Traditional sparrow locations perked and showed life, particularly the southern park sections reliable for sparrows. IN the course of finding good numbers of sparrows, the best I seen this fall, an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER added its highlight.
The usual sparrow spots of Lamppost #249, Breeze Hill , and the Peninsula Sumacs showed much life. Of these Lamppost #249 , along the Welldrive, showed the most diversity.
Lamppost #249 revealed : SONG, WHITE-THROATED, SWAMP, DARK EYED JUNCO, CHIPPING and a nearby WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW (Toomey and Goldstein).
The Peninsula Sumacs only had SONGS but the numbers were up and hopefully much more in later days with other species drawn in.
Breeze Hill , with its long dirt mounds showed the most numbers. This area was dominated by White-throated and Songs followed by several SWAMPs but it was an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, a beauty, stealing the limelight, seen quite well and cooperatively at the tail west end of the mound, near the orange/white striped wood beams.
At the corner of west Binnen Bridge, a weedy section with loads of pinkish smartweed harbored alot of White-throated Sparrows. A fallen limb marks the spot and it would be good to check this location regularly.
Later, I swung by the baseball field fence enclosure and found decent numbers of SAVANNAH SPARROWS. Several PALM WARBLERS accompanied these sparrows.
For the day , 9 species sparrows were recorded, a better than nothing result given the poor sparrow numbers this fall.
Also of note, WINTER WREN appeared in several places. The Lamppost #249, Breeze Hill and the fenced in field adjacent to Nethermead Bridge had Winter wrens. Even Mary E's backyard at her home near Bartel Pritchard Square had a Winter Wren.
Speaking of a quintet, 4 PIED-BILLED GREBE now move on Prospect Lake. All four were pretty close together to see in my bins
A terrific fall day and great to see those sparrows finally in flocks, even if small sizes..
Peter's list
Prospect Park, Kings, US-NY
Oct 23, 2011 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
3.0 mile(s)
33 species
Canada Goose 9
Mallard X
Pied-billed Grebe 4 lake
Red-tailed Hawk 1 f/o LP249
Herring Gull X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 sw Lookout Hill
Northern Flicker 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue-headed Vireo 2 -LP 249,
Blue Jay 3
Winter Wren 4 LP249, Breeze Hill, Nethermead Br, Bartel Pritchard
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 17
Hermit Thrush 3
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird 2
European Starling X
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2 LP249, Nethermead br
Blackpoll Warbler 1 Terrace Br
Palm Warbler 5 Baseball field
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 LP249
Chipping Sparrow 14 LP249
Savannah Sparrow 15 Bseball field
Song Sparrow 22
Swamp Sparrow 5--1 LP249, 4 Breeze Hill
White-throated Sparrow 45, many at Lily Pool
Dark-eyed Junco 3
Northern Cardinal 1
Common Grackle 4 flyovers
House Sparrow X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)
***************************************
From Kathy Toomey
date = 2011/10/23
site = Prospect Park
observers = Kathy Toomey and Emily Goldstein
Pied-billed Grebe
Northern Shoveler
Canada Goose
Ruddy Duck
Mute Swan
Mallard
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue Jay
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren heard
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Northern Parula
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Swamp Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow Wellhouse Drive, by dumpster
Dark-eyed Junco
Field Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
House Sparrow
********************************************
From Gabriel Willow:
(Posting to NYSBIRDS Listserve)
Subject: Prospect Park: Field Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler
From: gabriel willow
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:02:46 -0700
X-Message-Number: 11
While birding in Prospect Park, Brooklyn late this afternoon, I encountered huge flocks of sparrows throughout the park. Most were Chipping Sparrows; I probably saw 300 or more. I kept hoping to find a Clay-colored among them, but no dice.
However, over by the weed-covered gravel piles on Breeze Hill, I found a Field Sparrow in a flock of 20 or so Chippings; also saw about 25 Song Sparrows, two Winter Wrens, and got great looks at a bright male Orange-Crowned Warbler on the West (weediest) dirt pile.
Hopefully tomorrow will bring more good birds!
Gabriel WillowNYC Audubon
