Central Park Rare Bird Report 4/1

I'm beginning a new series of posts called the 'Central Park Rare Bird Reports'. These will be weekly posts each Friday that compile the data I have gotten through various reliable sources. On the 'Birds Mentioned' section, birds with an asterisk were seen by me during the report period (this week's starting on Friday, March 25), and all-caps names are really rare birds. All birds are in all-caps in the report, just to make them stand out better. Anyway, here is the report.

Birds Mentioned:

Great Egret* (FOS)

Black-Crowned Night Heron* (FOS)

Osprey

Northern Flicker*

Eastern Phoebe*

Northern Rough-Winged Swallow (FOS)

Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher (FOS)

Golden-Crowned Kinglet *

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet*

EASTERN BLUEBIRD (FOS)

Hermit Thrush*

Yellow-Rumped Warbler (FOS)
Pine Warbler*

Palm Warbler (FOS)

Chipping Sparrow

Field Sparrow*

Fox Sparrow*

Song Sparrow*

Rusty Blackbird (FOS)

Winds were bad during the weekend and the beginning of the week, but that didn’t stop an early BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER from arriving at the Great Hill on Saturday, with possibly the same bird (likely different) being seen nearby in the North Woods Thursday through today. Additionally, at least a few other gnatcatchers have made their way into the park today, with myself finding one at the Upper Lobe.  Also at the Great Hill was a male EASTERN BLUEBIRD seen last Friday and Saturday. Because of the bad winds, only small to moderate numbers of migrants were coming through such as EASTERN PHOEBES, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, RUSTY BLACKBIRDS, OSPREY, HERMIT THRUSHES, NORTHERN FLICKERS, and PINE WARBLERS, the last of which started coming in last Wednesday.

The first NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS of the season were seen at the Lake, and a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET that overwintered at the feeders has been hanging out at Azalea Pond recently. The FOX and SONG SPARROW numbers have dropped off significantly in the last week or two, but small numbers are still coming through. On Thursday and today, another wave of migrants came in, featuring the regular species above but also seen was the park’s first-of-season PALM WARBLERS, along with a FIELD SPARROW at Maintenance Meadow, at least two reports of YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, and a handful of CHIPPING SPARROWS and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS throughout the park. Two PURPLE FINCHES were briefly seen at the feeders on Thursday. A trio of BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS was seen late last week at the Pond, with 2 at the Point on Thursday. A Great Egret was seen foraging in Turtle Pond as well on Thursday through today