April 20 - Central Park

A wet morning for my AMNH bird walk group. Seven intrepid birders braved the early morning rain to bird the Ramble. The rain did start to let up after an hour or so and by the time the walk ended at 9 am the sun was struggling to break through the heavy clouds. Despite the wet start we didn't do too badly. On the Lake were three Northern Shovelers and an American Coot. A male Wood Duck with some Mallards and Canada Geese added to the waterfowl list.There were a number of Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Palm Warbler on the south side of Turtle Pond. The Point had another concentration of Yellow-rumps, plus another couple of Palms and a Louisiana Waterthrush. Northwest of the Point was Stefan Passlick spotted out first Northern Parula of the year. (Stefan had also spotted the Wood Duck and the coot.) In the same area as the parula we found three Rusty Blackbirds which then moved over to the Swampy Pin Oak area. Another first of the year for us was a Belted Kingfisher along the east side of the Lake. The full list of 35 species is below.

Canada Goose (8, the Lake and Turtle Pond)
Wood Duck (1, male, Turtle pond)
Mallard
Northern Shoveler (3, males, the Lake)
Double-crested Cormorant (7)
Great Egret (2, the Lake and Turtle Pond)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (1, the Lake)
American Coot (1, the Lake)
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher (1, the Lake)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee (1, the Point)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (3)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (5)
Hermit Thrush (3)
American Robin
European Starling
Louisiana Waterthrush (1, the Point)
Northern Parula (1, male, sang; nw of the Point)
Palm Warbler (3)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (40)
Eastern Towhee (2)
Swamp Sparrow (1, the Point)
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird (3)
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch (2, the feeders)
House Sparrow