The Zebra Comes in Early

On Monday evening, I went into Central Park hoping to find migrants after good winds the previous night. I just started birding the Ramble when I get a text from Ryan that there was an early Black-and-White Warbler at the Upper Lobe! I ran over to the location to find that the bird had disappeared. We waited for a few minutes, when another birder with us spotted something. Was it the warbler? It turned out to be the Louisiana Waterthrush that had been here all day lawn. But when I ran over to the spot, I spotted a small, streaky bird crawling up a tree. The BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER (Year Bird #79)! I got good views of it, and also the waterthrush (bathing!). We then went to the Turtle Pond dock to look for swallows, but we saw a warbler fly across that looked like a possible Yellow-Rumped. We went to the other side of the pond near Belvedere Castle to find a Pine, Palm, and Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Year Bird #80) flitting around in the trees. We then headed to the Pinetum, where it started raining, but we still managed to find a Field Sparrow in a large feeding flock of Chipping Sparrows and juncos despite the weather. A good day, with 36 species seen, including 5 warbler species, unusual for this early in the season, but will be possible pretty soon.