NYC Bird Report - This website is for anyone who wants to know, day to day, what birds are being observed at an assortment of major birding sites in New York City.
Birding: Valley Stream State Park and Jamaica Bay
Mike and I had already had a pretty good morning’s birding at Jones Beach, even though we were driven out of that migration hot-spot by many malevolent mosquitoes. So we did what any good birders would do: we went birding elsewhere!Valley Stream State Park was next on our itinerary, a park that neither of us had ever visited before but was rumored to be a pretty good spot for warblers and other neotropical migrants. A Golden-winged Warbler had been reported there recently and though it hadn’t been seen in days I had some hope that we might get lucky.
From the parking lot we could hear and see the rufous-capped sparrow of summer, the Chipping Sparrow. Walking through the center of the park revealed some of the usual park-type birds like starlings and House Sparrows. Then things started to get interesting with colorful birds high up in the canopy of some pretty big trees. Eventually we managed to pick out a Magnolia Warbler but I believe at least one warbler escaped our binocular-aided eyes.
Next up in a path through some nice woods was a Wood Thrush that gave good looks until it disappeared into the undergrowth from which a catbird emitted its mewing calls. Continuing along the trail we spotted Common Grackles and Baltimore Orioles, heard the plaintive cries of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and ignored a pair of male Mallards in the stream that paralleled the trail.
We eventually came to a nice open spot by the stream and it just felt like a bird should be there. A quick spish and out popped a White-eyed Vireo, which I thought was bird number 200 for the year in the state (turns out that it was one of the terns we saw earlier, but that’s what I get for trying to keep track of birds in my head).
A little further down the trail we were trying to figure out some more warblers when another birder joined us…and was this ever the birder to meet in Valley Stream State Park. Bobby Berlingeri was hs name and birding Valley Stream State Park was his game. He’s the guy that originally found the Golden-winged Warbler and he agreed to show us the hot spots in the park.
When we crossed what he called the first footbridge it was like by crossing the bridge we had walked into the land of warblers. Black-and-white, Prarie, American Redstart, a Blackburnian (Bobby and I got on it and Mike missed, really rough because it would’ve been Mike’s lifer), Yellow-rumps, Black-throated Green, and Ovenbirds were all around, singly or in numbers. And then, just to top things off, Bobby got us on the nesting Yellow-crowned Night Herons.
After the herons and our heartfelt thanks he had to head out so Mike and I went back to try to find the Blackburnian Warbler again and also the Bay-breasted Warbler that Bobby had seen earlier. Mike picked out a Scarlet Tanager and while I was drinking in this first of the year bird he spotted the Blackburnian Warbler and positively beamed with joy!
More warblers were around up high and we realized to ID the Bay-breasted we were going to have to hear it first. Unfortunately, neither of us knew what one sounded like so I dug out my Peterson’s warbler guide and read out the transliteration of the bird’s song. No sooner had I done so than we heard the bird! But when we got on it we realized it was a Cape May Warbler! A lifer for me! A look in guide revealed that Peterson knew his stuff, as he wrote that the Cape May Warbler’s alternate song is similar to that of the Bay-breast. You learn something new everyday.
After that, Mike had to head home and I headed to Jamaica Bay. I won’t bore you with the details of my adventures there but I will give you some pictures:
This is a really good birding blog..."Mokka mit Schlag" - Leaving at the Height of Migration
It feels a little funny to be leaving New York right at the height of Spring migration. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in Prospect Park with Paul Keim and the Brooklyn Bird Club. We barely got a hundred meters in before I had to leave. There were just that many birds in the first few dozen trees. The group had 19 warblers by the tine the day was over including Prothonotary, though I only got about 6-8 of those myself. In any case, I should get some nice West Coast species and hopefully some life birds while I’m in San Fransisco, though their migration goes through a little earlier than ours. On the other hand, the breeding birds should all be singing.
When I get home I’ll have to remember to block out the first two weeks of May in my calendar for migration in future years. Maybe next year JavaOne will be a couple of weeks later or earlier.
A DC Birding Blog: Loose Feathers #98
All photos by
gettingshitdone. I've put the baaaaaby geese first and the baaaaaby insects at the end, for the convenience of those not into crawly things.See some spring migration photos from Jamaica Bay at this blog...
