Central & Prospect Park in one Day!

New York, NY

Thursday 6 June 2024 73 °F

TUESDAY, MAY 14:

It was so great to get out to Central Park this morning to see some migrant birds — activity was high and birds were fairly cooperative, starting with this NORTHERN PARULA of which there were many:

EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE:

INDIGO BUNTING:

OVENBIRD:

BAY-BREASTED WARBLERS abounded, even tripping the eBird filter for this species!

AMERICAN REDSTART:

BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER:

Toward the end of my Central Park visit, I ran into three folks from Malta, of all places, and offered to guide them around Prospect Park as I was headed there later this afternoon after meeting up with a friend. We met up around 3:00pm after separate journeys there on the NY subway system (congrats to them on navigating it!) and enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of birding.

EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE was a lifer for them!

Female BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER:

Female SCARLET TANAGER:

Part of my choosing to bird Prospect Park was that there was a late lingering RUSTY BLACKBIRD (with only one leg!) here and this unfortunate straggler was a lifer for them as well!

We also checked for a Louisiana Waterthrush and came up empty, instead finding plenty of NORTHERNS:

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

Female COMMON YELLOWTHRATS were exceptionally common:

VEERY:

BLACKPOLL WARBLER:

SONG SPARROW was a lifer for them, believe it or not!

Beautiful look at a BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON:

OVENBIRD:

Another lifer for them was this very close female BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER:

VEERY:

HOUSE WREN:

SPOTTED SANDPIPER, another lifer for them:

As well as this GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER:

MUTE SWAN:

At the Prospect Park Lake there were a few gulls around such as HERRING:

LAUGHING GULLS:

This RING-BILLED GULL was another lifer for them:

As well as this RUDDY DUCK:

I bid farewell to my new birding friends after a successful afternoon guiding them around as it was getting late and I was headed to a barbecue at my friend Evan’s place in Queens. A few passerines on the way included EASTERN KINGBIRD: