A fine day out in New Providence, Bahamas

Elena and I went to the Bahamas in December. It was my first time there. We had a great time relaxing on the beach and all, and we also took some time for birding.

We were in New Providence (that's the island with Nassau), and we hired a local guide for a day of birding. Some online research led us to Carolyn Wardle of Bahamas Outdoors, and she was just great.

We started at eight in the morning, hitting Montague Foreshore at low tide, where we saw some nice shorebirds including the very confiding Ruddy Turnstone above and the nice Black-Bellied Plover below, and then set about hitting our target species list (which we got using the Target Species feature of eBird).

First we stopped in a residential neighborhood and found Pied Imperial-Pigeons.

It seems that a lot of people in the Nassau suburbs have aviaries, and kept these quite elegant pigeons, and some of them... well, escaped, and set up housekeeping on their own. So now if you drive through this one neighborhood, you can spot these big white pigeons up in the trees.

Nearby, we stopped outside somebody's backyard and saw Bahama Woodstars (the endemic hummingbird of the Bahamas), Smooth-Billed Anis, wintering Prairie Warblers, and Common Ground-Doves. This is the kind of thing that makes it worthwhile to have a local guide--we'd never have gone through the neighborhood on our own, much less stopped at this productive spot.

Then it was off to the Retreat Garden National Park. The Retreat is a small park that used to be the estate of a wealthy couple who willed it to the Bahamas National Trust. They had a famous collection of palm trees, and the whole grounds is great bird habitat. We started finding birds right in the parking lot, where a Cuban Pewee (Crescent-Eyed Pewee) was hanging out. It's apparently his spot, which is another thing we'd never have guessed by ourselves.

Moving through the gardens, we lot a lot of species, many of them Bahama specialties. There were more Woodstars (and Bananaquits who took advantage of the hummingbird feeders as well). We saw Red-Legged Thrush and Loggerhead Kingbirds (who didn't give us a good photo opportunity) and Le Sagra's Flycatcher (who did).

We also good great close-up looks at a very cooperative Thick-Billed Vireo.



I mean, really close looks.

Next, we headed for a youth camp in a semi-rural area, but on the way we stopped in front of a church along a major commercial street. A shop next door had bird feeders, and there, mixed with the House Sparrows...

...were Cuban Grassquits. These pretty little birds were introduced as cage birds, and escapees made their way as streetbirds quite well.

The native Black-Faced Grassquits are much shyer of people; and in fact, we never caught up with one.

By the time we got to the youth camp (also not a place we'd have found on our own), it was getting into the mid-afternoon and bird activity had slowed down. We saw more Vireos, heard a Hairy Woodpecker, and got some excellent views of Loggerhead Kingbirds.

Later, in a pretty stretch of pine-and-palm forest that had been a pine plantation, we got another fine look at a Cuban Pewee.

Our final stop was Hobby Horse Pond, a wetlands trail maintained by the huge Baha Mar resort. There were some more wintering warblers, and a great look at a pair of Smooth-Billed Anis.

A great day out.

Mother's Day Fallout

Prairie Warbler

One thing you will hear birders talk about is "fallout". This doesn't have anything to do with nuclear weapons--it's about bird migration. Sometimes during the spring migration, when conditions are just right--southerly winds at night, then rain a little before dawn and heavier storms just to the north--you wake up in the morning to find that migrating birds have descended on local parks and green spaces in huge numbers. They've been forced to fly low by the rain, and some have had to turn back from the storms in the north, and they all fall out of the sky after a long night's flight to frantically feed and then rest for the next night's flight.

On Mother's Day, May 8, New York City had an epic fallout event. By noon, according to one experienced birder's compilation of observations over a hundred species of bird had been seen in Central Park, including two dozen kind of warbler.

American Bittern

In the Ramble, three very unusual migrants were within a hundred yards of each other. In the area called the Oven, and American Bittern spent the day hunting in the tall reeds. It's bulbous form was clearly visible from the rocks overlooking the Oven from the west ("Willow Rock").

After the early rain, it turned into a beautiful day, and many people rented rowboats on the Central Park Lake. When they approached the Oven, birders would call to the rowers to turn back so as not to disturb the Bittern by coming too close.

Chuck-Will's-Widow

Fifty yards to the northeast, a Chuck-Will's-Widow roosted very close to a path. Chuck-Will's-Widow (named for its call) is a nighttime hunter of insects. By the time it was discovered in the mid-morning, it had eaten its fill and was quietly waiting for evening, relying on its cryptic coloration to hide it from the large mammals only a few yards away.

Let me digress here. On twitter, I saw a drawing by Alan Messer of the Chuck and environs. It's a great example of how drawing can sometimes be much truer than photography. The detail and depth-of-field of the drawing were simply not possible in a photo under the dim lighting.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Fifty yards in the other direction from the Bittern, a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron hid out at the end of the Point, red eye glaring balefully out of the depths of a willow tree. So, three birds, all rare visitors to Central Park, sen within about ten minutes.

Veery

Of course, there were a lot of more expected migrants. All the brown thrushes were in, like the Veery above. On the south slope of Summit Rock, right by Central Park West, Tom Fiore had sixty thrushes in an area about 40x50 feet, including Hermit Thrush, Veery, Swainson's Thrush, Wood Thrush and Gray-Cheeked Thrush at least.

Cape May Warbler

Maybe the biggest story was the warblers. According to Tom Fiore's end-of-day roundup of sightings, people saw at least 28 species of warbler in the park (among 115 or more total species) by day's end.

Hooded Warbler

Considering that there are only 35 or 36 species of warbler that move through the area in migration, and three of them are normally done migrating before May, 28 in a day is really impressive. (I had only twelve that day, myself, and 48 total species, but a big chunk of my day was spent on social obligations.)

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

And of course, the full complement of permanent resident birds were on hand. Here's a Red-Bellied Woodpecker portrait to finish up.

Prattsville trip, part one

We had a lovely weekend at our friend's place in Prattsville NY. I was up before 6am each day, which has left me needing a rest, but was quite fun.

The meadow in front of the house was full of singing Common Yellowthroats and Chipping Sparrows. There were quite a number of Chestnut-sided Warblers as well, and in the trees at the east end of the meadow was this singing Prairie Warbler.

Sing it, baby!

I'll have more to say about the trip when I've caught up on my sleep--there were Bobolinks!--but for now I'll leave you with this pleasant scene of a Tree Swallow feeding its nestling.

Awwwwww

That nest box was in nearby Hobart, home of a half-dozen nice used bookstores.

For the May Day is the great day...

Wednesday nigh the winds were generally southerly, and the rain mostly ended before dawn. So there was a pretty good migratory movement into Central Park, and I had a really good day: 43 species, ten first-of-year, ten warblers.

In the morning, I started off with a Blue-Winged Warbler at Maintenance meadow (it stayed around there all day).

Blue-Winged Warbler and prey

A Northern Parula warbler and a Warbling Vireo were high in trees above the Gill source; I saw Wood Thrush in various places, and heard their echoing songs; Gray Catbirds popped up here and there.

In the late afternoon, I returned--a Worm-Eating Warbler had joined the Blue-Winged, and down the Riviera were Canada and Chestnut-Sided Warblers.

Canada Warbler posing

Finally, as I was leaving, I joined a group looking at a Scarlet Tanager high in the trees near the "captain's bench".

Scarlet Tanager, suspicious

Yellow-Rumped and Palm Warblers remained ubiquitous, Black-and-white warblers were around in small numbers; a Yellow Warbler sang very loudly just south of Willow Rock, and a Prairie Warbler sang at Tupelo Meadow.

Prairie Warbler singing

In other warbler news, the Yellow-Throated Warbler was again seen near Tavern on the Green, and Black-Throated Blue Warblers and both waterthrushes were reported.

Winds look to be westerly, maybe West-southwest, tonight, so I expect there won't be a lot of movement out. Maybe I can still catch up with the Yellow-Throated.

Yellow Warbler on the move

(I'm now at 120 species this year in New York County; 14 species, or 9 days, ahead of last year.)

Cerulean!

Cerulean!

Tuesday night had winds from the west, and as I hoped, that meant that the migratory birds in Central Park mostly stayed put.  So I wasn't surprised when, over breakfast, I saw a note online: "Cerulean refound by Kyu Lee at Bow Bridge".

So off I went, and shortly after I showed up at Bow Bridge, so did The Bird.

Another view of the star attraction

I thought I hadn't gotten any good photos, but these don't look too bad.  It was a good thing that I got there when I did, because the cerulean then disappeared for six hours or so, and when it showed up (at Warbler Rock, maybe a hundred feet northeast of the bridge), it was 'way high up.

The winds look unfavorable for migration again tonight, so we may all get another chance to see the Cerulean tomorrow.

Having gotten a look at the Cerulean, I was free to go off and look for the Prairie Warbler people had been seeing on the Point.  Finding it proved a little more challenging than I expected from the reports, but while I was waiting, I saw a nice Blue-Headed Vireo.

Blue-Headed Vireo, singing: "Here I am! Up in this tree! Don't look at me!"

Eventually the Prairie came out and was very cooperative about posing.

Prairie Warbler, ready for a screen test

Despite the poor winds, some birds did come in--I saw several other Blue-Headed Vireos, many Yellow-Rumped Warblers, and Palm Warblers were just everywhere.

One of the crowd

The Cerulean is a life bird for me (my 199th in New York County), and the prairie is my first of the year, making 106 species for the year.