Saturday 9 June 2012

Central Park, New York City,

Elis and I spent a couple of days in New York City. Our first motive for being there was to visit the skin collection at the American Natural History Museum.
Museum entrance with statue of Teddy Roosevelt on a horse
flanked by two guides, one Native American and one African.
It was a bit of an adventure travelling on the famous NY Subway, but it was overall a relatively pleasant and uneventful experience.


We stayed the night with our friend Don Hill who had been a client in Ubatuba on two occasions and has now become a firm friend, we were treated to a splendid dinner and much chat about the world in general.
Elis and me with Don (green shirt) and some of his friends
from the US and Brazil
Our second motive was to bird Central Park. The next morning saw us entering the park with high expectations.

Full of expectation
View of Central Park
Getting to know the locals...
... and there was me thinking Elis wasn't looking!
The birding was not as frenetic as we had hoped, despite the perfect weather conditions (wet and windy the previous day and night with a dry, calm, overcast morning), there was not the anticipated 'fall' of migrants. We were however treated to some good birds in small numbers.
Common Grackle

Tufted Titmouse

Northern Cardinal

Black-crowned Night-Heron

I think though that when people consider American migrants they almost instantly turn their thoughts to the warblers. We had a good selection with; Yellow, Black-throated Blue, Wilson's, Magnolia, Black-and-white, Yellow-rumped, Blackpoll, Blackburnian and Chesnut-sided with Northern Parula and American Redstart, plus Northern Waterthrush and Ovenbird.
Yellow Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler (male)

Black-throated Blue Warbler (female)

Wilson's Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

American Redstart

Northern Waterthrush

Ovenbird

We also had a Grey-cheeked Thrush, we tried to string it into a Bicknell's but not with much conviction.
Grey-cheeked Thrush


No comments:

Post a Comment