2014 NYC Year List

I have made a year list and it went well. I have 146 species and only 11 were seen outside New York County. Consider the fact that I have hardly ever birded in Brooklyn and Queens at all this year and this looks really impressive. This is more than any other year I've birded. Like most year lists, rarities helped me get to this milestone ( Red-Necked Grebe, Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, Red-Headed Woodpecker).

Anyway, here is my Year List

*= Not seen last year

**= Life Bird!

Bold= Rarity

Brent

Canada Goose

Mute Swan BX (Pelham Bay Park)

Wood Duck

Gadwall

Black Duck

Mallard

Shoveler
Ring-Necked Duck (Most Recent Addition 12-14 Reservoir)

Bufflehead

Hooded Merganser

Red-Breasted Merganser

Ruddy Duck

Red-Necked Grebe** (Reservoir)

Double-Crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron (Upper Lobe)
Little Blue Heron (JBWR)

Great Egret

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Yellow Crowned Night Heron** (Azalea Pond)

Glossy Ibis** (Shakespeare Garden Flyover)

Turkey Vulture (Battery Park)
Osprey (* for NYC)
Bald Eagle*

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-Shouldered Hawk** (Shakespeare Garden Flyover)

Broad-Winged Hawk** (Shakespeare Garden Flyover)

Red-Tailed Hawk

Kestrel

Merlin*(Matinence Meadow)

Peregrine Falcon

American Coot

American Woodcock**
American Oystercatcher (**for NYC,JBWR)
Large Shorebird Sp. (JBWR Definitely New)

Solitary Sandpiper*BX (Bronx Zoo)
Least Sandpiper (JBWR)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (** for NYC,JBWR)

Laughing Gull

Herring Gull

Ring-Billed Gull

Great Black-Backed Gull
Common Tern (* for NYC,JBWR)
Black Skimmer (** for NYC,JBWR)

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Yellow-Billed Cuckoo

Black-Billed Cuckoo**(Azalea Pond)

Long-Eared Owl**

Chimney Swift

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Red-Headed Woodpecker** (Near Warbler Rock)

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Yellow Bellied Flycatcher**(Upper Lobe)

Willow/Alder Flycatcher

Least Flycatcher

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Kingbird
Cassin's Kingbird** (Floyd Bennet Field)
Couch's Kingbird** (West Village)

White-Eyed Vireo*(Willow Rock)

Yellow-Throated Vireo** (Warbler Rock)

Blue-Headed Vireo

Red-Eyed Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Blue Jay

American Crow

Barn Swallow

Northern Rough-Winged Swallow (Turtle Pond)

Tree Swallow (Turtle Pond)
Black-Capped Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse BX (Bronx Zoo)

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Winter Wren

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Eastern Bluebird*

Veery

Swainson’s Thrush

Wood Thrush

Hermit Thrush

American Robin

Catbird

Brown Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Starling

Cedar Waxwing

Blue-Winged Warbler
Tennessee Warbler** (Strawberry Fields)

Nashville Warbler BX (Bronx Zoo Parking Lot)

Parula

Yellow Warbler

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Black-Throated Blue Warbler

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Black-Throated Green Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler*

Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler

Palm Warbler

Bay-Breasted Warbler (The Ramble)

American Redstart

Black-and-White Warbler

Ovenbird

Northern Waterthrush

Louisiana Waterthrush (The Gill)

Mourning Warbler (Matinence Field)

Common Yelowthroat

Wilson’s Warbler

Canada Warbler

Eastern Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Field Sparrow**

Savannah Sparrow (Randall’s Island Salt Marsh)

Fox Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

White-Throated Sparrow

White-Crowned Sparrow*(Tupelo Meadow)

Dark-Eyed Junco

Summer Tanager**(Belvedere Castle)

Scarlet Tanager

Cardinal

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Indigo Bunting

Red-Winged Blackbird

Rusty Blackbird (Azalea Pond)

Common Grackle

Brown-Headed Cowbird

Baltimore Oriole

Orchard Oriole*(Turtle Pond)

House Finch
Purple Finch (Evodia Field)
Pine Siskin (Shakespeare Garden)

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

Species 145 and counting (134 for New York County)

Woody Woodpecker Sighting

On Saturday morning I went on Bob's bird walk. It was so quiet that most of the people on the walk were newbies and few people other than me were regulars. We went into The Ramble. For a long time we saw almost nothing except for some Northern Flickers and a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. As we were walking to Warbler Rock, one of the birders yelled, "It's a red-belli- no wait it's a red-headed!" Wait, wait, what? I was so shocked that it took a while for me to get my binoculars straight. This is among the time you would LEAST EXPECT this species. Red-Headed Woodpecker is an occasional fall migrant and winter resident in Central Park with a few records a year. This year was a very good year for them with some being sighted into late-May in The Bronx and Brooklyn. When I put my binoculars on the bird (somehow the last one to do it) I was as shocked as everyone else. It was an adult RED-HEADED WOODPECKER! Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for this and therefore bought no good cameras! We had a scope, but it would take a while to set up. A while wasn't enough for this bird, and it left a few minutes after we first spotted it, showing its distinctive wing patches. Our guide tried to call it in twice, but it didn't work. We then checked a few other empty sites and then went to see the Peregrine Falcon nest near the south end of the park. One of the two eyasses fledged Wednesday and left, but the other was still there. We watched it hop and flap but it didn't fly. This walk was not very good besides the Red-Headed Woodpecker, but that bird shows that you should always expect the unexpected in Central Park. 

By the way, I don't think the bird is twitchable, but if you want to find it, go to open woodlands in and around The Ramble, like Warbler Rock or the Swampy Pin Oak and look on the trees. Please note that the bird was only seen by our group and no one else and is an extremely late record. I'm not going to post a bird list due to all of our species being either common (Warbling Vireo, Red-Bellied Woodpecker) or in the post.

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.