Chris finds good birds this morning, though volume is "still pathetic"

photo of Hooded Warbler taken on May 3, 2008 by LLOYD SPITALNIK http://www.lloydspitalnikphotos.com


Chris Cooper reports (via ebirdsNYC):

Despite overcast skies, in 3 hours (5:50-8:50 AM):

WORM-EATING WARBLER (1--actively feeding in tall oak at NE corner of Mugger's Woods, opposite Sunbather's Rock [the big rock overlooking the Azalea Pond]; not singing)
HOODED WARBLER (1--putting on a show at the Azalea Pond)
Yellow Warbler (2)
Black-and-White Warbler (3)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (5)
Northern Parula (2)
American Redstart (1 imm male at Azalea Pond, thanks to John Schemilt)
Ovenbird (1, heard only)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (3)
Blue-headed Vireo (1, heard only)
Warbling Vireo (2)
American Kestrel (1 male, Hernshead)

ALSO REPORTED: Pine Warbler (by John Schemilt)

Volume is still pathetic for the first week of May--one struggles to see a Yellow-rump, when we should be scraping them off our eyeballs--but at least variety improved slightly, approaching the double-digit warbler barrier. The Azalea Pond area continued to be the most productive; or as another birder wryly put it to me the other day, "This is where the magic lives."