Irruptive Tendencies

On Sunday, I went to the park as usual not knowing what to expect. As I was walking to get breakfast at the boathouse, I spotted three starlings chasing an accipter. Fortunately, its tail was not spread so it was easy to see that it was a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. That was an unexpected start to the day!

After I ate, I went into the Ramble and went to the bird feeders. I went there because I was hoping that Tufted Titmice returned there. They were absent last winter and no one knows why. Then one appeared at the seed feeder. And then another. I then went to Tupelo Meadow, where the flocks of White-Throated and Song Sparrows were so large that I thought something might be hidden in there. Despite a lot of searching, I was unable to find anything in the flocks. When I spoke with birders there, they said that they found Swamp and Field Sparrows earlier, but nothing now.

We then directed our attention from the ground to the trees. There was already a Blue-Headed Vireo waiting up there, along with a Blackpoll Warbler and a Northern Parula. A few minutes later, a few Yellow-Rumped Warblers and a female Black-Throated Blue Warbler came into some low branches right above us. As I left, I spotted a Brown Thrasher foraging at the end of the meadow.

After that I didn't see that many birds at all. I checked Maintenance Meadow, Willow Rock, and Azalea Pond;  After a long while. I decided to check Maintenance Meadow again. I met up with a few birders there, who said they were hearing Purple Finches. Purple Finches are annual in the park in varying numbers. This year, there were alot About a minute later, two finches flew into a distant tree. They looked like they could be Purple Finches, but we weren't sure. After a few minutes, the birds flew out low enough to see that one of them was completely purplish-pink. Then they flew out of sight. My life Purple Finch was seen for just a few seconds. It seems like star birds don't always stay in the spotlight!

Bird List:40

Canada Goose
Mallard
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Red-Tailed Hawk
Gull sp.
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue-Headed Vireo
Blue Jay
Tufted Titmouse
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Black-and-White Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Parula
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-Throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-Rumped Warbler
Eastern Towhee (Many)
Song Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Dark-Eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-Winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
House Finch
PURPLE FINCH
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Bird of the Week #1!!!

I am happy to announce this new thing I'm doing on the blog called Bird of the Week. This will be a regular series of posts at the beginning of each week for about a year. They will describe a "Bird of the Week", which will be a bird specially chosen by me that seems fitting for the week. The birds can be chosen because of their appearance, significance, or other reasons. The posts will also cover basic information about the birds and where they can be found in New York City. Note that only birds that can be seen in New York County will be on here. This does not exclude rarities.

Without further ado, the first bird of the week is Palm Warbler!

Palm Warblers, like many other warblers, change plumage in the spring and fall. In spring they are yellow with streaked chests and bellies. They also have tan backs and a chestnut cap. In the fall, the bird turns all gray except for some yellow on the underside.It keeps the streaking but loses the chestnut cap. Its song sounds like a buzzy"swee swee swee swee swee swee swee". Palm Warblers like open woodland and often are found around shrubs and dead leaves.
The eastern population breed in the boreal forests of Canada and the northern U.S and winter in the Southeast U.S, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The western population breads in central and western Canada and winters on the pacific coast. In New York City, Palm Warblers can be found from late March to early May and from late September to early November. A spot that was very reliable for Palm Warblers this year was a large pile of dead leaves gathered by park staff. The decay of the leaves attracted insects, which attracted the warblers. It was like an early spring termite hatchout.

This was the first Bird of the Week post. I hope you liked it.
Here are birds that will probably have their own week if this keeps up:

Pine Warbler
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Wood Duck
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Fox Sparrow

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet will be next week's bird

Tennessee in New York?

On Sunday I went to Central Park to go bird watching. I started at the boathouse and took a slightly different path than usual. I wanted to try my luck. I was rewarded with a Brown Thrasher and several Northern Parulas. I then went to The Point, but it was empty. As I was about to try another area, another birdwatcher ran into me and told me try my luck at Strawberry Fields. He said Brown Thrasher, Blue-Headed Vireo, Eastern Wood-Pewee, and the hard-to find Tennessee Warbler were all there. I went there and there were already a few birders there looking for the Tennessee Warbler. One of the birders was keeping a year list of 242, with Northern Wheatear and Clapper Rail in Plumb Beach, Brooklyn being his latest additions. This warbler was one of the species he needed.

Here is why Tennessee Warbler is so hard to get. It is secretive and very hard to identify. 1 or 2 have been reported for the last few weekends at Strawberry Fields. I don't think they are lingering birds, but just migrants that keep turning up there. Anyway, after a couple of minutes, we spotted two warblers in a patch of trees. On was quickly identified as a parula. The other we weren't so sure about. It looked like it could be almost any type of warbler. Eventually we eliminated some of the possibilities, such as Blackpoll and Orange Crowned. After about 20 minutes we lost the bird and we gave up. We started paying more attention to the flickers and pewees that were also here. We also found a Blackpoll Warbler. Not long after, 3 accipters flew over, one of them being a Cooper's Hawk. Then the mystery bird flew over and revealed itself to be the Tennessee Warbler we were hoping for. No one else saw it but me. Later, we saw a bird perched in a tree that was a Tennessee Warbler that I think is the same one from earlier.

After we celebrated our victory, the birders told me that the Pinetum was reported to hold good birds such as Pine Warbler, Golden Crowned Kinglet, and Red-Breasted Nuthatch. I went there and found a spot that seemed like it would be good. Almost immediately, I spotted a flock of several Pine Warblers flycatching, including some beautiful adult males. I also saw singles of Golden and Ruby-Crowned Kinglets together. I turned around and there was a Palm Warbler looking back at me! Also there was a White-Breasted Nuthatch there too! This day was really a success!

Species:35

Canada Goose
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Osprey
Cooper's Hawk
Accipter sp.
Red-Tailed Hawk
Gull sp.
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Golden-Crowned Kinglet
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Black-and-White Warbler
TENNESSEE WARBLER
Northern Parula
Blackpoll Warbler
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Just a Quick Announcement

I will constantly be updating my 2014 year list every time I add a new bird. So check back regularly! That is all.

Bad Migration Situation

Migration has been so slow this fall!

During a time when it is normal to get over a dozen warbler species in a few hours, most people are getting half that or even less. When someone would see a Black-and-White Warbler or American Redstart and shrug it off, they now cherish it. It seems like the only exception to this '2014 migration rule' is the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, which seems to be coming in good numbers and is almost certain in Central Park's Upper Lobe. Until yesterday, my best birds of the season for Central Park were Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Yellow Warbler, and not many others. On Sunday however, birds seemed to be showing themselves a bit more than usual. At The Oven, I saw a Magnolia Warbler followed by a glimpse of a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher and then a flyover by a Scarlet Tanager. As I was leaving The Oven, I flushed a House Wren.

 After that, I saw mostly nothing (apart from a grosbeak in the upper lobe) until I got to Maintenance Field. Several birders there told me that there had been many sightings of Bald Eagles and Ospreys migrating overhead. As if on cue, we spotted a Bald Eagle high up in the sky, followed a few minutes later by a Red-Tailed Hawk and an Osprey flying together. I guess maybe I was wrong about grosbeaks being the only migrants in normal quantity. I also had a quick glimpse at a Prairie Warbler in flight there.

 I then went to Turtle Pond with a couple of other birders in search of a Canada Warbler (cherished due to lack of warblers) there. When we got there, we saw a few Gadwalls on the pond and I spotted 2 small birds in the tree above us. One was the Canada and we thought the other one was a Magnolia. As if it was furious that it was identified wrong, the second bird came down from the tree and landed in a smaller tree 10 feet from us so that we could see the Magnolia was actually a Northern Parula, which was much scarcer than most warblers this year. This day was better than most. 30 species was a good score considering it would normally be 50!

Species List: 30

Gadwall
Mallard
OSPREY
Falcon or Accipter sp.
BALD EAGLE
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
White-Breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
American Robin
Thrush sp.
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Canada Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
House Finch
House Sparrow

One Birder's Day at Jamaica Bay

During the last week of August, I decided to try to visit Jamaica Bay. I went into the visitor's center and then went onto the East Pond Trail. At the start I saw a family group of kingbirds (new breeding species?) and an empidonax-type flycatcher. When I got to the pond I saw no sign of any shorebirds there, just some swans and a few Mallards and Black Ducks. I decided to try my luck at the west pond at the breach caused by Hurricane Sandy.

It was apparent that there were a lot more birds there. The breach entrance was lined with oystercatchers and a probable Willet was mixed in with them. Several small flocks of Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers were on the mudflats, along with a large flock of starlings that tried to mimic their feeding and flying formations there too. Also there were some terns and skimmers hanging out there as well. The highlight was a Little Blue Heron very far away on a distant mudflat. I also saw several Great Egrets there, and mockingbirds seemed to have took over the Osprey nest(I didn't see any Osprey that day). At the visitor's center I finished the day off with an Eastern Towhee in the center's birdbath. It was a good day

No bird list since all notable birds were previously mentioned besides an unidentified 'ground' warbler

P.S. I got bitten all over by the mosquitoes!

NYC Rarity Round Up (Part 1)

Hey guys! This post contains short summaries of all my rarity chases/ unexpected finds. They could be extremely hard to find birds like Cerulean Warbler, state rarities such as Painted Bunting, or ABA rarities such as Barnacle Goose. Without further ado, here is part one of  my Rarity Round Up!


 Barnacle Goose
December 23 2012
Van Cortland Park, Bronx

This bird was the third Barnacle Goose of the season and had been here for about a month. I made a trip up there to find it, most of it trying to find the ball fields where the geese were. Fortunately, the goose was in a flock of less than 50 birds not far from us. I saw birders there, but they left as I got there and I had to look for a minute before I found it being pushed around by the larger subspecies of Canada Geese. A wild goose chase I won't forget.

Red-Necked Grebe
March 23 2014
Central Park Reservoir, New York

This bird was the second of three of the spring (and second in 30 years!) in Central Park. I traveled around the entire reservoir scanning around the countless waterfowl for it. Then I ran into a guy at the south end who was looking at the bird sleeping and gave me a look. I would have missed it if it wasn't for him, due to it looking like a goose from a distance.

Western/Clark's Grebe
July 2011
East River, New York

One day during my first month of middle (summer) school on Roosevelt Island, one of my class mates spotted an odd bird in the water and wanted me to take a look. I thought it might be a cormorant as I was walking to the window, but I was astonished that I didn't know what this black and white bird was. I looked it up later to find out I was looking at a rarity, but the bird was probably gone.

 Storm-Petrel sp.
April 15 2012
1 mile off Coney Island, Kings

Although common just offshore in summer, this bird was seen much earlier than that. As we were headed back to Jamaica Bay on a seal-watching trip in New York Harbor I spotted a small, brown bird feeding near the boat with a white rump. The bird was seen within sight of Coney Island. When I described what I saw to some birders of the boat, they agreed that it was probably a storm-petrel.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron
May 11 2014
Azalea Pond, Central Park, New York

Ran into a group of birdwatchers from the walk I was on looking at the bird in a tree. Very rare in the park and presumably fallout from the storm the previous day. It was one of the star birds of the day.

Glossy Ibis
April 12 2014
Shakespeare Garden, Central Park, New York
On a bird walk when we saw an ibis soaring overhead. Common in Jamaica Bay, but flyovers in Central Park are rare.

Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!