I led a walk for NYC Audubon in Prospect Park, Brooklyn this morning, and was pleasantly surprised by the number of migrants we encountered. Earlier emails about promising radar & favorable winds last night were spot-on!
We started at Grand Army Plaza at 8am, and made our way along the Rose Garden, Vale of Cashmere, through the Midwood, ending by the Lullwater & Boathouse. It's a measure of the activity levels that this short route took us 2.5 hours... Almost immediately upon entering the park we encountered a mixed flock of Black-throated Blue Warblers & American Redstarts (about 4 of each). There was quite a bit of activity at treetop level of warblers I didn't see well enough to ID (twitching twigs, mostly). We had a stunning male Canada Warbler in the Vale of Cashmere. In the Midwood we had the most activity, with a mixed flock of Warbling & Red-eyed Vireos (cool to see them together), the latter being followed by a begging Brown-headed Cowbird fledgling, so presumably they were local breeders. Nearby we encountered another Canada Warbler, two each of Blue-winged & Chestnut-sided Warblers, a Black-and-white Warbler, and more Redstarts (all female-type plumage). The highlight of the walk was an extremely cooperative basic plumage male or bright female Blackburnian Warbler feeding at eye-level for about ten minutes. A bright male Northern Parula was spotted overhead as well. Other sightings included a pair of Baltimore Orioles, Eastern Kingbirds, and plenty of cardinals, catbirds, and robins (mostly fledglings). An odd and slightly disturbing sighting was a White-footed Mouse that ran into a path right near our feet and commenced running in circles for several minutes. I assume it was suffering the affects of rodenticide? Aside from that, a lovely morning. Migration is officially underway! - Gabriel Willow, NYC Audubon -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
