Birdmania

On May 10th, 2014 there were a few severe thunderstorms in the area and some birds were grounded. Good migration weather followed it, and it lead to birds being everywhere the next day. I got to the park an hour early on the 11th because I had high hopes for the day. I ran into my guide, Deb Allen and went birding/traveling to meet the birders with her. In less than 10 minutes, I saw many good species around Evoidia Field, such as Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanager, Least Flycatcher, and several species of warbler. Along the way to our destination we were about to go through Tupelo Meadow when a WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW hopped out of a bush and onto the path, as if it wanted us to see it. After we saw that, I ran into a birder I had met at a festival named Chris, who was in the amazing film, The Central Park Effect. He told me he had a Lincoln's Sparrow a minute ago but we were not able to find it. Fortunately, this was my only big miss of the day and the birds were so abundant, we had to start ignoring more common species.

When we reached Turtle Pond to meet up with the group, the birds were not more abundant than normal there, with just a Great Egret, and a few warblers. We then  left for the walk and headed to Shakespeare Garden. It was strangely quiet there, with only one Common Yellowthroat to be seen. Then we heard a report of a SUMMER TANAGER near Belvedere Castle. We went there and sure enough, the bird was really showy in its brilliant red plumage. We also found an Eastern Kingbird and Eastern Wood-Pewee there. The walk's leader, Birding Bob, then decided to split the group up between him and Deb. I went with Bob's group, which was partially my choice and partially because he wanted to drag me along.

We were headed for the Upper Lobe lookout point but stopped every 30 feet to look at flocks of colorful warblers swarming around us. The unique thing about today is that many uncommon species of warbler were everywhere, such as Canada and Wilson's. When we finally arrived at the Upper Lobe we heard a report of a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO there. It wasn't there and we waited for a bit. I found that several Wilson's Warblers were feeding in shrubs rather than the trees and some even could be seen at close range on the path. After about 5 minutes the cuckoo appeared in a low tree above us and we realized why it was not high up in the canopy. It was feeding on a caterpillar nest in this tree and wanted to stay here for a while. Bob tried calling it in unsuccessfully but instead attracted a second cuckoo and they both gave us great looks.

 A little while later we found ourselves at Azalea Pond and ran into a lady who told us she saw a BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, which is the rarer of the two. Bob played the tape and we got lucky as it flew in and showed itself. Later we made another pass at Azalea Pond and ran into Deb's Group and Chris. They told us they were observing a YELLOW-CROWNED NIGH HERON! This bird only comes to the park once every few years. Fortunately for us, this bird is mainly nocturnal and we were able to get great views of the bird. This was an amazing day, with almost 60 species spotted including 16 species of warbler. An Orange-Crowned Warbler was seen later but I decided to relax. These are the days that birders crave the most and are hard to come by.

Species:57 (+1)

Canada Goose

Mallard

Double-Crested Cormorant

Great Egret

YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON
Red-Tailed Hawk

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO (2!)

BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO

Chimney Swift

Downy Woodpecker

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Least Flycatcher

Empidonax Sp.

Eastern Kingbird

Warbling Vireo

Blue Jay

House Wren

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Veery

Swainson's Thrush

Hermit Thrush

Wood Thrush

American Robin

Gray Catbird

European Starling

Cedar Waxwing

\

Warblers

Canada

Wilson's

Yellow

Magnolia

Blackpoll

Black-and-White

Black-Throated Blue

Black-Throated Green

Blue-Winged

Prairie

Chestnut-Sided

Ovenbird

Northern Waterthrush

Northern Parula

Common Yellowthroat

American Redstart

Eastern Towhee

Swamp Sparrow

White-Throated Sparrow

WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW

SUMMER TANAGER

Scarlet Tanager

Northern Cardinal

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Indigo Bunting

Red-Winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Baltimore Oriole

House Sparrow.