New York Spring Migration Trip - Part Three

Date: 2nd May - 7th May

Location: New York - United States

Part One Here

Part Two Here

Weather: 
Sunshine and Dry.. Finally!

Species Lifers - Day 5 - Central Park + Governor's Island
Red Breasted Nuthatch, Orchard Oriole, Brown Creeper, Nashville Warbler, Blue Grosbeak, Yellow Throated Vireo, Red Throated Diver, Killdeer, Yellow Crowned Night Heron, Bobolink

Species Lifers - Day 6 - Central Park
Swamp Sparrow, White Eyed Vireo, Summer Tanager, Pine Siskin, Canada Warbler, Least Flycatcher

Observation: 
With our last full day in New York, we stayed local and and spent the day in Central Park. We caught the tube to the Park (to save our steps for later in the day!). 

We arrived in North Woods and had a great start.

 Our first sighting was this showy Northern Parula.

In the same area, we had some great views of the Chestnut Sided Warbler

A new lifer for Lauren, a Brown Creeper, very similar to our Treecreepers.

We finally managed to get some good views of a American Redstart, that landed in the bush next to us, no more than 5 foot away! A very fast moving bird!

Leaving the North Woods area, this Yellowthroat popped up.

At this point, the moisture from yesterday had kicked in, Dad's camera had completely steamed up so whilst he stood pointing his lens at the sun to warm it up,after 20 mins it cleared. I stood photographing the Orchard Orioles.

A quick toilet break, we stopped off at Conservatory Garden, totally worth it, as we found a pair of Nashville Warbler

The sightings were quickly arriving from the Ramble area, so we started walking South.

This gorgeous Kinglet catching flies above our heads

We stopped in our favourite part of the Park. The Rambles feeders.

A common visitor were House Finch.

A stunning Brown Headed Cowbird in the sunshine

We pulled out a Muffin for a snack and within seconds, the Cardinal hopped into view.

We were no more than 100 foot away when a tweet come in for a Blue Grosbeak at the Feeders, so we rushed back and managed to see him.

It suddenly become very birdy in this little area, with Blue Headed Vireo

Then another lifer, Yellow Throated Vireo.

A second Grosbeak species at the same location, this time a Rose Breasted Grosbeak, a bird we'd seen plenty of around each location we had visited. A stunning bird!

As we had done so well this morning, we decided to carry on and head to Governor's Island. It took about an hour to get there and involved a 2 Tubes and a Ferry, but it was worth it!

This picture taken on the way out the Park. How stunning is this view!

We arrived onto Governor's Island, with tweets saying '2 Bobolink' on the Island. We spoke to a lovely birder who gave us some great information on some target birds, but he hadn't seen the Bobolink, we had a quick look but couldn't see any either.

We followed his directions 'Head for a area that has a large puddle and some horrible buildings' and just as we thought we had gone the wrong way, we spotted a large puddle, with plenty of Black Duck, Gulls and then in the distant a single Killdeer!!

We had seen a low number of Laughing Gull, compared to previous visits, but this pair were perched against the city backdrop.

Not far from them, we found this Loon, a Red Throated, our first species of this in the US and our second tick for the Island.

You get a great view of the Statue from here, and no tourists here!

The reason we visited the Island was to get some Yellow Crowned Night Heron, as they nest on the Island. We were advised by two separate birders head to the School and you will see them.... we thought they would be nesting in plain site but didn't expect this!!

Initially we spotted this Juvenile on the floor collecting some sticks, which we presume was for the nest, We stayed our distance as didn't know how close we could get, with that a local passed the Heron at no more than a few feet away.

He did later fly up into the tree, enabling us to get some close shots.

Look at that eye!!

This was one of the adults on the nest, in total we seen 3 adult birds and 1 juvenile, but only 1 nest, maybe the Juvenile was helping build the nest?

Extremely happy we started heading back to the Ferry port, going back via the Fort to try again for the Bobolink that had been sighting about 2 hours earlier.

After a good search we found 3 Male birds feeding in the grass!

We had exceeded our targets and with a Island just over a mile in size, it holds some amazing wildlife, well worth a visit if you get the chance.

We headed back in Manhattan for a celebratory meal, think it was well deserved!

7th May

Our last day in New York and we had 7 hours for birding left before heading to the Airport.

Like yesterday, we caught the Tube to the Park, this time planning to get off at 81st Street (4 Stops).... that's the last time I let Dad navigate, he told us we had arrived after what turned out to be ONE stop so we arrived at the beginning of the Park and it would have been quicker to walk than to do what we did!

We headed straight for the Feeders, as sightings were slow this early on.

This a Red Bellied Woodpecker about to be attacked by a Downy Woodpecker.

This a Rose Breasted Grosbeak - Female, which is just as pretty as the Male, we thought!

This the Male.

Alot of the birds were perching lovely in the morning light.

White Throated Sparrow

A displaying Red Winged Blackbird

Northern Waterthrush

We seen a couple of birders getting excited and looking up, so we headed over to see what they were on. A White Eyed Vireo, another lifer!

A lovely bird to photograph as it perched a lot longer than the Warblers did.

Just about finishing up and at Turtle Pond, we sat and had some lunch, when this Eastern Kingbird flew over and perched nice and close.

On the way out, we got some tweets and the Azalea Pond was looking good, so again we had a short break here. After about 10 minutes, a Summer Tanager perched above us, another lifer, a similar bird to the Scarlet Tanager.

In this area, we then spotted 3 more lifers in a matter of minutes. We heard a flock of what sounded like Goldfinch, and we seen about 4 American Goldfinch, and amongst them was 3 Pine Siskin!

Then feeding below them was a Swamp Sparrow, a bird that we had missed most days but had been sighted.

And then.. we know!! We seen a flock of Purple Finch feeding in the nearby trees, a couple came down and perched enabling us to get some pics.

Our last bird of the whole trip was yet another lifer a Least Flycatcher, we sat and watched it feed for around 10 minutes.

From there we headed back to the hotel and onto the airport :(

A round-up of what we seen. Over 6 days we seen:

126 Species
57 Life Ticks
1 New butterfly

An average of 58 species a day and almost a 50% life/sighting ratio.
With approx 9000 pictures taken between us.

We had the most amazing trip and hope you enjoyed reading our blogs and looking at our images.

If you need any information on locations, we are more than happy to help.

Thanks For Looking! 

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