May 10 - Central Park

Finally, a nice selection of birds on a mid-May morning. It was still a cool morning with light northerly winds for my Wednesday AMNH bird walk group, but it was easily our best morning of the spring so far. By my count the group had 53 species over 2.5 hours (some of us stayed in until 9:30, a half an hour past our official ending time of 9:00 am). Personally I tallied 48 species, but some members of the group added another five species that I missed, usually by being in the wrong place or looking in the wrong direction as something flew over. The list included eighteen warblers with a few nice ones such as Cape May and Bay-breasted. The areas around the weather station, Belvedere Castle and the south side of Turtle Pond were so productive we never made it into the Ramble proper. After walking through the Maintenance Meadow, which was surprisingly quiet, we just headed out along the edge of the Tupelo Meadow since it was now well after our regular ending time of 9:00 am. The full list is below.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret (1, the Lake)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (1, the Lake)
Red-tailed Hawk (1, overhead)
Merlin (1, flying south over the Lake when we started)
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift (1, flyover)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee (1)
Least Flycatcher (1)
Blue-headed Vireo (1)
Warbling Vireo (2, Hernshead)
Blue Jay
Barn Swallow (1, flyover)
Tufted Titmouse (heard)
Wood Thrush (1, heard by Maintenance Meadow)
Swainson's Thrush (1, weather station)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Ovenbird (4, heard and seen)
Worm-eating Warbler (2, Upper Lobe and by weather station)
Northern Waterthrush (1, singing near hernshead)
Blue-winged Warbler (1, weather station)
Black-and-white Warbler (4)
Common Yellowthroat (4)
American Redstart (5, including first year males)
Cape May Warbler (2, weather station and Tupelo Meadow)
Northern Parula (6)
Magnolia Warbler (2)
Bay-breasted Warbler (1-2, weather station and Belvedere; possibly the same bird)
Blackpoll Warbler (1, weather station)
Yellow Warbler (3; including a cooperative one by the Belvedere Castle))

Yellow Warbler 05/10/2017 Central Park

Chestnut-sided Warbler (1, male, weather station)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (2)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (5)
Black-throated Green Warbler (1)
Wilson's Warbler (1, male, Hernshead)
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow (1, adult by Bevedere Castle)
Scarlet Tanager (3, female and 2 males west of Tupelo)
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (1, heard singing near Belvedere)
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole (6)
House Finch (2, east of Maintenance building)
House Sparrow