May 10 - Inwood Hill Park - an addition to my window list

It was a beautiful day in the park. It started out cool again in the morning with temperatures in the upper 30's, but with much lighter southwest winds than yesterday and bright blue skies, the high got up the mid 60's. I headed into the park around 7:30 am. On reaching the deck overlooking Muscota Marsh I received a text message from Hilary Russ that she and Diane Schenker reported a Marsh Wren at Muscota Marsh only four minutes earlier. I texted them for more info and then joined them in the lower portion of the Muscota area. They had heard the bird calling, but hadn't seen it. It took a while but eventually we heard it calling again and then it did pop up into view briefly. In the afternoon, after getting home from birding in the park with Hilary and Diane, I spent time at my apartment window hoping to add the Marsh Wren to my apartment list. Eventually Ann and I both heard it calling from the reeds in Muscota. This was species number 117 for my all time apartment list.

While watching and listening from the window I also picked up two other species for my list of species recorded from the apartment since April 1st: Green Heron and Yellow Warbler. This brought my spring apartment list to 41 species. It was also a very nice day birding in the park, though Hilary and Diane said it was not as busy as yesterday when they were in. Nevertheless, I recorded 61 species in the park with Common Yellowthroat, Magnolia Warbler and Tennessee Warbler. These, with the Marsh Wren brought my Inwood list since April 1st to 106 species. The following list of 65 species are the birds found on our walk in the park with a few additional birds I saw from my apartment window.

In the category of nonavian animals seen there was a Red-eared Slider swimming in the shallows of the bay north of the soccer fields and a Muskrat swimming in the shipping canal seen from my apartment.

Canada Goose 12
Mallard 20

Mallard female and brood

Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 4
Chimney Swift 1 (and another couple from the window)
Ring-billed Gull 12
Herring Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1 (seen from apartment window)
Turkey Vulture 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 5
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 1

Blue-headed Vireo 2
Warbling Vireo 4
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 10

American Crow 1
Fish Crow 1 (heard from the apartment)
Tufted Titmouse 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Tree Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 2 (seen from the apartment)
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
House Wren 2
Marsh Wren 1 Distinctive rattling song heard repeatedly.
Carolina Wren 3
European Starling 15
Gray Catbird 12
Northern Mockingbird 2
Veery 1
Wood Thrush 3
American Robin 25
House Sparrow 20
American Goldfinch 3

White-throated Sparrow 6
Song Sparrow 4
Swamp Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Baltimore Oriole 10
Red-winged Blackbird 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Common Grackle 4
Ovenbird 3
Black-and-white Warbler 10

Tennessee Warbler 1
Nashville Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 2
American Redstart 1
Northern Parula 3
Magnolia Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1 (from apartment window)
Chestnut-sided Warbler 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3
Yellow Warbler 1 (from apartment window)
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 2
Black-throated Green Warbler 3
Scarlet Tanager 2

Northern Cardinal 2