The warblers are back!

Central Park, NY!

Tuesday 19 April 2022 55 °F

Between classes today, I was overjoyed to see on the Manhattan groupchat that it was birdy at Central Park North with both Hooded & Prothonotary Warblers giving good lucks, among more common species. So, since classes ended at 3:15 for me today, I rode my scooter over to the park in hopes of getting some good photos of these warblers. It certainly feels great to be birding again after about three extremely intense weeks of some of the most demanding performances of my life.

Upon arriving to the north of end of Central Park at the Harlem Meer, my first OSPREY of the year winged over:

Further in the Loch, this WHITE-THROATED SPARROW was fairly obliging — they are passing through in large numbers now:

Then, I saw a group of birders gathered at the “Cut-out” and sure enough, they all had their cameras pointed at a lemon-yellow passerine!

My FOY PROTHONOTARY WARBLER! Sweet, sweet, sweet!

And it got extreeeemely close to us, seemingly unafraid. Warblers tend to feed lower down on chillier days like today as that’s where the bugs tend to be. And it wasn’t just the case with the Prothonotary — take note throughout the post of all the different birds where water is clearly visible in the background — the majority of the insectivore passerines were feeding low and close to water today since temps were in the lower 50’s.

After nearly a half an hour of photography, I wondered through the Loch to see what else I could see. Here is a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER:

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS also abounded today:

And the trusty pair of GADWALL at the Pool is always nice to see:

A couple PINE WARBLERS were around:

SWAMP SPARROW:

PALM WARBLER:

HERMIT THRUSH:

The most ironic bird sighting of the day was a Chicken that was probably dumped in the park by an irresponsible owner.

This beautiful male BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER was an FOY bird for me:

And I was overjoyed to here from a couple of birders that one of my favorite species, the Hooded Warbler, was still hanging around. Sure enough, after about five minutes of searching in the area they pointed out, I heard its chip call and tracked down this beautiful male HOODED WARBLER, another FOY bird! Yay!

This time of year has to be my absolute favorite. There’s nothing like seeing the return of neotropical migrants, the emergence of reptiles and amphibians, and actually having time to find all my favorite creatures before the sun sets each day. Bird-of-the-day has to go to the Hooded Warbler which has always been my favorite warbler species as it is just such a smartly-plumaged bird with its dynamic yellow and black, plus it is uncommon enough to be exciting every time one is found. Runner-up to the show-stopper Prothonotary Warbler. I will get extremely busy again end of April/early May but hopefully will find some time for birding before and after that period, too.

Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1129 Species

Posted by skwclar 01:58 Archived in USA