Warblers in Prospect Park

Despite oppressive heat and humidity this morning, there was a pretty good showing of migrant songbirds in Prospect Park.

I figured the best way to try and beat the heat was to stick to the park's wooded areas. In the couple of hours that I strolled the Ravine, Lookout Hill and the Peninsula I managed to tally 12 species of warbler. The most memorable was a Worm-eating Warbler. I had just sat down on the top step of the stone stairway adjacent to the Nethermead Arches. I heard something moving low in the shrubs behind my head and turned to see the worm-eating working some dead leaves only about three feet from my face. I watched for what seemed like minutes this tiny, elegant, understated wood-warbler as it probed for insects within clumps of curled, withered leaves.

**********

Location: Prospect Park
Date: August 17, 2015
Species: 51

Wood Duck (1.)
Great Blue Heron (1.)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (2.)
Red-tailed Hawk (1.)
Spotted Sandpiper (1.)
Chimney Swift
Northern Flicker (1.)
Eastern Wood-Pewee (2.)
Willow Flycatcher (1.)
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Barn Swallow
House Wren (1.)
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing

Ovenbird (4.)
Worm-eating Warbler (2.)
Louisiana Waterthrush (1.)
Northern Waterthrush (5.)
Blue-winged Warbler (1.)
Black-and-white Warbler (10.)
Common Yellowthroat (1.)
Hooded Warbler (1, male. Ravine along ridge opposite Ambergil.)
American Redstart (12.)
Yellow Warbler (6.)
Chestnut-sided Warbler (1.)
Canada Warbler (6.)

Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole (2.)
American Goldfinch

Other common species seen (or heard):
Canada Goose, American Black Duck, Mallard, Laughing Gull, Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon), Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker (1.), Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, House Sparrow