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.