We wandered over to Central Park mid-afternoon. We had our binoculars, we might as well use them. A pleasant Sunday afternoon, when the park is crowded with pedestrians, cyclists, and baby buggies, and the lawns are heavily sprinkled with sunbathers (who, frankly, I think, are rushing the season--it was in the 50's) does not make for ideal birding conditions. All that said, we found some pretty good birds, including a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets (good to see them, because in our part of NJ they're vastly out-numbered by Golden-crowns), a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at the Upper Lobe, and enough of the 3 common warblers (Palm, Pine, and Yellow-rump) to keep us interested.
Even when we lived in the city, I didn't like being in the parks on weekends and nowadays when a couple of dog-walkers at Double Trouble can make me feel like I need some more elbow-room, I like it even less, so after about an hour and a half we were leaving the park, recrossing the bridge by the Upper Lobe when we came across a NYC Audubon youth birding trip. As always we asked, "Whattya got," slipping easily back into the city argot, and what they got was our FOY Black-and-white Warbler, a bird I've been looking for the last few days with no luck around here. We had good looks as the warbler climbed around the thicker branches and added a couple of Red-bellied Woodpeckers onto the day list too. For a day when birding was not on the original agenda, we did pretty well.
25 species
Canada Goose 4
Mallard 5
Double-crested Cormorant 7
Rock Pigeon 25
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1 Heard
Blue Jay 10
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5
American Robin 6
European Starling 20
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 4
Pine Warbler 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
Chipping Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 2 Heard
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 10
House Sparrow 25
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