Registrar: Susan Joseph
Report by: Nina Vigil, age 15, NYSYBC President
Participants: 39
Weather: Sunny, 72F, 2mph NW winds
Bird Species: 35 + 1 other taxa
Central Park is a time-honored birdwatching destination for many, even featuring in a documentary, Birders: The Central Park Effect, about its importance to both birds and bird lovers. As a sizable park in a great city, it’s known to attract many species, especially during migratory periods. A particularly beloved birding spot within the park is the Ramble. Designed to appear as wild and untouched as possible, this section once hosted 270 unique species in a single year—so, as you can imagine, it’s an appealing destination for a club like ours!
Our first bird, however, wasn’t actually spotted in the park. Right outside the Ramble, we started our list of sightings with a Red-tailed Hawk perched on scaffolding on a nearby building. Raptors are somewhat more common in cities than most other birds, as they’re comfortable with high spaces like skyscraper roofs. There was only one hawk, so we didn’t spend too much time admiring it, but it was a worthy sight nonetheless.
Once we’d begun our walk, we were soon presented with a promising spot: a path overlooking a stream below and surrounded with vegetation known to attract hummingbirds (such as jewelweed and Persian silk tree). Regrettably, we didn’t see any hummingbirds, but there were other species to make up for it. We saw a waterthrush down by the stream, and there was a cardinal couple in a silk tree right above our heads! The group lingered here quite a while, but at last we moved on.
It wasn’t long before we stopped again, this time at a bridge over the water. Naturally, water thrushes were plentiful here—in this area, they may only have been outnumbered by the American Redstarts. Redstarts were possibly the most frequent sighting on our journey, including one male that we witnessed chasing off another along the way.
Around halfway through our trip, we came to Tupelo Meadow, which is famed for its impressive autumn foliage and a Black Tupelo tree. This particular tree is one of the oldest in the park! It’s one of the original 150 from when Central Park was first created, and happens to lie at the center of the Ramble. It’s also beloved for its gorgeous display during the fall. Still, our chief concern was the birds, and we weren’t disappointed. Among others, we spotted some Peregrine Falcons, an Osprey, a juvenile Bald Eagle (!!), and a giant American Kestrel.
An odd episode greeted us further down the path: there happened to be a rat wandering around in the leaf litter. For me, it was the first time I’d seen a rat in nature before, as opposed to in a human settlement, so this was a delightful novelty. The rat was swiftly scared off by a juvenile European Starling that dive-bombed it, but was fortunately unharmed.
The group continued our walk. At one point, we spotted two male Downy Woodpeckers hopping about together on a branch overhead—we couldn’t tell if they were playing or engaging in friendly competition. (Whatever the case, we got a kick out of it.) Later on, there was an Ovenbird on the path directly in front of us; this doesn’t happen often, but is always a treat. As we were enjoying ourselves, however, we stumbled upon The Enemy: an invasive Spotted Lanternfly. Originating in China and introduced to the eastern US in 2014, Lanternflies have developed into a serious problem, notorious for their destruction of many common trees
and crops. Therefore, we attempted to kill it, but it flew away before we could do so. After that unfortunate incident, we encountered a tricky Redstart—or, we believed it was a Redstart. Given its unusual coloration and the obscurity of the photo we snapped of it, we had difficulty determining whether it was a female, an immature male, or something else entirely. Though we puzzled over this phenomenon for some time, eventually we elected to move on.
Our next destination was Azalea Pond. Despite its small size, it’s admired for the stunning rhododendron and azalea bushes featured on its banks. It’s quite popular amongst the birds, too. While we were there, we observed numerous species, all taking a bath in the water together.
At long last, we concluded our walk at a large rock above a lake. We managed to catch a few extra birds here and there, but for the most part we just sat down for some rest. After a long and successful morning of birdwatching, I’d say we all earned it!
Species List:
Birds
Canada Goose
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Herring Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Empidonax sp.
Blue Jay
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Veery
American Robin
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Common Grackle
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak