Midtown Birding
Bryant Park, NYC
Thursday 10 October 2019
69 °F
After seeing a Manhattan Bird Alert notice for a Prothonotary Warbler in Bryant Park (midtown Manhattan) today, my juices were flowing to get down there and try to see this beauty. They are simply irresistible: lemon yellow passerines that are only uncommonly found in NYC during migration.
One of my first birds upon arriving to the park after school was this OVENBIRD:
Male COMMON YELLOWTHROAT:
An unwelcome visitor — this feral cat legit lunged at me, hissing violently when I tried to shoe it away from hunting birds in the shrubs. Pretty scary, actually! I promptly wrote an email to Feral Cats NYC who responded later telling me they are aware of the cat and in the process of trying to capture it. Quite the feisty little beast to capture, I imagine! Don’t want him or her hunting these migrant birds, who have enough threats already...
A prime example of these vulnerable migrants are GRAY CATBIRDS — I have seen this species strike windows before — yet another example of one of the many perils our feathered friends face while winging their ways north & south every year.
WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS are back in numbers — they’re here to stay for the winter as they have a particularly affinity for super-urban parks like Bryant Park, for some reason.
And a nice bonus sighting was this LINCOLN’S SPARROW, my first of the fall in New York, which allowed for extremely close looks, yet mediocre pictures due to its frantic nature. All of these birds have the necessary task of fattening up for their journey south — it is either eat & fly or starve for so many of our feathered friends. I really cannot stress how mind-blowing migration is, and how dangerous it is, especially for these individuals who find their migratory paths crossing metropolis after metropolis along the eastern seaboard.
Unfortunately, no Prothonotary Warbler today. Not to despair though, because I saw multiple this spring! Bird-of-the-day to the Lincoln’s Sparrow with runner-up to the Ovenbird, fine birds for midtown Manhattan of all places! Stay tuned — on sunday, I will be attending the Queens Big Sit, where a bunch of the most hardcore birders around New York City will seawatch and bird from the Battery Harris platform at Fort Tilden, trying to get as many species as possible in one day!
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 977 Species
