April 11 - Central Park

A beautiful morning for my Wednesday AMNH bird walk in Central Park. Still cool temperatures, but bright sunshine and lovely blue skies.This spring the Museum changed the start time of the Wednesday walks from 7:00 am to 9:00 am. I still went in at 7:00 myself to scout around before the group arrived. There were a few birds around, but it wasn't particularly birdy so after an hour I headed over to the Museum for a quick break and breakfast and then came back and met my group a few minutes before 9:00. We hadn't gone very far into the Ramble when we heard about the Barn Owl that has been seen sporadically over the last couple of days. The bird was fairly well hidden high in a pine, but my group did get to see it. Then we went back to birding. In the end we found 35 species, but only one warbler. But any bird list that includes a Barn Owl doesn't have to include much of anything else to be a great morning. The total list is below.

Canada Goose
Mallard
Northern Shoveler (2 pairs on the Lake)
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Black-backed Gull (2, flyovers)
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Barn Owl (1)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe (4)
Blue Jay
Tufted Titmouse (1)
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
Hermit Thrush (4)
American Robin
European Starling
Louisiana Waterthrush (1)
Eastern Towhee (3, all males)
Chipping Sparrow (1, the Feeders)
Fox Sparrow (4)
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow (2)
White-throated Sparrow (20+)
Dark-eyed Junco (the Feeders)
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
House Finch
American Goldfinch (4, the Feeders)
House Sparrow