Under Clear Skies

Magnolia Warbler and fly - Luke Tiller

Sunday morning showed how important even the littlest patches of greenery are in the city. Birding with the infamous 😉 birdspot we had a fun morning out tracking down these little feathered gems right in the heart of the city accompanied by the roar of Helicopters and West Side Highway Traffic. Amongst the good number of migrants was this little Magnolia Warbler that was looking for bugs on the lawn of one of the park piers.

The bird was so intent on getting some food after a long nights flying it seemed to just totally ignore me. They’ve done a lovely job with this park, so although it is small it has a few nice specimen trees, some bayberry (Yellow-rumped heaven!) a little ‘natural’ section (essentially a mix of native plants and some weeds!) and some nice decorative plantings.

The birds seemed happy enough to as they were all sticking around, which allowed me to come back later in the day with the camera (apart from the flycatcher which seemed to have decided to move on). Here’s the google map of the park (pre work completion obviously!) doesn’t look like much, but for these birds a safe haven right slap bang in the heart of NYC.

Trip List: Warblers: Tennessee (1), Northern Parula (1), Yellow (4), Black & White (1), N.Waterthrush (2), Palm (6 – western subspecies types), Common Yellowthroat (17), Magnolia (1). Others: Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (1*), Bald Eagle, House Wren, Double-crested Cormorant, American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird (1), Baltimore Oriole (1), Laughing Gull, MODO’s, 3 regular gull species, Cedar Waxwing, Gray Catbird (4), Northern Mockingbird (3), 3 introduced species. 1 American Kestrel.

*Well seen down to 15 feet and field marks including heavy breast streaking, yellow wash to throat and eyering, smallish bill, all orange lower mandible, slightly crested shape of large head, primary projection that seemed relatively long to me (compared to Least) and narrow looking tail. Bugger wouldn’t wait for me to go back to the apartment to get the camera though would he!