Every year, bird clubs around the country get a bunch of people together and send them to count all the species they see on a certain day, usually May 10. The Queens County Bird Club (QCBC) is no exception. I was thrilled to be able to participate.
We finally arrived at the Waterhole, an area where birders set up a feeding station in the winter and floods to make a swampy pond in the spring and summer. This is one of the best birding spots in Queens, at least in spring migration.
I arrived at Forest Park, where the count was to take place at around 11:20 AM. And from there, I took off into the woods, going down a concrete path known as the Park Road, but then diving into the real woods. There, I found plenty of birds: Black-throated Blue Warblers, an Ovenbird, and Northern Parulas, all three lifers. As I watched a parula only around eight feet from me, the flashily colorful bird took off and headed straight for my head. It dove only around one foot away from me; I literally head to duck to avoid being hit in the head by the new, high-tech PARULA MISSILE used by the US military.
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| Black-throated Blue Warbler (photo by Lauren Scott) |
I there joined up with the rest of the Big Day team. High above us, a Scarlet Tanager, a lifer for me, landed in a tree, drawing plenty of attention from fellow birders. A Yellow-rumped Warbler landed on a log.
According to Jean, the leader of the team and a frequent birder in Forest Park, a rare bird had been hanging around and we had to find it. We heard it sing all day long, the unmistakable two part "chip...eeeeee!" of the BLUE-WINGED WARBLER. We heard it, we chased it, we stared into the trees with binoculars, but we never saw it. But since we all heard it, we added it to our total count.
While chasing that Blue-winged, I was delivered some other birds: a Red-eyed Vireo, Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart, Wood Thrush and Veery.
We decided to move on to another area. But before we do so, we get a few more birds: a BROWN CREEPER, a bird that hangs out here in the winter but not so much in the spring. We were ridiculously excited to see it. Also, a Northern Parula splashing in the Waterhole, taking a refreshing bath, a Swamp Sparrow, and a skulking waterthrush that we'll just call Waterthrush sp. (P.S. That's a euphemism for "I couldn't identify it). Just before we left, we located a Palm Warbler.
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| Northern Parula (photo by Lauren Scott) |
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| Northern Parula (photo by Lauren Scott) |
Next, we moved on to another part of the park. While waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, I peered into a little gully called the Kettlehole, and was, in the space of five minutes, showed three Wonderful Warblers: the Blackpoll Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler and Canada Warbler. Also the Red-eyed Vireo showed itself nicely. A little bit down from there I located a Black-throated Green Warbler preening in a tree.
I joined up with the team and headed down a trail. Alas all we located there were three Baltimore Orioles. Heading back down the trail to grab some food, I located a Black-and-white Warbler and a
Common Yellowthroat.
After getting food, we headed back into the park, only to find the trip leader Jean waving us down frantically. I ran (literally) down to her, and found that they had a MOURNING WARBLER, a really really big rarity. Unfortunately, only one of us saw it, though we spent twenty minutes trying to relocate it.
In that time, it started to rain.
And it got worse.
In ten minutes, the rain was pounding down constantly. It was so loud, I couldn't hear any of the singing warblers that we had seen. However, this also had to do with the fact that all the birds in the place had hunkered down and shut up. They were gone. I wasn't wearing a coat, just my t-shirt and lightweight pants (it had been eighty-one degrees. It was now sixty-eight degrees and raining). At least my binoculars were getting cleaned.
The rest of the team, three people, had left their car far away, and had to get to a place where they could hold food. We ended up driving them: five people in a car that can hold four. But they got there and I got home, to write this blog post.
Take a look at my total life bird count for the day, just to give you an idea of what a fantastic day it was.
- Swamp Sparrow
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Magnolia Warbler
- Northern Parula
- Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Veery
- Wood Thrush
- Canada Warbler
- Blackpoll Warbler
- Scarlet Tanager
- Ovenbird
- Blue-winged Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
11:30 AM to 3:15 PM and fourteen life birds. Now there's a fine day for you. Lots of thanks to the trip leader and the other birders who helped me out.
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| Black-and-White Warbler (photo by Lauren Scott) |
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