louisiana waterthrush (in a tree!) was another lifer. A very close worm-eating warbler supplemented the distant sighting earlier. And a yellow-throated warbler far above us was the last lifer of the trip.

I have never been to Doodletown in mid-may, when birding is best, but even in late june I saw 5 lifers, with worm-eating warbler being my 250th.

Good Birding,

Eamon Corbett