Inwood Hill Park - May 11 - Another flight

Deep blue skies, instead of the days of fog and overcast this morning. The fog had produced some memorable birding the last few days. The clear skies continued the string of birdy mornings. It actually felt along the ridge that there were more birds than yesterday in terms of actual numbers of individuals, but the diversity of species was somewhat reduced. Yellow-rumped Warblers were easily the most abundant warbler. It was one of those May mornings where you looked at lots of "Myrtles", as Yellow-rumps were called when I started birding, looking for other species. And other species were to be found. I tallied 19 species as part of my total of 68 species during about a 3.5 to 4 hour walk. At one point James Knox called me on my cell to say it had come across a termite hatch and the warblers were all coming in to feed. A few of us hurried over and were rewarded with a nice male Bay-breasted Warbler at below eye level. This was not far southeast of the toll plaza and not far from where James and i had seen a Bay-breast (perhaps the same one) the day before. The west side of the ridge between the meadow overlook and above the toll plaza seemed to have the biggest numbers of birds this morning, though birds could be found everywhere. Earlier, James and I heard a singing Tennessee Warbler near the east overlook above the Indian caves and also found my first Yellow-billed Cuckoo of the year near here.

Before giving my complete bird list for the morning, I want to mention a few plants in bloom. The large lilac bush by the meadow overlook is now in full, fragrant bloom.

Lilacs                                                                                                          © Joseph DiCostanzo

Also, now in bloom are some of the Horse Chestnut trees scattered around the park.

Horse Chestnut                                                                                  © Joseph DiCostanzo

I had to cut short my morning because Ann and I had to go to Brooklyn due to a family matter, but my total bird list for the weekend was 84 species with 22 warblers. Following is Sunday's list of 68.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Double-crested Cormorant
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo - 1, east side of ridge (see above)
Chimney Swift - now back in numbers
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee - my first ones of the year were singing on the ridge
Great Crested Flycatcher - 2
Eastern Kingbird - 3
White-eyed Vireo - 1, neat the east Indian caves overlook
Blue-headed Vireo - 1
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Veery - 2
Swainson's Thrush - 3
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Ovenbird - not as many as the other day, but still common

Ovenbird running along path                                                                     © Joseph Dicostanzo

Northern Waterthrush
Black-and-white Warbler - 15
Tennessee Warbler - 1, (see above)
Nashville Warbler - 2, singing on ridge
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart - 15, this and the next two warblers were everywhere
Northern Parula - 20
Magnolia Warbler - 20
Bay-breasted Warbler - 1, male (see ablve)
Blackburnian Warbler - 1, female on the ridge
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler - 4, singing males on the ridge
Blackpoll Warbler - 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler - 20
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 50, an underestimate
Black-throated Green Warbler - 10
Canada Warbler - 1, male near where the top of the Clove road
Wilson's Warbler - 1
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow - 1, with White-throats on the ridge
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow - 1, also with White-throats on the ridge
Scarlet Tanager - 2

Scarlet Tanager                                                                           © Joseph DiCostanzo

Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 6
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird - 7, on the soccer field
Orchard Oriole - 5
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow