Today Heydi Lopes, Keir Randall and I spent several hours birding Prospect Park. While there weren't any rarities to unusual species to report, the diversity and abundance of migrant songbirds was pretty impressive for the last weekend of August. Beginning at the North end of the park at 6:30am and winding our way through all the wooded areas (and a bit of the meadows) we tallied 15 species of warbler. The most abundant species was easily American Redstart with Magnolia Warbler coming in a close second. There were also quite a few Black-throated Blue Warblers and Canada Warblers. Two warbler highlights were a Blackburnian Warbler near the Butterfly Meadow which was still in breeding plumage and a Cape May Warbler at the top of the Maryland Monument stairway (which was not). Flycatcher numbers seemed to have increased with several empidonax species seen but, unfortunately, not heard. Baltimore Orioles were also seen in good numbers, mainly competing with American Robins for fruit in the park's many Black Cherry trees. The latter of which, by the way, seem suddenly to be as numerous at starlings. One somewhat surprising observation was of fairly large numbers of Veeries. An estimate of 24 individuals was likely very conservative.
Good birding, Rob "Just like the Sprague's Pipit sings a song, sounds like she's singing ching-a-ring-a-ring-a-ring-a-ring-a-ring-a" - Steven S. Nicholas ********** Location: Prospect Park Observation date: 8/28/10 Number of species: 58 Wood Duck (6.) Green Heron (3.) Red-tailed Hawk (3.) Spotted Sandpiper (1.) Forster's Tern (1.) Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird (3.) Belted Kingfisher (1.) Northern Flicker Eastern Wood-Pewee (1.) Willow Flycatcher (1.) Empidonax sp. (4.) Great Crested Flycatcher (2.) Eastern Kingbird (2.) Warbling Vireo (3.) Red-eyed Vireo (10.) Tree Swallow Barn Swallow White-breasted Nuthatch (2.) Carolina Wren (4.) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (2.) Veery (24.) Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Blue-winged Warbler (1.) Northern Parula (5.) Yellow Warbler (5.) Chestnut-sided Warbler (3.) Magnolia Warbler (15.) Cape May Warbler (1.) Black-throated Blue Warbler (12.) Blackburnian Warbler (1.) Prairie Warbler (1.) Black-and-white Warbler (8.) American Redstart (20.) Ovenbird (6.) Northern Waterthrush (4.) Common Yellowthroat (6.) Canada Warbler (12.) Song Sparrow (1.) Common Grackle Baltimore Oriole (12.) Other common species seen (or heard): Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Mallard, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Red- bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker (2.), Hairy Woodpecker (3.), Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, American Robin, European Starling, Northern Cardinal, House Finch, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
