Birding Central Park

Yesterday I took the first train of the day into Manhattan so that I could watch spring migration in Central Park. While there had been some interesting sightings in the past week, I did not have any particular target birds on this trip. Instead, I just wanted to experience the sights and sounds of many Neotropical migrants packed into a small wooded area. The birding started off rather slowly when I first entered the park; for a while I only saw common resident species, and when I did see warblers they were almost all Yellow-rumped Warblers. However, things started getting better once I crossed the Bow Bridge into the Ramble. Amidst a big flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers, I started seeing others – a singing Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Yellow Warbler. A Black-crowned Night-Heron flew around the Upper Lobe of the Lake. A little up the hill, I spotted a Northern Waterthrush in the Gill and a singing Prairie Warbler nearby.

Shortly after, I saw my first Wood Thrush of the year. It crossed the path and then stopped and froze a few feet off the path. I had just long enough to take two photos. One is above; you can see the other by clicking through the photo. It was one of four (non-robin) thrushes that I saw in the Ramble. The others were Veery, Swainson's Thrush, and Hermit Thrush. All but the Hermit Thrush were firsts for 2011.

As I made my way around the Ramble I continued seeing lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers and various resident birds, such as the Downy Woodpecker pictured above. At the suggestion of another birder, I checked out Maintenance Field but did not find much new. As I walked west from there I saw a crowd of birders and decided to see what they were looking at. I soon heard the rising buzzy song of a Cerulean Warbler. I had to bend over backwards to see it since it was high up in a tree straight overhead. As I continued wandering around the Ramble, I would see it three more times. It moved around the woods in the company of other warblers, which included a Nashville Warblers and a gorgeous singing Blackburnian Warbler. Other warblers in the Ramble included Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Blue-winged Warbler, Ovenbird, Palm Warbler, and Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Along with the warblers, I saw many other species. Orioles made a good showing, with both Orchard and Baltimore Orioles active and singing throughout the Ramble. At least one male Scarlet Tanager showed off its plumage. Vireos included Warbling, Red-eyed, and Blue-headed. I was surprised to see a Red-breasted Nuthatch foraging in the same oak tree where I was watching the Cerulean Warbler and a Nashville Warbler.

It was an excellent day to be out birding. The weather was neither too cold nor too hot, and it provided good lighting for most of the day. Birds were singing and in breeding plumage. Winds must have been favorable to deposit so many birds in such a small area. I ended up seeing 72 species, of which 17 were warblers. I think that is an excellent birding day in any location.

A Varied Thrush in Central Park

Since late November a Varied Thrush has been wintering in Central Park's Ramble. As other urban rarities seem to do, it picked a rather odd location. The most reliable place to see the vagrant thrush is a small brushy area wedged in between a bustling transverse road and the men's bathroom in a maintenance building. The choice seems all the stranger if you consider its native habitat. Varied Thrushes are rare in the eastern United States. Their breeding range extends from the Pacific Northwest north to Alaska; they winter south to California. These are somewhat secretive birds, preferring to dwell in dense, wet forests.

By this point, most birders in the New York metro area have probably already seen it if they wanted to, but I just saw it for the first time yesterday. As I arrived at its regular location, I met another birder who had seen it briefly before a Blue Jay's alarm call sent the thrush and other birds flying. After I had waited about 10-15 minutes, the Varied Thrush reappeared, staying long enough for me to get a good look but not long enough for me to take photos of it. So I waited another 15 minutes or so, as a snowplow passed by going one direction along the path, and then a garbage truck and two snowplows drove in the other direction, and finally a police golf cart drove past and parked in front of the maintenance building. After all that, the thrush reappeared, and I took the photos you see above.

As the thrush disappeared away for the second time, I became aware of someone approaching along the path. It turned out to be a familiar figure – Corey of 10,000 Birds pushing his son, Desi, in a stroller. I stood with him for a while and waited for the Varied Thrush to come back. When it did not appear for a while, I decided to move on and look for another unusual bird for the park, an immature Red-headed Woodpecker that has been using the trees on the south end of the Sheep Meadow. The woodpecker was easier to find than I expected; I was only waiting about five minutes when it flew into view, and I had a good look at it. Unlike the Varied Thrush, the woodpecker was not a life bird, just an interesting one.

I stopped briefly at the Ramble feeders while walking to and from the Varied Thrush's location. There were not unusual finches like Pine Siskins or Common Redpolls, but there were plenty of other birds around. Here are a few images of the those birds.

Birding with Bloggers in Central Park

Yesterday I took the train into New York to meet Bev, Catherine, Ann Marie, and three other birders in Central Park. While I have had contact with some of them through Twitter and the blogosphere, this was my first time meeting any of them.

We met and started birding at Tanner's Spring, just above 81st Street. Not many birds were coming down to the water that early in the day, but there was plenty of activity in the trees above us. The highlight was a Worm-eating Warbler, which offered very brief glimpses high in the canopy. Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, and Black-and-white Warblers all showed themselves in the trees around the spring. Near the top of Summit Rock above the spring we saw two male Scarlet Tanagers in the same tree. On the way back down, there was a Veery – the first of many thrushes for the day – near the side of the path.

From there we headed in the direction of Belvidere Castle, where several good birds had been spotted in recent days. On the way, Catherine thought she saw a Red-breasted Nuthatch in the Shakespeare Garden; unfortunately it gave too brief of a glimpse for anyone else to get on it. The reported birds were not around the castle, but our consolation prize was a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Bev also spotted a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in that area.

The Ramble was very birdy yesterday. While the numbers of birds were not high, there was a surprising amount of diversity. There were large numbers of Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, Yellow-rumped, and Black-and-white Warblers, as well as many Blue-headed Vireos. We saw lots of Hermit Thrushes, though Catherine said that there were a lot more the day before. As we made our way through the Ramble, we saw or heard Hooded, Chestnut-sided, Blue-winged, Nashville, and Palm Warblers. We also saw a few Common Yellowthroats and a couple Northern Waterthrushes.

At one trail junction there were a couple of rotting logs from which hundreds of winged termites were emerging. (Update: Bev posted photos of the termites.) As they flew away from the log, a Northern Parula was waiting to snatch them out of the air. Several other birds, mostly American Robins and House Sparrows, also took advantage of the termite feast. Several other logs or stumps had emerging termites, but none of the others had quite as dense a crowd (of either termites or birds).

There was a report of a Yellow-breasted Chat in the Maintenance Meadow, so we followed up on that. Unfortunately there was no Chat when we arrived, or at least if there was one, it was not chatting. After quick stops at the Oven and the Point, we headed to the Boathouse for lunch. In the afternoon we added one more warbler, Magnolia Warbler, which gave some great looks and brought us up to 16 warbler species for the day. At this point, members of the group started to go home. As the rest of us made our way back to Tanner's Spring, we saw a couple of Baltimore Orioles and a Yellow-throated Vireo. Once back at the spring we went our separate ways.

Twitter Birding in Central Park

One of the great aspects of the blogosphere is that it can connect people who have similar interests but are separated by many miles. So it is in the world of nature blogging, where I can regularly read posts from people scattered all over the country, and some even as far away as the Arctic or Australia. The same is true for real-time applications like Twitter. Much as I enjoy reading all these blogs, tweets, and chirps, sometimes it is nice to put together some names and faces. So it was that yesterday I took a train into New York to meet two other Twittering birders, Dawn (@DawnFine) and Matt (@mattbango), and their partners and family members. Matt is the founder and designer, along with his brother, of Chirptracker, a Twitter-like web application built specifically for birders. That site is still in beta, but invitations are available for any birders who want to join. Dawn happened to be staying in Jersey City this week in the course of her peregrinations around the country (chronicled at her blog), so it seemed like a good opportunity for a meet-up.

The seven of us met near Strawberry Fields and proceeded to work our way north around the Lake and through the Ramble. From the start of the walk, it was clear that we were watching the late stages of spring migration. Everywhere we went there were Blackpoll Warblers of various ages and sexes, some noticeable only as a faint high-pitched tink-tink-tink-tink, others visible right in front of us. Blackpolls are among the last warblers to migrate and peak in late May, after many other species have already moved on. Another sign that migration is winding down is that many birds were building or tending nests. We saw at least three probable robin nests, orioles carrying nesting materials, and a Wood Thrush nest. The latter was only a yard or two away from the path in a well-trafficked location. (Given all of the problems that urban birds face, I have to wonder how likely this nest is to be successful. Even if the foot traffic does not bother this pair, the nest seems like a good candidate to be parasitized by cowbirds or robbed by Blue Jays.) Aside from the visible nests, we could hear Warbling Vireos singing all around any body of water; at least some of these must be on territory.

Of course, plenty of migrants are still on the move. Shortly after arriving, we watched a Swainson's Thrush and a White-throated Sparrow bathing in the shallows of the Lake's Lower Lobe. Moving into the Ramble, we began to find more species. Our best luck was in the area around the Azalea Pond, where many birds come down from the canopy to drink or bathe. There we had a long look at a Northern Waterthrush, as well as glimpses of a handful of Northern Parulas, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, and the aforementioned Blackpolls. A kind passerby pointed out a bathing Black-throated Green Warbler; though not a birder, she recognized it as something unusual and was delighted to see it. In addition, many Magnolia Warblers, American Redstarts, and Red-eyed Vireos were scattered around the park.

Occasionally we got reminders of the urbanness of our birding location. There were a few large troops of tourists – and at least one large troop of birders – making their way around the park, in addition to the normal weekend crowds. Resident birds, used to the bustle, acted quite tame. Some Gray Catbirds approached to check us out, and female Northern Cardinals came even closer. The cardinals looked like they might have been expecting us to give them food. Some birders will hand-feed wild birds in the park. (One breeding season featuring hand-feeding is chronicled in Bob Levy's Club George.)

The best sighting of the day came near the end of our walk. We stopped at Tanner's Spring, a small pond (barely more than a puddle) close to the Delacorte Theater that can often attract birds to drink and bathe. At first we just saw more of the same species we saw in the Ramble, along with House Sparrows, Common Grackles, and an Eastern Wood-Pewee. Then a couple of us briefly spotted a Canada Warbler in the understory near the spring. Unfortunately not everyone got a good look at this bird, which of course did not make a second appearance while we were waiting for it. At least the sighting gave Dawn a new life bird.

We wandered a bit farther north from there, finding a Yellow Warbler along the way, before we decided to end our birding for the day. By my count we had seen 38 species in a few hours of birding. I greatly enjoyed seeing those birds and meeting two of my Twitter and Chirptracker friends, Dawn and Matt. In the recent past I have also had the chance to meet blogging friends, through the Four Bloggers adventure in March and the Cape May meetup last October. I hope to meet some more blogging or twittering birders in the future.

Central Park Birding

Yesterday morning I went into New York with my non-birding sister who had some research to do. While she was busy with that, I went birding in Central Park, and then rejoined her later for some time at the Met. I ended up walking through about two-thirds of the park in the morning and the rest of it in the late afternoon.

I started off by scanning the buildings along 5th Avenue for Red-tailed Hawks. None were apparent at that time, but I saw several during the course of the walk. There were a few lone red-tails, but also one group of three and another obvious pair. Moving on, I encountered a small Swamp Sparrow flock in the lower lobe of the lake. This is one of my favorite sparrow species, so I sat and watched them forage in the muck. In the same area I also saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and heard a few snatches of a Winter Wren's song.

Song was very noticeable, not just from the wren, but also from White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, and Dark-eyed Juncos. A lot of the white-throats were rather mangy-looking, especially around their heads. It seems that these birds were probably molting from basic to alternate plumage, which the Birds of North America describes as a partial molt of head and breast feathers. At least one white-throat appeared to have a almost bare head.

As I made my way north through the park, I checked out the reservoir, which had collections of Northern Shovelers, Buffleheads, and other water birds, all of which were too far to appreciate fully. Moving on, I encountered a Merlin around 95th St; the falcon flew out of the park and onto the top of a building across Central Park West. At the far north end, I spotted a beautiful pair of Wood Ducks and a small group of Ruddy Ducks on the Harlem Meer, and a Cooper's Hawk circling the hill above it.

I was a pleasant way to spend a morning, especially once the clouds lifted and the sun came out.

Wandering Tanager

When I left Jamaica Bay yesterday, I boarded the 'A' train for Manhattan. Instead of stopping at Penn Station and going home - as I would normally do, I transferred to the 'C' train to head uptown to Central Park. An unusual bird had been reported last week from the Winterdale Arch near West 81st Street.

As I approached the arch I saw it, a beautiful Western Tanager perched right at the top of a viburnum bush (where it was reported). It then flew across the roadway and foraged in a flowering tree (perhaps a magnolia?). A photo gallery of the Central Park tanager is available, as well as notes from Marie Winn, Greatest Auk, and Urban Hawks. The key identification points are the yellow and white wingbars and the pinkish decurved bill. These points distinguish it from an adult female Scarlet Tanager, which is superficially similar.

One of the remarkable things about rarities in New York is that they seem to have little trouble adjusting to the noise and bustle around them. As I observed when I saw the Scott's Oriole in Union Square Park, the oriole seemed to tolerate the fake peregrine antics across the street, streams of passersby, and a squadron of prowling birders armed with binoculars and high-end camera equipment. This Western Tanager in Central Park faced a similar mass of birders as it foraged in a tree right next to a busy bicycle speedway. A hoard of screaming kids marched past. All the while, the tanager went about its business without flushing.

After seeing my second life bird for the day, I walked up to the reservoir. A small group of waterbirds near the southwest corner included Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck, and American Coot. The Pinetum had a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, as well as flocks of Golden-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers. I checked out the Turtle Pond and Shakespeare garden as well, but there were no unusual birds. With that, I ended my birding for the day and headed home.

Scott's Oriole in the NY Times

Jonathan Rosen wrote an essay on seeing the Scott's Oriole in Union Square:

Alongside my excitement, I felt a qualm of embarrassment as I exited the busy subway with my binoculars. It was like taking a taxi to hunt big game: “Let me off near the wildebeest, driver.” In Central Park, I can at least conjure the illusion of wildness if I focus on the trees. But when your marker is a metal statue of a man in a loincloth, standing on what is essentially a traffic island, you cannot pretend you are in the middle of nature.

Then again, that’s the point of bird-watching. “Nature” isn’t necessarily elsewhere. It is the person holding the binoculars, as much as the bird in the tree, and it is the intersection of these two creatures, with technology bringing us closer than we have ever been to the very thing technology has driven from our midst. And, anyway, there are still wild elements in the center of a city. The morning I arrived, the bird had made itself scarce, perhaps because a red-tailed hawk, a Cooper’s hawk and a kestrel were all patrolling the park.

A Rare Bird by Subway

This morning I went to see the Scott's Oriole that was reported from Union Square Park in New York City. The oriole has been sighted repeatedly over the past several days in a small garden on the southwestern corner of the square. Apparently it was first seen in December, but at the time someone misidentified it as an orchard oriole. The bird's true identity was only established last week.

When I arrived, several birders were present, but the oriole was not. As we waited, several raptors flew through the park, including a peregrine falcon, an American kestrel, and a Cooper's hawk. There was a single yellow-bellied sapsucker tapping at the trees and a marge mixed crowd of white-throated sparrows and house sparrows picking through the garden.

About a dozen people had gathered by the time the oriole appeared. It sunned itself for a short time at the top of a tree and then flew to the ground to feed. After a few bites it flew into a nearby bush and perched there for about fifteen minutes. While I was watching, it did not display any of the aggressive behavior noted by Corey.

The Scott's oriole was my 300th life bird.

Several photos of this Scott's oriole are available around the internet, especially on Flickr. I noticed that the feathers of the back and head, rather than being plain black, have an intricate pattern of black, gray, and green. Some of that can be seen in this photograph, but the effect is much more striking in person.

As a side note, a building across the street from the park has a speaker that plays peregrine calls to scare away the pigeons. The pigeons do not seem to be bothered by this at all since they sit on a ledge above the speaker, even while the calls are playing. They only budge when a real peregrine appears.

Pale Male Symposium

As some of you may know, Pale Male and Lola, the famous red-tailed hawks who nest near Central Park in New York, had their third consecutive unsuccessful nesting attempt this spring. The troubles began when the owners of the building where Pale Male had raised hawk broods for years removed the original nest to drive the hawks away. After public outcry, a new nesting structure was put in place, and the red-tailed hawks rebuilt the nest. Since then, the pair has been laying eggs but incubating without the egs hatching.

Hawk watchers in New York are concerned and wondering if the new structure might be the cause of the problems. Donegal Browne of Palemaleirregulars is looking for input on possible causes and solutions. Visit her forum to leave suggestions if you have any.

Review: Club George

Central Park in New York City has a unique mix of human use and avian diversity. Located in the middle of Manhattan, within easy reach of public transportation, it is heavily trafficked by residents and tourists alike. A portion of these visitors are active birdwatchers who monitor the park's bird population and report their sightings on sites like NYC Bird Report. The park is considered among the best places to observe migration on the east coast. Its popularity as a birding spot has led to unusual encounters between birds and their human admirers, some of which are recounted in Bob Levy's Club George. During a period of unemployment, Levy became acquainted with a self-confident red-winged blackbird, named George. This blackbird supplements his natural diet by begging and taking food from the humans that visit his pond. Levy's initial interaction with George led him to explore the world of birds and take up birdwatching. His journals of observations from his first year of birding are the basis for this book.

Club George chronicles a full breeding season in Central Park, from the time that red-winged blackbirds begin to establish territories in April to their departure in late July. Along with the author, we watch as George establishes his territory, courts his mates, and then raises his chicks. The process repeats itself several times during the season, as George has at least two mates and raises at least three broods. (Early on, Levy makes a point of not giving the location of George's Pond, but people familiar with the park should be able to figure it out.) In addition to following the events of the breeding season, the book traces Bob Levy's development as a birder, from a beginner just learning to distinguish one species from another, to a skilled observer who records the nuances of bird behavior.

While George and his breeding attempts are the center of the narrative, chapters of the book follow the feeding and nesting of other species as well. Some of the nests are successful while others are not. Green herons raise broods of chicks on the Lake. Robins and cardinals nest near heavily-trafficked footpaths and manage to raise chicks. Meanwhile, a waxwing nest met a particularly violent end.

The book is full of details about bird behavior, principally the behavior of red-winged blackbirds. The author's personal observations of George and his neighbors are supplemented by references to ornithological studies. Some of these come via personal communication with a scientist; others are citations of important studies and reference works. As a result, even an experienced birder can probably learn something from this book.

At the same time, Club George is not intended to be an ornithological work, and the focus stays on the author's interactions with the birds of Central Park. Levy takes a special interest in the behavior of individual birds. One might wonder, as I initially did, how he manages to distinguish one individual from another when members of a species look so similar. In most cases, this is done by recognizing territorial boundaries. For some birds, individuals are recognized by certain physical characteristics, like a drooping wing or injured bill. Watching birds as individuals helps one appreciate the resourcefulness of these creatures. It also leads the author and other birdwatchers portrayed in the book to become invested in the success or failure of certain birds' nests.

Two ethical issues arise during the course of the book. One is where birdwatching shifts from interaction into intervention. The issue first arises in regard to the ethics of hand feeding. Does allowing birds to take food from your hands expose them to danger from other humans who might try to capture them? Should a birder rescue nestlings or fledglings? Does birdwatching itself put inappropriate stress on birds? The second concerns anthropomorphosis. Levy's observations of individual birds makes them appear almost as characters in a novel, each with its own intentions and personality. The danger, which this book largely avoids, is attributing human characteristics to birds or assuming that they (should) operate according to human moral codes. While Levy raises the questions, and clearly has his own opinions on these subjects, he leaves it up to the reader to determine where the proper boundaries lie.

Experienced birders may find some sections of the book to be too didactic since Levy covers basic information about birds and birdwatching, such as identification and choosing binoculars. However, for the intended audience - beginning birders and nonbirders - these discussions ought to be useful. Such details reflect the enthusiasm of someone who is new to birding. I think that this book would make excellent reading for beginning birders. When I was starting out, I had the pleasure of reading Louis Halle's classic, Spring in Washington, which taught me a way of looking at the natural world over the course of a migration season. I think that Club George could serve as a similar introduction for others.

---

Full citation:

Bob Levy, Club George: The Diary of a Central Park Birdwatcher. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006. Pp. xiv, 370; black and white photographs. $24.95 cloth. ISBN: 0312341679.

To purchase:
Amazon

Author's website:
boblevybird.com

Interview with the author:
March 28, 2006, on WNYC

Tags:

• Book
• Review
• Club George

Businessman Discovers Central Park

The New York Times today has an article on the business of birding and the varied avifauna of Central Park.

According to Mr. Mott, Central Park ranks as a premier bird-watching site since it stands as a verdant oasis of food and water in a desert of concrete and asphalt. Although birds can be observed year-round, the best and most prolific bird-watching is during the spring and fall migratory seasons. Of the estimated 700 different species of birds that regularly can be found in the United States, over 275 species have been observed in the park, and 32 species breed there annually.

As Mr. Mott proceeded to lead me across the Ramble, the man-made wilderness conceived by the park architect Frederick Law Olmstead, he introduced me to an avian universe I had never seen before, even though it had literally passed right in front of my eyes thousands of times. Along with pigeons, Central Park’s plumage includes cardinals, catbirds, wrens, robins, sparrows, starlings, grackles, mourning doves, woodpeckers, red-wing blackbirds, ducks, geese, swans, warblers, osprey, peregrine falcons and bald eagles.

Central Park is a highly-celebrated location for urban birding because of its location in Manhattan, but it is hardly the only one worth the attention. Even in New York City, the outer boroughs have parks that are just as good for birding, if not better.

Tags:

• Birding
• Central Park

Hawks Fledge in New York

Both Washington, D.C., and New York City have active and skilled communities of birders within and around their borders. But somehow the birds in New York get more press. As a recent example, Pale Male and Lola's use of a perch on Central Park West gained major media coverage.

What goes for that famous pair goes for other red-tailed hawk pairs that nest in New York on a smaller scale. The other pairs may not get major media coverage, but each has a devoted following and gets blog coverage. Two pairs in Brooklyn - at Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery - are regularly monitored by the City Birder, who also receives and publishes reports on a pair at Fordham University in the Bronx. Several blogs (Urban Hawks, The Origin of Species, Palemaleirregulars, Marie Winn, and probably others) have reported on a pair of red-tails who nested high on the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in upper Manhattan. Unlike their more famous counterparts in Central Park, the Cathedral pair has successfully fledged at least one chick, with another still in the nest.

Why DC has not had similar coverage of a pair, I am not sure. There must be red-tailed hawk nests somewhere in DC, either on buildings or in other places that allow for careful monitoring by the public. Personally I do not know of any, but I am sure there are some who do know of them, especially since DC has been carefully surveyed for breeding birds over the past four years as part of a larger atlas project. Perhaps it is just a matter of the information not getting out, or perhaps it is a case of not having enough birders who blog. In New York there are at least a dozen bird bloggers, but here in DC I know of only three.

In any case, best of luck to the newly fledged hawks. For a report on the Cathedral fledgling (with pictures), see Urban Hawks. City Birder has the dirt on the Fordham pair. One interesting bit on the Cathedral pair is that the breasts of the hatchlings are bright orange, as opposed to the more usual red-tailed white. I do not have an answer for why that might be, but you can find speculation on it at Marie Winn's blog.

Tags:

• Red-tailed Hawk
• New York