Yesterday was a 16-warbler day. This is very normal for a pretty good day during Spring bird migration. It is not a particularly amazing number (20 warbler species and up is rather nice), but there were good pockets of birds throughout the park, with some coveted FOY’s (First of Year’s) such as Prairie and Kentucky Warblers. Normal. A nice, normal day.
The morning dawned bright and beautiful, I was going to bird with Starr and Lenore & group, and was starting at the leisurely hour of 9 am. My train up the park was on time; I was eagerly and properly caffeinated.
The North Woods of Central Park do not have the best reputation for safety and comfort, but they are incredibly beautiful, and I like to bird with a group now and again so I can really scour the dirt paths and ravines that comprise the top end of the park. These trails often end at a man standing in the shadows, and are called “desire lines” or “love lines.” Other than this, it really does not feel like you are in the city, once you tune out the urban noises. You can’t even see buildings most of the time. Yesterday, however, Starr’s group must have numbered more than thirty people. Translated: many tiny birds + many birders of differing abilities = chaos. Oh, and the film guys were there too, filming the insanity.
By 9:15 a wild-eyed, wild grey-haired man had confronted the group and yelled about a 911 conspiracy involving the similarity of two phone numbers involving high and low levels of government involving the media. By 9:18 the soliloquy was over and birding began in earnest.
At about 10:30 we noticed a fair amount of smoke billowing from behind a small ridge and a couple of us ran over to investigate. “I’m sure it’s just a controlled burn,” I joked. What we found was a small brush fire, undoubtedly set by someone-smoking-something, that was moving through a good-sized area of black, smoldering leaf litter. We called 911 and film-guy Jed tried to stamp some of it out, losing leg hair in the process.
So as we listened to sirens moving away rather than towards us, along came a savior in the form of a crack-hyped, tight-t-shirted fellow who first became absorbed with watching the flames and then started jumping up and down yelling “Take some pretty pictures take some pretty pictures!” He poked at the leaves with a stick until I pointed out that he was only feeding the fire. At this point he became joyously fixated on stamping out the flames, and I left to help guide the firemen up the paths. When an entire truck’s worth of fire fighters finally reached the spot, crack guy had single-handedly extinguished a couple hundred square feet of fire.
And then I birded for a few more hours and made some calls while looking through binoculars and met a bunch of art people for dinner/drinks at the Harrison and then went to a premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and walked down a red carpet and and sat behind an adult film star and went to their after-party and wore these shoes and watched minor celebrities and stayed up too late and if Swarovski wants to pay me I think that would be just fine and I’m totally wrecked today. The End.
A bird list from yesterday:
Location: Central Park
Observation date: 4/28/09
Notes: with Starr Saphir & initially an enormous group. Group may have had
sightings not included in this report, I had some sightings separate from group.
Number of species: 55
Mallard
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Winter Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler (Yellow)
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Louisiana Waterthrush
Kentucky Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Although our local Park Hill Prairie blackland prairie park lacks many 20 warbler days, it also lacks the fellows standing in the shadows.
Yet when I visited there a few weeks ago, I was disappointed to find that many of the native wildflowers were suppressed not only by our local mild drought but also by a the remnants of what appeared to be a controlled burn to “head off” a wildfire in the dry conditions. My own birding walk featured the lowing of distant cows rather than adult film stars, and nothing madder than an peppy barking dog. Yet there is fire and rain and birdflight to see in a variety of settings. Quite a good list you got on a Central Park morning!
Now that’s a birding story! however, you should list the celebrities observed under the list of birds with comments about rarity et.
It sounds as if you had a very full day, but I’m just not ready for urban birding, mostly I’m just not ready for urban.
Sounds like a phenomenal day. The winds sure are blowing this way through, aren’t they? Perhaps it all means something, like omenesque. You know what I mean? What is your interpretation?
Hahahahahaha. Brilliant
)
C,
You win the award for being the most hip birder of all time!
a.
I never had that much leg hair to begin with, so it’s not a big loss.
Urban and urbane – nice blog. Nice to discover that there are birders who take the time to match their shoes to their bins – oh that there were more in the world! Sounds like the walk became a typical days birding in NYC – there almost always seems to be an interesting non-birding ‘happening’ when you are lost in the woods of Central Park. My most ‘memorable’ moment in the park was innocently following a BT Blue deep into the bushes to discover some springtime dogging! Classy!