October 12 - Inwood Hill Park and after noon on the coast

It was a sunny, crisp morning and the radar indicated a flight so I went into Inwood Hill Park around sun-up. There were not as many birds as I expected, but it was a pleasant couple of hours nevertheless. The highlight was two Bald Eagles, an adult and an immature, going back and forth over the Hudson as seen from the meadow overlook.

Bald Eagle over the Hudson                                                                    © Joseph DiCostanzo

Bald Eagle over the Hudson                                                                            © Joseph DiCostanzo

There were also flocks of Blue Jays moving south over the Hudson and a few Ospreys. Yellow-rumped Warblers are now appearing in numbers in the park. The full list from about two hours in the park follows.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Osprey (3)
Bald Eagle (2)
Peregrine Falcon (1, seen from overlook)
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Northern Parula (2, west side of soccer fields)
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow (Muscota Marsh)
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
House Finch
House Sparrow

Around mid-day Ann and I headed out to Jones Beach. It was around high tide when we got to the Coast Guard station at the West End. We were rewarded with a couple of hundred American Oystercatchers on the island and best of all a single Marbled Godwit sleeping on the island in the oystercatcher flock. The only other shorebirds were a few Dunlins and a lone Ruddy Turnstone - the turnstone on the bulkhead by the Coast Guard station. The morning flight we had heard about was pretty much over, but there were still numbers of Tree Swallows going by. Among the passerines seen were two Pine Warblers and a male Black-throated Warbler. The normal October sparrow movement produced Eastern Towhee, Chipping , Savannah, Song, Swamp and White-throated sparrows and Dark-eyed Junco.