Week 38 - Green-Wood Cemetery

This past Sunday marked the Autumn equinox, the point when day and night are of approximately equal length. Going forward our nights will now become increasingly longer than the days. The Autumn migration for our birds, however, gradually began many weeks ago. From September 16th through the 22nd there was a slight transformation in the make up of our southbound birds, as well as, other noticable seasonal changes.

The colorful warblers still kept the attention of most birders, with a slight uptick in the number of Northern Parulas passing through the area. I got to see a Connecticut Warbler, which is notorious difficult to observe given their skulking, secretive nature and habit of foraging by walking in dense understory. They are one of the least studied of our North American songbirds for that reason. I expect the warbler migration to noticibly start to diminish within the next couple of weeks.

Northern Parula

Black-and-white Warbler

Connecticut Warbler

Still seeing a few flycatchers around, but only pewees and phoebes. I expect to continue to see them until we have a serious frost, which would kill off their remaining source of winged food.

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Wood-Pewee

There are now three species of wren occupying the cemetery: House, Winter and Carolina. Despite their name, Winter Wrens are rarely seen during our coldest months. They and the House Wren will eventually continue south to their wintering grounds as the season progresses. Carolina Wrens are an interesting story, however. Their historic range was south of New York State, but they began expanding north in the late 1800s. Around NYC, they are a frequent nesting species but their population dramatically expands and contracts, usually due to severe winters. Green-Wood Cemetery hadn't seen any Carolina Wrens for about a year, but they have been returning now for about a month.

House Wren

Carolina Wren

Two other songbirds that were seen in greater numbers last week were Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I expect to be seeing Blue Grosbeak and Golden-crowned Kinglet very shortly. We never see large numbers of the former, but the tiny Golden-crowned Kinglet will be arriving by the virtual truckload.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

A migrating Green Heron has taken up temporary residence at the Dell Water. Nearly unmoved from some downed branches at the back of the slowly shrinking pond, it has had an endless supply of young bullfrogs to feed on. This small wading bird would never have a chance with a full-sized adult, so is enjoying the jackpot before it continues to Florida, Central America or South America.

Green Heron

I didn't observe any big shift in the raptors above or around the cemetery, but did have an interesting encounter on Sunday. First, a migrating immature Cooper's Hawk seems to have decided to stick around Green-Wood. A sure sign that it's still around are the piles of feathers it leaves behind after a meal. They tend to carry their prey into the dense cover of the yew trees, so take a peek under the low branches. Early Sunday morning I found myself in the middle of a Red-tailed Hawk playground on the Hill of Graves. Three immature Red-tailed Hawks ("Brown-tailed) were following each other around as they attempted to hunt for prey in the long grass. As young hawks occasionally do, I saw one successfully stalk and kill a small piece of wood. I assumed that they were siblings as Red-tailed Hawks don't usually tolerate close, sociable interactions. One of the trio eventually caught a mantis and the others watched it devour the light snack. They ultimately flew off together, but I had a brief sighting a short time later near Twilight Dell.

Immature Cooper's Hawk

Immature Red-tailed Hawk snacking

As the supply of food on the fruiting trees are exhausted and the songbirds that rely on them continue their southbound journey, the seed eaters start arriving. We're probably two to three weeks away from the peak of sparrow migration, but last week I saw the greatest diversity of the season: Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow and Swamp Sparrow.

Molting Chipping Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Immature White-crowned Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

Much of what the sparrows are eating are the seeds that the grasses are producing.

Yellow Foxtail (Setaria pumila)

Panicum grass

There's a huge variety of asters now in bloom throughout the cemetery. Here's a selection of the flowers that caught my attention last week.

White Bushy Aster (Symphyotrichum dumosum)

Goldenrod

Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)

White Bushy Aster (Symphyotrichum dumosum)

Groundsel (Baccharis halimifolia)

Still seeing Monarchs heading south but now they have been joined by Clouded Sulfurs. I've also been noticing some Cloudless Sulfurs, which is a southern species that occasionally strays farther north and is having a bit of an iruption in our area this year.

Clouded Sulfur

There are still a few fruiting tree producing food for the late songbird migrants. In particular, some of the magnolia trees are active and being visited by thrushes, orioles, tanagers and Red-eyed Vireos. Winged Euonymus is just beginning to ripen and should be attracting a lot of birds this week. The Burkwood Viburnum along Ravine Path has a few fruit left, but has mostly been eaten by the catbirds and mockingbirds. A few fruiting trees that I haven't noticed anyone taking advantage of are Chinese Fringetree, winterberry and Japanese Bittern Orange.

Umbrella Magnolia and Red-eyed Vireo

Winged Euonymus

Burkwood Viburnum

Chinese Fringetree

Winterberry

Japanese Bitter Orange

Last week's north winds brought, not only migrating birds, but also, a large number of southbound dragonflies. There were many swarms of, what appeared to be, Wandering Gliders from midweek to the weekend. I believe that this is a second push for this species. There were also still plenty of Twelve-spotted Skimmers around the ponds. I was also surprised to see quite a few female Great Blue Skimmers, but no males. Anyway, until next Monday...get outside and soak in the Autumn sights, sounds and smells.

Female Great Blue Skimmer