Urban Birding in Central Park, NYC

Penn Birding members went on the GAPSA-organized bus trip to New York City to do some urban birding in Central Park.

Turtle pond with cormorants and shovelers

At Turtle Pond, we saw a variety of waterfowl, as well as Eastern Phoebe. You may be able to spot the Double-crested Cormorants and Northern Shovelers in the photo.

Next to the platform was a handsome pair of mallards, showing off their iridescent purplish-blue speculums with black and white edges.

A little sparrow was hopping along the platform next to Turtle Pond, peeking at us.

A couple of Canada geese flew toward us, honking loudly as they landed in the water.

The highlight of birding Central Park was a golden-crowned kinglet on the banks of Turtle Pond. The adult male had a vivid orange patch on the crown that looked almost fluorescent!

Can you see a golden-crowned kinglet in this photo?

We watched an American Robin catching lunch. The bird pulled a worm from the ground, then pecked smaller pieces off to eat. It was mesmerizing to watch up close!

We saw huge flocks in the trees, flying back and forth. Red-bellied woodpeckers drew attention to themselves with their distinctive calls.

Some common grackles were foraging on the ground toward the east side of the park.

Grackles

One very enjoyable aspect of birding Central Park is that there are always many beautiful blue jays around. Back in Philadelphia, I tend to see one or two at a time, but there are many in Central Park, jabbering loudly, flying back and forth, very easy to find.

All in all, it was quite a productive birding excursion to Central Park. I recorded seeing over 200 birds and 16 species. My checklist is posted below.

Central Park, New York, New York, US, Apr 1, 2017
Canada Goose  2
Mallard  15
Northern Shoveler  20
Double-crested Cormorant  7
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  6
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
American Robin  30
Northern Mockingbird  1
European Starling  90
White-throated Sparrow  3
Northern Cardinal  2
Common Grackle  20
House Sparrow  30

White-throated sparrow spotted on campus!

Spotted a white-throated sparrow at Penn on Tuesday (April 11)! He seemed to be feeding along with some house sparrows in Blanche P. Levy Park near College Hall.

Photo: John Flannery 

Photo: Kelly Colgan Azar 

Seen any other visitors lately?

Birds, birds, birds! A Complete Indoor Birding Trip

Penn Birding screened "Birds, birds, birds! An Indoor Birdwatching Field Trip" again.

This time we completed the "field trip", which is designed to help improve our bird identification skills, by sight and by sound.


 

Whether new to birding & looking to develop skills or an experienced birder looking to hang out with other birders, all were welcome.

We had food from our sponsor Jake's Sandwich Board & we also talked about plans for the rest of the year.

Please write in if you have ideas for other educational events!

Birding at Brigantine/Forsythe NWR

Penn Birding took a tour of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine division. 

Photo: Shereen Chang

To cover as much ground as possible, we drove around the Refuge in a car & popped out whenever we saw something interesting -- which was a lot!

Photo: Shereen Chang

 One interesting sight was a gull dropping some kind of shellfish onto the road and eating it in front of us!

Other than gulls, we mostly saw water fowl, including Brants, American Black Ducks, Shovelers, Pintails, Canvasbacks, and thousands of Snow Geese.

Photo: Shereen Chang

Hopefully we can return soon to more thoroughly explore this beautiful environment!

Checklist: February trip to Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Penn Birding enjoyed an excursion to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park one freakishly warm day in mid-February. 

We achieved our goals of seeing 2 species of loons, harlequin ducks, as well as other water and shorebirds. With the help of a friendly birder, we even saw an Ipswich Savannah Sparrow!

Checklist for Barnegat Feb 19, 2017 8:49 AM:
40 Brant 
10 Common Eider
16 Harlequin Duck
6 Black Scoter
45 Long-tailed Duck
7 Red-breasted Merganser 
1 Red-throated Loon
11 Common Loon
8 Ruddy Turnstone 
100 Dunlin
10 Purple Sandpiper 
100 Ring-billed Gull
40 Herring Gull
1 Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)
5 Yellow-rumped Warbler      Myrtle