I had the entire weekend free of work so I made the most of it, birding 7 times. Most of the birding was with fellow birders although Central Park was with my sister; she appreciated the turtles more than the birds.
Locations: Garrett Mountain Reservation, NJ; Clausland Mountain, NY; Rockland Lake, NY; Nyack Beach, NY; Piermont, NY; Central Park, NY; and Inwood Park, NY.
- Waterfowl are mostly gone. Buffleheads remained at Rockland Lake, but the rest have departed.
- Warblers are slowly arriving: we had warblers at Garrett Mountain last weekend, but not this weekend; and in Central Park. Palm, Yellow-rumped. and Pine have arrived.
- Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Swallows were spotted in multiple places.
- Towees are back, Thrushes should return soon, hopefully.
Rather than recite what we saw where in fascinating, excruciating detail, I’ll just recap all 53 different species.
Canada Goose Mute Swan Wood Duck Gadwall Mallard Bufflehead Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Green Heron Black VultureTurkey Vulture Broad-winged Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Red-bellied Woodpecker |
Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Eastern Phoebe Blue Jay American Crow Common Raven Northern Rough-winged Swallow Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Hermit Thrush |
American Robin Brown Thrasher Northern Mockingbird European Starling Palm Warbler Yelow-rumped Warbler Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow |

A Great Egret gracefully stalks through the water at Garrett Mountain. Photo taken on April 18th, 2014.

Unfortunately placed stick makes this Eastern Towhee appear irate! Garrett Mountain, NJ. Photo taken on April 18th, 2014.

At dusk this Brown Thrasher had a surprisingly vast repertoire for a Thrasher. Clausland Mountain, NY. Photo taken on April 18th, 2014.