Registrar: Nick Dawson
Participants: 5
Weather: Hot, humid, clear, mid 80s
Bird Species: 57
Birds are savvy creatures, built for survival. Birders, maybe less so, but still aware of basic needs and of what constitutes unnecessarily reckless behavior. These empty platitudes are relevant to my explanation of why the 2023 Linnaean Society of New York trip to Rockefeller State Park Preserve and its near neighbor, Croton Point Park, was a little challenging, with fewer birds than expected appearing on our checklist. It was very hot, humid, and sunny from the time we met at RSPP, just a little past dawn, and although we were aware of many birds—warblers flitting from branch to branch, other migrants moving from one tree to another—actually seeing them was challenging. Most of them could be heard or “sensed,” but stayed hidden within the cooler inner recesses of the foliage. (For the photographers among us, getting any usable shots was mostly a fool’s errand.)
Thankfully, with the very capable Anne Swaim at the helm and the collective birding skill of the group, we ear-birded and defied the practical challenges of tracking down birds to assemble a very respectable list at Rockefeller. We logged 10 species of warbler, with standouts being Prairie and Tennessee. Other highlights included Yellow-throated Vireo, Pileated Woodpecker (always a treat for NYC residents) and Least Flycatcher. Interestingly, there were no sightings of raptors such as Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk or Bald Eagle—which we knew were present—but we saw both Merlin and Broad-winged Hawk.
After wrapping up at Rockefeller, we drove the 20-odd minutes to Croton, where we had lunch (in the shade) before embarking on a brief jaunt around the parts of the park that were not overly exposed. We added Belted Kingfisher and a handful of Turkey Vultures, Ospreys and Double-Crested Cormorants to our haul for the day before eschewing the hill (where American Kestrel, Northern Harrier, and a handful of sparrow species were no doubt waiting for us) and opting instead to escape sunburn/heat exhaustion and call it a day. We had fun!
Species
Canada Goose
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Broad-winged Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Merlin
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Yellow-throated Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
House Wren
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
American Redstart
Cape May Warbler
Northern Parula
Bay-breasted Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
