Central Park | Cedar Bonnet Island 4/25--Northern Parula, Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager, immature? male, Cedar Bonnet Island

Central Park was not where I wanted to start the day, but an appointment in the city made it unavoidable. I figured The Ramble would be most diverting. I was right but I'd forgotten just how overrun the park gets in the spring--not just with joggers, dog-walkers, and tourists, but with birders. Just as I entered The Ramble I saw a large group of birders staring up into a tree. I walked over, put up my bins and immediately saw what interested them--a Blue-winged Warbler, a very nice bird anywhere. (As it happens, the first one I've ever seen in Central Park.) But the leader of the group was pretty loud and was carrying a large recording device with which he seemed determined to play every possible bird song and call for any conceivable species in the area. He started out with Red-bellied Woodpecker. I beat a retreat from him and group, thinking that in New Jersey he'd be strung up by the thumbs for playing bird calls in breeding season. He looked at me sheepishly for a second, said, "I'm not killing birds," and led the group to the next spot. I hadn't said anything, and I don't think my face displayed any disdain, but somehow he must have known that I didn't take kindly to this kind of mass birding.

I moved along, wandering not aimlessly (my aim was to find the boathouse and get some coffee in me), but inefficiently toward my goal. Once I overspent on the coffee I walked back to one of the few places I can find easily in The Ramble, The Oven, and sat down hoping birds would come to me. They did, but they weren't interesting. While White-throated Sparrows have become sparse down here, they are numerous and singing up there, along with the ubiquitous House Sparrows and Blue Jays.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Central Park

I decided to walk the path on the other side of The Oven (I don't know what it's called) and it was there that I finally started to pick up a few interesting species like Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers (which I, unfortunately had to inform another birder were not Magnolia Warblers--yes they look very different than they do in the winter) and even a year bird when I saw a Northern Parula hanging from a twig in front of me. But I really didn't want to be there, especially when the rare bird alert buzzed on my phone.

And kept buzzing, as what is usually the case, more birders kept confirming the sighting of a Summer Tanager at Cedar Bonnet Island. Summer Tanager is a tough bird for the county and me 100 miles away.

However, I got to thinking that since it was being seen throughout the day, there was a good chance it would hang around. My appointment didn't take long (one of the reasons I go to Central Park is that I think I should be in the city at least as long as the round trip takes), so I decided to drive down there from the Toms River bus station when I got back. My resolved was reinforced when, alighting from the bus, I saw the Mike was down there and had seen the bird. I texted him that I was a half hour away and he said he'd wait for me. I made it down there in less than a half hour (25 miles, 25 minutes, ahem) and found Mike on the trail, not looking happy. He hadn't been able to find the bird again and we were just about to start walking around when a red bird flew past my shoulder and into the trees in front of us. I wasn't there two minutes and I had the bird.

But it wasn't "the" bird, it was "a" bird, one of two, Mike had determined, because he'd seen and photographed both the bird pictured above and another bird that was much redder than the one we had just seen. Two Summer Tanagers in the same spot seemed unlikely but there wasn't too much doubt comparing the photographs, both his and others. Mike, having handed off the bird to me, left for Tuckerton, and I decided to walk around to see what else was there. About 300 feet down the trail I saw a red bird that wasn't a cardinal and texted him that I indeed had seen the second bird. My photographs of it were obscured by branches however.

I was walking back on the trail that leads to the East Pavilion when I saw a couple of photographers. I was going to tell them that they were looking for the bird in the wrong place, but kept my mouth shut. Glad I did, because on my way out, just before the exit, I ran into another photographer who told me that his friends had just alerted him that they had "a" Summer Tanager. I told him I'd seen two and walked back with him, curious to see which one was now in sight. It turned out to be the prettier, redder bird and I'd walked past the spot where it was putting on a show only about 15 minutes before. I took some photos and you can see, even from a distance, that this bird is a full adult compared to the bird above which is blotchier. (It is even blotchier in the photographs I submitted to eBird which are not "enhanced" by Photoshop.)

Summer Tanager, adult male

Cedar Bonnet Island (another parcel of Forsythe NWR) has only been officially open since July of last year, but in that time it has become one of the more interesting hot spots in the county. I can't wait to see what kind of warblers it attracts this spring.

28 species

Brant  40

Mallard  1    flyby

Bufflehead  11

Mourning Dove  2

Killdeer  1

Greater Yellowlegs  3

Willet  1

Herring Gull  10

Forster's Tern  3

Double-crested Cormorant  35

Great Egret  1

Snowy Egret  1

Glossy Ibis  14

Osprey  1    Heard

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard

Blue Jay  1    Heard

Barn Swallow  2

Carolina Wren  1    Heard

American Robin  1

European Starling  2

House Finch  1    beginning of trail

Chipping Sparrow  1    Heard

Song Sparrow  7

Red-winged Blackbird  50

Brown-headed Cowbird  2    one on top of West Pavilion, the other at beginning of trail

Boat-tailed Grackle  20

Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Summer Tanager  2