April 3 - Inwood Hill Park

I went into Inwood Hill Park for a couple of hours on Monday. it was a lovely spring morning. No real surprises with some winter holdovers and spring arrivals. One of the holdovers was a female Red-breasted Merganser in the bay north of the soccer fields at the north end of the park. We get this species with some regularity in the winter, but not so much this late into the spring. One spring arrival that there were lots of up in the woods on the ridge were Eastern Phoebes. There must have been at least 20 around.

Eastern Phoebe 04/03/2017 Inwood Hill Park

Besides birds I saw a couple of early spring butterflies: a Spring Azure and a Mourning Cloak, both up on the ridge by the wall over the Indian caves. A number of flowers were also in bloom. Daffodils were out, particularly in the lower Clove. Near the top of the Clove path there were a few lingering Snowdrops, well past their prime. Periwinkles were in bloom in a number of places and Forsythia was in bloom at the top of the Clove. On the edge of the Overlook Meadow a few Lesser Celandine were out.

The full bird list of 31 species is below.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
House Finch
House Sparrow