May 7 - Central Park - still lots of variety

It was cooler this morning than yesterday, but the cloudless, crystal blue sky gave my Thursday AMNH bird walk group a much prettier morning, though there were fewer birds. Fewer, but still a good number with good variety - we found 54 species including 15 warblers. The best bird of the morning was a Black-billed Cuckoo that obligingly perched up in a low tree on the south side of Turtle Pond for us. Earlier, looking down from the Belvedere Castle a number of Turtle Pond's namesake denizens could be seen sunning themselves.

Red-eared Sliders sunning at Turtle Pond 05/07/2015

A couple of hours later when we were leaving there was an even bigger group of sunning turtles on a ledge on the west side of the Lake as visible from the Upper Lobe.

sunning turtles on the Lake 05/07/2015 Central Park

Since it was so lovely - and birdy - I did the same thing I did yesterday and stayed in for an extra hour or so with any of my group who were either retired or felt very secure in their jobs. As with yesterday it was worth it. For example a male Cape May Warbler west of the Azalea Pond was seen during "overtime". The total list is below.

Canada Goose
Gadwall (pair; Turtle Pond)
Mallard
Double-crested Cormorant
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo (1; south side Turtle Pond)
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female; on the way up to Belvedere Castle)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Kingbird (heard; south side Turtle Pond)
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo (heard in a number of places)
Red-eyed Vireo (heard)
Blue Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (1, the Lake)
Barn Swallow (1, Turtle Pond)
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren (singing birds)
House Wren (seen and heard)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Ovenbird (several seen)
Worm-eating Warbler (1-2; south of weather station and south of Tupelo)
Northern Waterthrush (seen and heard at Hernshead; heard at Turtle Pond)
Blue-winged Warbler (1; south of weather station)
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Cape May Warbler (male; west of Azalea Pond)
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler (male; from Upper Lobe bridge)
Eastern Towhee (heard)
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Scarlet Tanager (males and one female)
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting (male; south side Turtle Pond)
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

[Supplemental: For the last two mornings I have missed the Bay-breasted Warbler reported in the Ramble. During the day I got reports of Blue Grosbeak and Red-headed Woodpecker in the Ramble as well as the Bay-breast. In the afternoon I did a quick (approximately 30 minutes) dash into the park hoping to catch-up with one or more of these. I managed to get a fairly cooperative Bay-breasted Warbler by the Tupelo tree, but had no luck with the other two.]