Central Park 4/11--Swamp Sparrow

I spent 3 1/2 hours wandering around Central Park this morning: Tanner's Spring, the Turtle Pond, the Ramble, the Pinetum, and about 1/3 of the way around the Reservoir. Interesting the birds I didn't see: No Black-capped Chickadees, no towhees, no raptors.  No Rusty Blackbird. There are two owls in the park; another birder gave me the locations, more or less and at one spot there was pruning and electric motor noise so I wasn't able to find the Saw-whet Owl that has been seen there, and at the other spot, despite diligently looking at every pine tree with a smear of white on its trunk, I wasn't able to find the Barred Owl that all the reports have "in its usual spot." I'm not very good at "Where's Waldo?"  So that was frustrating.

I started out at Tanner's Spring and thought I was off to a good start when I saw two Winter Wrens. I wandered all 'round the Ramble, covering the Upper Lobe pretty thoroughly looking for the Rusty Blackbird. I did find a couple of Hermit Thrushes there. I decided to walk along the banks of the lake, hoping to turn up a bird that likes the edges of water. Finally, at the Oven I spotted my quarry: 2 Swamp Sparrows chasing each other, rusty red caps and gray breasts. FOY and my Bird A Day.

After walking around the woods in New Jersey, where the birds have room to spread out, it was startling to find such large numbers of birds--a hundred grackles, a hundred White-throated Sparrows, dozens of robins, starlings. Lots of woodpeckers. Of course, they're concentrated in the park because it's the only place for them to go for miles around. It's a migrant trap.

It was a good way to spend the morning before going for another routine checkup at the doctor's. 33 species on the day:

Canada Goose  12
Mallard  20
Northern Shoveler  29    Reservoir
Bufflehead  6
Double-crested Cormorant  11
American Coot  4    Reservoir
Herring Gull  X    Reservoir
Great Black-backed Gull  20    Reservoir
Rock Pigeon  10
Mourning Dove  7
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Downy Woodpecker  3
Northern Flicker  7
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  7
American Crow  2
Tufted Titmouse  5
Winter Wren  2    Tanner's Spring
Carolina Wren  2
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1    Ramble
Hermit Thrush  3
American Robin  75
European Starling  100
Chipping Sparrow  2    Feeders
Song Sparrow  1    Feeders
Swamp Sparrow  2    Oven
White-throated Sparrow  100
Dark-eyed Junco  11
Northern Cardinal  7
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Common Grackle  100
American Goldfinch  4    Feeders
House Sparrow  75