Just for the next week or so I have a new patch that I’m working. It’s called ‘The United States of America’. To be fair I’m only working one or two bits of it, as it’s a fairly extensive site. And as this is a ‘work trip’, as I like to call it, the birding is fairly casual and in between lots of rigorous, hard work. So, half way through day two, here’s the story so far.
I touched down at JFK airport, New York around 3pm local time. I was expecting it to take ages to get to Manhattan but I made reasonable progress on the air train and the subway to make it to my hostel before 5pm. On the journey, the first three American birds I saw were Starling, House Sparrow and Feral Pigeon. Excellent. I also had fleeting views of a Mourning Dove, which I guess is slightly more ‘American’ than those other species.
I was staying just to the south of Central Park and was soon hopping back on the subway for an evening’s walk around the fabled migrant hotspot. On entering the park I soon found the trees dripping with birds. Unfortunately, they were all still Starlings and House Sparrows. Soon though I’d started seeing a few American Robins, Gray Catbirds, Common Grackles and Northern Cardinals, which at least made me feel a bit more like I’d just flown across the Atlantic.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in America before but mostly in the west and only in autumn and winter. This meant that there were lots of eastern birds, particularly neotropical migrants, that I’d not seen before. Warblers were the family that I was most focussed on and after a bit of looking around the rather windy treetops, I began to see a few. With so many gaps on my warbler list, I was a bit surprised that the first three I saw were all species I’d seen before. Not that this detracted from their excellence. First up was a Black-and-white Warbler, one of my favourites, creeping about along the tree trunks. Nearby was a bright and active Wilson’s Warbler and not long after I saw a smart Common Yellowthroat. ‘Smart’ is an easy word to overuse with American warblers.
There were plenty of hirundines swooping over ‘The Lake’, most of them rather reddish looking Barn Swallows. Amongst them were some tubby Northern Rough-winged Swallows – my first proper lifer. I say ‘proper’ lifer because I’m having trouble figuring out if I’ve seen Baltimore Oriole before. When I saw them before they were all ‘Northern Orioles’, although I suspect I’ve mostly seen Bullock’s Oriole previously. I’ll maybe have to check back in my notes in the possibly vain hope I made a good enough description fifteen years ago to assess which species they were. A rather tame Great Egret stalked about The Lake but I was less focussed on the water and more on what was in the trees.
I headed for the Ramble, perhaps the most famous spot for migrants in the park. It was still pretty breezy and early in the evening the birds were fairly quiet. As I walked along the maze of trails I began to see a few good migrants. The first new warbler was an effortlessly lovely Magnolia Warbler, all streaks and eye-catching yellow, black and white contrasts. A White-crowned Sparrow perched up on a fence wire and I had some close views of a Tufted Titmouse. There were also birds stirring in the undergrowth. An impossibly neat Ovenbird crept through the leaf-litter, with a sort of ‘walk like an Egyptian' strut. Then I came across a small Catharus thrush which, with its buffy eye ring I was able to identify as a Swainson’s Thrush. A few more followed. I briefly saw what I thought might have been a Gray-cheeked Thrush but it disappeared before I could see it clearly. I was compensated by a bird rustling about just feet away in the same area, which proved to be a beautiful rufous and spotted Wood Thrush. A flash of wings in the treetops put me on to a flycatcher and I was pleased it was my first ever Great-crested Flycatcher, a big yellow bird with bright rufous on the wings and tail. A rather plain looking warbler had me checking for the books, but the pale patch at the base of the primaries identified it as a female Black-throated Blue Warbler. I also had some quick views of a couple of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, both looking like females. Overhead some bat-like chirps drew my attention to small parties of Chimney Swifts coming down low as evening descended. On the Lake, I watched a ‘spotted’ Spotted Sandpiper creeping around the shore.
This was all good but the activity still seemed a bit slow until I found a couple of trees in the middle of the Ramble where there was lots going on. The first bird I saw was a medium sized olive and yellow songbird – a female Scarlet Tanager. Then a flash of crimson and a brilliant male was gleaning the flowers on the tree in front of me. Also in the treetops were two or three masked and surprisingly small Cedar Waxwings. Then a Parula Warbler came flitting prettily through the foliage and there were a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers too. Another warbler had me a bit puzzled and I never fully resolved its identity – I suspect it may have been a Tennessee Warbler though. Finally another smart one, a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, came through.
This morning, jet lag had me out of bed just after five and I headed back to Central Park for some early morning birding. I didn’t have long because I had another flight to get mid morning. Things really were busy this time, at least as far as I could tell, but maybe it was just an average morning in the park for locals! The best area was around the southern end of the Lake and I spent at least half an hour looking through one small patch of trees. First on the agenda was a pretty, bespectacled Canada Warbler. In the same area there were quite a few Magnolia Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers and American Redstarts, including a few spanking males. Perhaps my favourite was a male Black-throated Green Warbler but there was competition from a male Blackpoll Warbler. I briefly glimpsed a Yellow Warbler and had good views of a Wilson’s Warbler. My first vireo of the trip was a plain and chunky Warbling Vireo.
I headed along to the Ramble, which seemed a bit quieter but still had some fine birds. There was an excellent male Black-throated Blue Warbler and also another Ovenbird. In the same area I had fleeting views of a Waterthrush but wasn’t able to see it well enough to tell which species. A spot of pishing seemed to provoke some response, particularly from the numerous Magnolia and Yellow-rumped Warblers. In the same flock were two different vireos, a Red-eyed and white goggled Blue-headed Vireo. I struggled a bit with the two or three Catharus thrushes I saw – I think some more work will need to be done on these. On the Lake, a Black-crowned Night Heron flew in and landed on a rock – the sort of thing they never seem to do in European parks. The woodpecker list was also on the go with a Northern Flicker and a Downy Woodpecker. On the way back, the ‘hotspot’ by the lake turned up an Eastern Wood-pewee flycatching from the treetops and I had good views of another couple of Warbling Vireos. Once I got back to the hostel, I totted up the warbler totals: fourteen species (at least if ‘Waterthrush sp’ counts as one). Not bad for about an hour-and-a-half. I’d be interested to see it on a busy day.
So mid-morning yesterday I headed to Newark airport to further my develop my carbon footprint to almost Jos-like proportions. I flew to Indianapolis and then travelled an hour or so south to Bloomington, Indiana where I was meeting with a couple of bird sound researchers. Once I’d arrived at my motel, I headed off towards Griffy Lake, which is an extensive wooded reserve on the northern side of town, around a mile or so from where I’m staying. I wasn’t exactly sure where to go and ended up spending quite a while wandering various ‘unofficial’ trails through quite dense and tall woodland.
It was pretty quiet in the woods, and hard to see much of what there was. I glimpsed a couple of Red-eyed Vireos and saw what I suspect must have been a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, but the views weren’t really that conclusive. A few parties of Carolina Chickadees flitted through the treetops. What was a bit more conclusive was a waterthrush I stalked down by the edge of a stream. Despite most views being of the bobbing rear of the bird, I eventually saw enough to be convinced it was a Northern Waterthrush. They’re tricky though – I get the impression these are birds you really need to have your eye in for. I had a nice view of a humbug-striped Red-bellied Woodpecker along the road and down at the dam there were lots of Northern Rough-winged Swallows swooping low over the water. A walk along a trail south of the lake turned up another Northern Waterthrush and a Canada Warbler. On the pumping station by the dam, there was a female Eastern Bluebird fly catching and an Eastern Wood-pewee was doing something similar from a fence wire. The highlight was on the walk back through a wooded residential area, where three Common Nighthawks silently drifted out towards the lake as dusk fell.
This morning I took a different route towards the lake and found a number of marked trails through some very lovely woodland. On the way there, I saw my first ever Brown Thrasher hopping along the edge of the road, and a White-tailed Deer stared back at me from the verge. Into the woodland and things started fairly quietly but soon I heard an interesting song consisting of a rapidly repeated two-note phrase. Now I’ve been trying quite hard to learn a few songs before I came out here and soon I was suspecting this might be a ‘target bird’. It remained out of sight initially in fairly dense trees but then I caught a movement in front of me: a bright yellow and black-masked Kentucky Warbler. I was doubly pleased, not just to see a new bird but to have suspected correctly what it was from the song. Nearby I had good views of a calling bird scuttling through the low cover.
As the sun came up, more birds began to sing but most remained out of sight. Having listened back to recordings, I’m confident I heard the beautiful and wistful strains of a Wood Thrush singing. Overhead, a couple of Great Blue Herons cruised over and two more White-tailed Deer looked inquisitively at me as I approached, their breath smoking in the cool morning air. A pair of Downy Woodpeckers were busy feeding young at a nesthole and a chipmunk scuttled over some fallen branches. An emphatic repeated song alerted me to an Ovenbird and as I was looking for it, I caught sight of another brownish warbler in low vegetation. Rather excellently, this was a Worm-eating Warbler, all black and toffee-coloured stripes. A really good bird – a bit more like the subtle European warblers than these brash American types. Down a ridge I heard a buzzy ascending song but it was always too distant to see the bird making it. I’m almost certain this was another local warbler speciality – a Cerulean Warbler. I shall go back to have another look later.
The walk back was productive too. All morning I’d heard a number of birds giving a high-pitched song and had strong suspicions as to what they might be coming from. These were confirmed when I had good views of a Tennessee Warbler in some low roadside scrub, as it sang to another that was somewhere out of sight in the woodland. In another roadside tree a lovely deep blue Indigo Bunting gave its pleasant chirping song and I saw a couple of beautiful American Goldfinches perched up in a garden. A chestnut-capped Chipping Sparrow was walking about a lawn and then a pair of Eastern Kingbirds swooped from the low branches of a conifer to pick up insects from near the ground.
[QUOTE=Andrew Whitehouse;1202881]Just for the next week or so I have a new patch that I’m working. It’s called ‘The United States of America’. To be fair I’m only working one or two bits of it, as it’s a fairly extensive site. And as this is a ‘work trip’, as I like to call it, the birding is fairly casual and in between lots of rigorous, hard work. So, half way through day two, here’s the story so far.
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Nice patch you've got there Andrew, though, as seems to be the way with these things, I was there before you. The idea of casual birding in between the work sounds strangely familar too. Annoyingly you seem to be seeing much more than I did on my recent casual US-listing trip though. Nice stuff, all the same.
Stuart