Some birding scenes carry a legendary allure to me for reputation both bird and people rich. New York City and its environs top that list of places. Yes, New York City really is an exceptional place for both birds and the already distinctive people living there who love those birds. New York and its boroughs sit on the Eastern migration flyway, and host a concentration of geographic and habitat features that attract birds in variety and volume.
The birding scene there is relentlessly active, vocal, documentary across eBird, writing, photography, artwork, social media, film, television, news media. Its birds are internationally famous (The Upper East Side nesting Red-tailed hawk, Pale Male; the zoo-escapee Eurasion eagle-owl, Flaco as two examples), and accessible to see.
New York’s birders are famous and accessible, too! New York is a place where you walk around Central Park on a weekday and run into a birder who looks familiar even though you’ve never been to the Ramble before, some birder celebrity who is out there like you, bins in hand, doing their thing. That’s New York, where the birds and the people congregate, because this concentrated area contains the elements for life needed by both.
Birding Central Park
My visit in New York City was mid-May, with birding in Central Park on a Monday, May 19th. “That is slightly past peak but I think there still should be tons of birds to see,” said friend Jenny Kroik. As a West Coast birder, whatever we saw was going to be something new. I had not been to New York since 2001, when I wasn’t paying nearly as much attention to birds as I do now.
Start of the day in NYC. Approximately 5:30am looking north from Pier 45 along the Hudson River Greenway while on my morning run.
Later that morning on the way to meet our friends in the Ramble of Central Park: Georgia and I are pretty excited!
The day started from Greenwich Village (where I stayed with two different friends during my three days in the City). Georgia Silvera Seamans and I rode the subway to 77th on the Upper West Side to meet the friends gathered via email for a birding outing, weeks in the planning. It was coming together!
As Georgia and I entered the park, we were met by Donna Schulman, having just arrived from Queens. The three of us proceeded to Oak Bridge to meet the others, momentum building for the assembling small flock of women. Gigi Chen greeted us at the bridge, with Loyan Beausoleil and Jenny Kroik arriving soon after. Each of these women are my connections not just through birding, but also through love of books, birds in art (and birders in art), and creative collaboration. Many of us were meeting for the first time in person. Such is New York for making a gathering like this possible, a brain trust of bird world creatives in one sextet.
My turn behind the camera! We are looking at what is probably a Magnolia warbler—by far the most seen and most numerous bird of the day in during our 5 hours of birding Central Park. Left to right: Loyan, Donna, Gigi, Georgia, and Jenny.
The day commenced! Already at 9:30am the park buzzed with birders, identifiable by optics, alone or in groups like ours, moving slowly through the paths, holding up phones for recording or their camera for a click, occasionally greeting each other in recognition or assistance in a sighting.
And all this on a weekday. This West coast birder was astonished at the spectacle. An assemblage of birders in one place, normalizing the practice. No more a novelty as a park user than a runner, the other identifiable demographic filling the park at that hour.
Word on the birding street was the Bicknell’s thrush nearby. Loyan and Georgia knew this bird was significant to me, as I had just spoken about Bird Friendly Chocolate a few days before at the Cape May Spring Birding Festival. The Bicknell’s thrush is the mascot bird of Bird Friendly certified chocolate. It winters in the Dominican Republic, site of the first Bird Friendly certified cocoa farm, and spends spring and summer in the US Northeast. It’s a cryptic bird, disappearing into the brush where it forages. It’s a rarity to Central park, and would be a special sighting if we found it.
Gigi Chen and Jenny Kroik. New York birders, and professional artists! Including art depicting birds!
Gigi and I rejoicing after seeing a Canada warbler, a lifer for both of us. Loyan looking on. Photo by Jenny Kroik.
It was a warbler-fest of ticking as we made our way to the Bicknell’s last known location: Magnolia warbler, Canada warbler, Chestnut-sided warbler, Blackpoll warbler, Tennessee warbler, Northern Parula. My friends knew these were all new warblers for me as the representative Wast Coast birder in the group; I was in heaven in their care and in the glimpses of these little birds. I also shared some lifers with Gigi, who is newer to birding. We both saw our first Canada warbler together, and I am indebted to Jenny for capturing this moment of joy above!
And speaking of sharing another lifer. The Bicknell’s thrush.
Photo of Jenny Kroik’s Merlin app right after it finally picked up a recorded song of the Bicknell’s thrush we’d been observing.
The Bicknell’s thrush! Photo by Gigi Chen.
True to the NYC birding scene, the bird paparazzi hovered at the Ramble location of the reputed Bicknell’s thrush. I include myself among that label now, gathering with the crowd of folks with cameras, bins, phones thrust forward to catch the vocalizing of the bird to confirm the sighting. Thankfully this crowd was respectful and mostly quiet, and patient.
Two different guide-led groups passed through as we stood observing the bird; the guides both recognizable to my companions as local personalities commodifying the city birding craze. Such is the scene there—so normalized as to make me forget that this was a Monday mid-morning workday, myself and companions all taking the day off work, occupying space as nature appreciators in this huge metropolis, joined by tens of others doing the exact same thing, and none of us self-conscious about it.
NYC is distinct to me as someone who has birded many cities, for how everyday the pastime is for its birding community. I have felt the same kind of birding community en-masse energy at festivals and special events, but never like this on a regular day in the park. Non-birding passersby know what you’re doing and pipe in, “Hey, you looking for the hawk?” It’s mainstreamed to reach anyone who lives in the neighborhood, and non-birders have wind of the local bird gossip. New Yorkers love their birds.
Loyan was our tireless eBirder that day. And if you’re wondering about all my bags—it was half the picnic lunch for our group (Jenny wisely brought a backpack for the other half of the picnic that she brought). Photo by Jenny Kroik.
As the day progressed into afternoon, the park came alive with diverse use. “You had the full Central Park experience!” said Jenny at the conclusion of our outing. “Shakespeare in the park and a competing lute player!” And our outing could not end without a bird rescue.
As we departed the park, we observed a fledged-too-soon baby pigeon on the lawn. Loyan’s teacher mode kicked in and she narrated the scene aloud to everyone standing nearby, wondering what to do about the bird. “Someone probably brought it here after finding it on the sidewalk,” she said. “We could take it to the Wild Bird Fund or we could leave it here for hawk food.” Our group looked at the folks standing around us, the non-birders. No one said anything. “A hawk’s gotta eat, too,” I said. “What do we want to do? Anyone want to take it uptown to the Wild Bird Fund?” Loyan asked, again looking at the group.
“I’ll take it,” Gigi volunteered. We were starting to look like our own Shakespeare in the park with our demonstration of bird rescue etiquette. “Who wants to pick it up?” Loyan again welcomed the general group. “I will!” I raised my hand. I slowly approached the bird from behind making sure it could see me, and gently scooped it up with my hands enclosing it from both sides of its torso. We used one of my bags (there was a reason in the end why I carried so many!) to place it safely, and off Gigi went to deliver it to the Wild Bird Fund.
Gigi and I with a rescued and bagged baby pigeon. I had just picked it up off the lawn behind us and Gigi was about to depart to the Wild Bird Fund to deliver it to safety. Photo by Donna Schulman.
The baby Pigeon! Photo by Donna Schulman.
The day was as much about my friends and our fun together as it was about birding Central Park. Birding is an excuse to be with people I love, and this day provided that energy in full. And lucky me! The love fest continued the next day, birding in Brooklyn Bridge Park with Heather Wolf and Loyan Beausoleil. That story coming next!