Thursday I dipped on a potential life bird. They can’t all be like the Western Tanager and Scott’s Oriole, of course – it wasn’t a total surprise that the Prospect Park Yellow-throated Warbler failed to stick around. Nor could I be mad, when my quick after-work trip yielded my life White-eyed Vireo at the Lily Pool instead. And, for dessert, one of those moments that the Inimitable Todd should really be there for but never is; a remarkable partially leucistic American Robin with a sporty eye-stripe pattern on an otherwise white head, a white tail, and a lightly spotted but mostly normal Robin body. I was quite awestruck by the little guy (or gal) and I hope zie sticks around.
On Sunday last I had an even better day; I was scheduled to work the Park Slope Food Coop Environmental Committee’s Earth Day Table from 1 to 3, which meant that the morning was all about birding. The flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers were going to 11, if you know what I mean; I got my first-of-season Yellow and Prairie Warblers, and a Palm Warbler for my BGBY; and the Lake was skimmed by Barn and Tree Swallows and at least one Northern Rough-Winged Swallow. One swallow doesn’t make a spring, but there were plenty on Sunday, making their beautiful little chittery noises and moving like they embodied joy (even though I know it’s really hunger.) The Woodpeckers were very active, too – particularly a Northern Flicker and a Red-bellied Woodpecker who both had their eye on the same resonant snag (the Flicker got the better of the encounter.) In the Vale, I spotted a Blue-headed Vireo, also a life bird and excellent at living up to its name (it also lived up to its old name, Solitary Vireo; that is a bit more poetic, but since the split gave us more species to see and one of them has the excellent name of Plumbeous Vireo I can’t complain.)
It’s times like this when I feel like it’s a real waste to have a job.
Sunday Species:
House Sparrow Passer domesticus
Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura
Rock Pigeon Columba livia
European Starling Sturnus vulgaris
American Robin Turdus migratorious
Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
Canada Goose Branta canadensis
Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus
Yellow-rumped Warbler Dendroica coronata
Palm Warbler Dendroica palmarum
Yellow Warbler Dendroica petechia
Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosus
Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis
White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis
Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus
Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia
Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata
American Coot Fulica atra
Great Egret Egretta eulophotes
Mute Swan Cygnus olor
Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Regulus calendula
Pine Warbler Dendroica pinus
Barn Swallow Hirunda rustica
Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolor
Swamp Sparrow Melospiza georgiana
Rough-winged Swallow Stelgidopteryx ruficollis
Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis
Double-crested Cormorant Phalocrocorax auriatus
Prairie Warbler Dendroica discolor
Herring Gull Larus auratus
Field Sparrow Spizella pusilla
Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens
Ring-billed Gull Larus delawarensis
Tufted Titmouse Baeolophus bicolor
Blue-headed Vireo Vireo solitarius *LL
Thursday Species:
House Sparrow Passer domesticus
White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis
American Robin Turdus migratorius
White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus *LL
European Starling Sturnus vulgaris
Yellow-rumped Warbler Dendroica coronata
Swamp Sparrow Melospiza georgiana
Gray Catbird Dumetella carolinensis
Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura
Palm Warbler Dendroica palmarum
Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens
Canada Goose Branta canadensis
Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus
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April 28, 2008 at 8:35 am
I also really like to watch very hungry swallows.
Yellow-throated Warbler truly is a bird of failure:
It fails to stick around until I get to a certain area, I fail to hit the right tracks when I am in the same general area as one of them and even if all seems to work out nicely and I can hear the warbler singing right at me, I fail to spot it in the dense foilage. And even though “heard only” is fine for most Eurasian Acrocephalus warblers, havin only ever heard a Yellow-throated is worse than having never encountered one at all: it is painful.
Congratulations on your nice Vireos though. White-eyed has so much character!
And the best of luck seeing that one special warbler, the sunlight of the forest floor! I hope he will stick around for you.
May 9, 2008 at 9:36 am
No Prothonotaries?
I must try harder then.
June 16, 2008 at 11:34 pm
[...] I hadn’t seen the partially leucistic (?) American Robin near the Dog Beach since my first encounter with hir back in April. I assumed that this eye-catching bird had caught the eye of local hawk or some other predator [...]