Saturday, May 01, 2010

Exciting days in Central Park

Worm-eating Warbler


Yellow Warbler


Black-throated Green Warbler

Three photos taken on 4/30/10 by DAVID SPEISER
http://www.lilibirds.com


and finally:

Bat flying over the Model-boat Pond -- April 29, 2010
photo Courtesy of http://www.palemale.com


It's been a wild and wonderful few days in Central Park, with migrating birds arriving in great numbers yesterday and today. To give you an idea of the excitement, here is a report by field biologist and relatively new Central Park birdwatcher Morgan Tingley, that appeared yesterday on eBirdsnyc:

I can't keep track of what's been posted previously as highlights, but I think the highlight for everyone in Central Park early this morning was the wave after wave of warblers flying in, feeding briefly, and moving on. My group stationed themselves around Tupelo and then up on Belvedere Castle, but I talked to birders all over the park who witnessed the same thing: huge numbers. By around 10 am or so, many of these birds had spread themselves out so that ractically every tree throughout contained a black & white, parula or black-throated green, yet there was no super concentrated spot. Small dense woodlots, if anything, concentrated numbers. The spot by Triplets Bridge, for instance, contained 1 cooperative Hooded Warbler, plus a Blue-winged, 2 Parulas, 2 Black-and-Whites, and 1 Redstart. Northern Waterthrushes were noted singing far away from water. A Wood Thrush was singing neat the Maintenance Meadow. I "only" tallied 15 species of warbler, but with the additional reports of Worm-eating (2-3 separate reports), Cerulean (2 reports), Prothonotary (heard from previous spot very early in AM, not seen or heard since), and Pine (several), that'd bring us to 19, which ain't shabby.

PS from Marie:
I saw one of those waves of warblers arriving around 7 a.m. yesterday. Amazing sight.