Central Park - 1.9.13

The hummingbird bush!

After finding out where the best place for Hummingbirds was myself and Carey payed an early morning visit to Strawberry Fields to a clump of orange flowered plants. I only had to wait 2 minutes and then in flew my first ever RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. It was a female with its white tail tips and sped around the flowers feeding on the nectar. It showed well for a few minutes even perching in a nearby tree briefly before it flew off and didn't return in the 15 minutes I waited.

After that excitement we headed off for our last walk in the park of the holiday. Quickly 2 Carolina Wren were found and gave me my best showing so far and then after a while we bumped into the bird walk group. I had another chat with John and introduced him to Carey and while we were chatting 2 birds flitted up onto dead branches nearby. As others got on them they were tentatively ID'd as Least Flycatcher with their bold eyering and flicking tail. It then went mad and a quiet wander through the ramble turned into a 15 minute bird fest! I picked up an adult Chestnut-Sided Warbler to our left quickly followed by a Black and White Warbler to the right and then the call went up saying 2 Yellow Warbler were infront of us. An Eastern Wood Pee-Wee was next onto the list and just as we said our goodbyes another small group of birders found what turned out to be my first view of a PARULA WARBLER which was a relief after yesterdays brief snippet of song. On the way back out of the woods a bird popped up a foot to my right. It was a cracking male Black-Throated Blue Warbler!!

So after 2 amazing weeks I managed 57 new species including 13 species of warbler.