April 26 - Inwood Hill Park - few birds

I went into Inwood Hill Park for a couple of hours this morning. The birding was pretty quiet, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the Harbor Seal was still here. I first saw it swimming in the channel off Muscota Marsh. When I was leaving the park a couple of hours later it was hauled out on the Columbia dock sunning itself. I only saw two warblers among the 29 species encountered. One encouraging encounter was to finally hear a Carolina Wren singing in the park. I have been concerned with how hard hit they may have been by this past winter. The full list is at the bottom of this post. Since the birding was quiet, I spent some time looking at plants.

This evening I was sad to see a post by Jessica Ancker on inwoodbirdwatchers that the White Trilliums had been trampled. It must have happened later in the day since they were fine when I saw them in the morning.

White Trillium 04-26-2015 Inwood Hill Park

Up by the old hawk hacking site overlooking the Clove, Dandelion and Cymbalaria (Kenilworth Ivy) were in bloom.

Dandelion 04-26-2015 Inwood Hill Park

Cymbalaria (Kenilworth Ivy) 04-26-2015 Inwood Hill Park

Up by the Overlook, above the Hudson a cherry was starting to bloom and an Eastern Redbud was coming out on the west side of the soccer fields.

Cherry 04-26-2015 Inwood Hill Park

Eastern Redbud 04-26-2015 Inwood Hill Park

Canada Goose
Mallard
Great Egret
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
House Sparrow