Birding w/ Birding Bob in Central Park **Spring Migration MAYHEM!**

Hello everybody!! Today, I will be sharing a trip I took to Central Park (NYC) with my mom on Sunday, May 7. We saw some fascinating birds including cool lifers and beautiful spring migrants!!!!!

Hello all!

Last weekend, on a sunny, warm morning, I had the pleasure of going birding in Central Park (famous for birding) with a group of people on a walk called “Birding Bob.” The walk is led by the group's creator, Robert DeCandido, formally known as Bob. You can read about the walks he leads here: https://www.birdingbob.com

***DISCLAIMER: Robert DiCandido is famous for bringing in birds, especially during migration. A controversial topic that comes up a lot among birders is playing bird calls and songs to call birds in. You all are going to notice during this blog that Bob does this act of calling birds. A lot of people find it disturbing to them and to the birds, while others say “If it brings in the birds, I’ll come!” While I don’t have a strong opinion on this topic, I do think that calling birds, especially during breeding season is disturbing. That was another reason why I wanted to come on the walk today. It was to see what exactly his technique is to bring in the birds. I’m curious about how you guys feel about calling birds. Feel free to let me know in the chatbox below!

My mom and I woke up at 5AM sharp, ready for a pretty hectic day. We got ready and ate a quick breakfast before leaving for the train station. We left home at 6:05ish AM to try and catch the 6:14AM train to Grand Central Station in the city. The day prior, I packed my backpack with my DSLR Camera, binoculars, and a bird field guide.

When we arrived at the train station, we had just barely made it on the 6:14AM train and were on our way to the city. On the train, I was looking at the latest eBird reports from the day before of the area in Central Park we were going to bird at (The Ramble).

Once we arrived at Grand Central Station, we had to take 1 subway that brought us to the entrance of Central Park. As we arrived at the general entrance, I was looking at the directions from where we were to The Ramble. The directions took us to a place called Loeb Boathouse. That was where we were going to meet up with the others. As we looked around the boathouse, we quickly saw a couple of people with binoculars and cameras. It turned out those people were also part of the walk with Bob. After about 1 minute, a man walked up to all of us and told us how he was Bob. My mom and I introduced ourselves to him, and soon after, we started the walk.

We first walked until we reach the top of a small, forested hilly area, then Bob called in 2 Baltimore Orioles (1 male and 1 female).

They are favored due to their vibrant orange colors shown in adult males. This was a great FOS surprise!

Something I noticed was that there were a lot of birds singing that day. As we were wondering what other birds could be out there, Bob started playing alarm calls from a bird, which brought in a peculiar bird. It looked like it was fit for a Ruby-crowned kinglet, but I noticed odd, yellow wingbars instead of white. Once it came into the light, we could see a dull, yellow cap, making it a female Chestnut-sided Warbler!

This was a cool experience of a lifer that looked different! Bob told us we would see more of them, including males which are a bit more favored (in my opinion)!

We soon walked to a wooded area with lots of activity. We heard Wood Thrushes, Ovenbirds, Northern Parulas, and some Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos! We also saw a bird with a notched/forked tail fly into the near-top of a tree. Bob used his binoculars and called out “Purple Finch!” making us all want to get a look at it! It was a dark, streaky female Purple Finch with the key ID feature: a white eyebrow.

This was another lifer that I’ve been wanting to see for a while so I was delighted!

After finding and identifying a variety of other birds, a bird caught my attention. We weren’t in good lighting so the bird looked dark and dull to me but when it flew off, we could see the dark blue on it. Based on the size, we figured it was a male Black-throated Blue Warbler, another good surprise!!

After getting okay looks at it, we moved on to a field with lots of trees and shrubs in its perimeter!

In that field, we got eyes on 2 active warblers- 1 female Black-throated Blue Warbler and a male Magnolia Warbler!

These birds were really fun to spot and the work paid off as we were about to move on with a beautiful, vibrant male Scarlet Tanager!!!

It perched on a tree with some branches blocking it, first giving us obstructed views, but it then flew onto a closer branch making us satisfied with this colorful bird!! As we moved on, someone from the group thought they saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo in flight. Bob decided to try and play the call of the Cuckoo and sure enough within a minute, it flew in from some trees!!!

This elusive bird was a lifer for almost half of us and we couldn’t take enough photos of it! We were so proud of what we had seen in this field!

Moving on, we walked until we reached another patch. That patch was another key spot for finding birds because within minutes 3 warblers popped out!! One of them was the stunning male Chestnut-sided Warbler, another was the small but cool, Black-throated Green Warbler and the other was the well-hidden Prarie Warbler!!!

I, then felt a burst of happiness experiencing 2 lifer warblers in 1 area (Chestnut-sided Warbler and Prarie Warbler)!!

As we came to the end, we got close-up views of Red-eyed and Warbling Vireos on a tree! We also got to see a Northern Parula interacting with the vireos!

Overall, today was a GREAT experience for seeing tons of species of birds and listening to the diverse bird songs around me! I had fun meeting Bob and exploring nature! Thank you all for staying in tune with these blogs! Remember, pursue your dreams like I am!! Happy Birding!!