Yesterday birding at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx was very slow with numbers down significantly from last week. Our bird walk highlights included *2 Wilson's Snipe* on the parade ground in the fenced in area; seen just barely before they took off heading in a South West direction. *1 Yellow Warbler* near the lake. 1 singing *Nashville Warbler* in the North West Forest *(a new one for our walk and whose status is "Rare" at VCP according to the park checklist)* a couple of *Warbling Vireos* and *1* *Baltimore Oriole* on the way out of the Forest on the bridle path. No sign of the breeding plumage *Red-necked Grebe* that we had last week on the VC lake although I had received field reports that the bird was seen on Thursday.
I continued birding all day in the Bronx doing quite a bit of hiking while exploring some areas that I had not birded before. Some birds of note that I had included: *Clapper Rail*, *21 Greater Yellowlegs*, *3 Lesser Yellowlegs* and *1 Short-billed Dowitcher* all seen in the Pelham Bay/Orchard Beach area. Today: This morning, I birded Jacob Riis Park, Fort Tilden, Floyd Bennett Field *(very brief)* and Breezy Point where the only highlight was a *Prairie Warbler*along the 4 wheel drive trail to the beach at Breezy Point. Later, I ended up at Alley Pond Park where I teamed up with Eric Miller and we tried our best to bird the park before the rain intensified. Highlights included: *1 Worm Eating Warbler *seen near the rest rooms, *2 Palm Warblers (Yellow**)*, *1* *Prairie Warbler *seen near Turtle Pond and a *Blue-headed Vireo* seen near the green bins around the adventure course area. Also, we looked and listened unsuccessfully for the Yellow-throated Warbler that was reported there yesterday. Good Earth Day Birding! Andrew Baksh Queens NY www.birdingdude.blogspot.com "Always treat people as ends in themselves, never as means to an end." -- Immanuel Kant <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11038.Immanuel_Kant> -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
