Tom's three-day report

Palm Warbler - Central Park 4/12/2014 - photo by MURRAY HEAD

Tom Fiore's Central Park bird report:

 
Sat.-Sun.-Monday, 18 - 19 - & 20 April, 2015 (no rarities)

Central Park , Manhattan, N.Y. City 

Monday, partly a rain-out, but before the main rain of the day, a modest no. of migrants, esp. warblers, were in small flocks particularly around the edges of the Lake (& esp. on the Ramble side), with about half as many Pine (12+) as Myrtle/Yellow-rumped (25+), along with some Palm, and also as fly-overs in the mist, another 40+++ of warblers, of which the ones I could hear or make out were all, or almost all, Yellow-rumped as well. The larger arrival of that warbler species is imminent, and with them are likely to be an assortment of other migrants. I'd bet that a fair number of migrants were passing all morning and even into the p.m., with perhaps some just stopping in to feed & moving on again in the fog & drizzle. A rather soggy male Cooper's Hawk at the "oven" will be interesting if it is around many more days. There was a glossy breeding-plumaged calling male Rusty Blackbird at the Loch in the morning.   At least for a short while there was a modest concentration of swallows around (over) Turtle Pond, with just the 3 most-regular spp. in CP seen, Tree, N. Rough-winged, & Barn, totaling about 50 individuals in all (I looked here and along the lake edges again much later in the day, and was unable to find these numbers again). At the reservoir, very few swallows when I passed by; some ducks continued, such as N. Shovelers, Buffleheads and a couple of Ruddys, & at least 1 Wood Duck. The gull numbers which seemed good as the really heavy rain was starting were down to very few by later in the day. A single Spotted Sandpiper was the only shorebird I noted, along the Lake.

At Central Park on the weekend, the going seemed moderately slow for fresh migrants, yet I found a few that were new at least to me for the year - an Ovenbird, Saturday a.m. near the Mineral Springs pavilion (south of Falconer's Hill), & on Sunday at the Loch (a.k.a. the Ravine), a singing Yellow Warbler, (which also was likely the same at the Meer, a bit earlier the same morning).   Of other warbler species I found, the no's. were not all that great other than perhaps for ["yellow"] Palm Warbler, & to a lesser extent, Pine Warbler. A good no. of E. Towhees have been in the past few days & there seemed a fresh influx of sparrows as well as Dark-eyed Junco by the weekend. Also new, at least to me, a couple of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks on both days at the Great Hill which has somewhat regularly been a good spot to find them in the early part of the season, yet I did not come up with them at all later either day. Also still present were Louisiana Waterthrush, a couple of Black-and-white Warblers, & on Sat. at least, a male Common Yellowthroat at The Pool (near W. 103 St.)  I failed to find a loon on the reservoir as of Sunday, while I did see 1 Common Loon there Sat. a.m.