A good day except for the bluejay...

Photo [in memoriam] by LLOYD SPITALNIK - http://www.lloydspitalnikphotos.com

One of the park's best birders reports [via eBirds] after a long absence:

I returned to Central Park this morning after a three-month hiatus, and was well rewarded for my visit. Highlights included a cooperative adult male HOODED WARBLER along the woodchip path in Strawberry Fields (thanks Dale!), a brief but definitive glimpse of a MOURNING WARBLER along the mulched path that overlooks the east bank of the Upper Lobe, and a BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO high up in the trees at the southeast corner of the large lawn area that lies just north of Upper Lobe.

Other species included Pine, Palm, Parula, Magnolia, Redstart, BTB, B&W, Yellowthroat, N. Waterthrush and Ovenbird for a dozen warbler spp.; Red-eyed & Blue-headed Vireos (I missed an immature White-eyed on the east side of Upper Lobe reported by Pat Pollock et al.). Flycatchers were most numerously represented by E.W. Pewees, and thrushes by Swainson's, with several Veery and a Gray-cheeked for good measure. Hummingbirds were seen in five places.

An adult Cooper's Hawk was devouring what appeared to be a Blue Jay, much to the great and noisy consternation of quite a few of the demised Jay's relatives.

Many other expected species were seen as well, making for a very nice return to the incredibly pleasant pastime of birding the Park, made all the more so by familiar faces seen and friends joined along the way.

Happy birding, Doug Kurz