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Queens, New York, May 2009 May is the month of migration in North America.  Sure, some species move earlier and, of course, in the fall everything turns around and goes the other way, but May stands out as the month when birds that haven’t been seen since the previous fall come back in natty new [...]

Especially if you live in New York City!

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Queens, NY, April 2010 Everyone knows that New York City is an extremely expensive place to live.  If one is lucky enough to find a place that one likes one must often pay in rent per month what would easily be a mortgage payment in a more sane part of the [...]

April, while not as exciting a migratory month as May is in the northeastern United States, is still a great time of year to see migrating birds. Wood-warblers, those brightly-colored attention-whores of spring, have most birders swooning, but their numbers don’t really pick up until May. Sparrows, on the other hand, seem to make the [...]

Central Park, Manhattan, April 2010 I have spent many of my lunch hours over the last several months in Central Park.  As spring has sprung and the sun has come out and the weather warmed I have been in the park almost every day, scarfing up spring migrants like a starving man who finds himself [...]

Seth Ausubel is one of the best birders in Queens and when he is not out birding he is often in pursuit of herpetological delights or cool insects. He has contributed a great guest post to 10,000 Birds before and regularly tolerates Corey on birding outings. Here he describes an outing in search of a [...]

Manhattan, April 2010 In the busiest and most developed borough of New York City, Manhattan, which is what most tourists think of when they think of New York City (if they are thinking at all), the signs of spring are sometimes subtle, but most are, like much of Manhattan, in your face.  How, for example, [...]

Disbelief probably seems like the proper response to the idea that there are woodpeckers in New York City.  After all, woodpeckers peck on trees, not skyscrapers. But Gotham’s many parks have some very suitable habitat for birds from the family Picidae and a birder in any borough of New York will generally find at least [...]

It seemed liked an innocuous idea. Seven birders, a boat for hire, and a cruise around lower New York Harbor and vicinity looking for good birds. What could possibly go wrong? After all, the forecast was for mostly sunny skies, light winds, and no big waves. Therefore the seven of us who climbed aboard a [...]

There is no need for me to go into detail about past birding experiences at Bryant Park. Regular readers of 10,000 Birds will recall a host of cooperative wood-warblers, an absurdly obliging woodcock, and many more good birds over the last several years.  But even the annals of Bryant Park bird sightings, if such annals [...]

Well, maybe that isn’t exactly what happened here but police officers from New York were told to stop messing around with Fred the pigeon.  Seriously. Don’t the cops have some occupiers to arrest or something?

This morning a plane taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City hit a bird, which caused engine failure.  The plane landed safely and no one was hurt.  This is after two years of geese killings in New York City, ostensibly to thin the flocks and protect civilian aviation.  Anyone want to bet that [...]

Returning to New York, however briefly, has been a joyful reunion — not just with old friends, but with my beloved, quirky New York City birds. Shortly after I arrived I got word of the Gray-hooded Gull at Coney Island, and of course I went after it right away. Unlike the last megararity at that [...]

If it were entirely up to me I likely would not have given up my Saturday afternoon this past weekend to go to Daisy’s job’s yearly summer picnic.  But I agreed, mostly because of the promise of delicious food and the threats of physical harm.  The location of the picnic intrigued me as well.  I [...]

New York City is well known as a city of immigrants so it makes sense that the only lizards living within the five boroughs are immigrants as well.  Our northern winters and highly developed landscape make New York City inhospitable to most species of lizard and it is no surprise that the two species that [...]

New York City offers the best wood-warbler watching of any city in the United States or Canada.  Sure, Chicago has a magic hedge, Boston has a cemetery, and other cities must, on occasion, attract some Parulidae, but none can even compare to the marvel that is migration in The Big Apple.  Attention is often and [...]

This spring has been rather lousy so far.  Like, really lousy.  Like, really cold, really wet, really windy, and almost completely lacking in days off work.  Of course, that is just my perspective and I have been known to think that birds that don’t show up until May are late if they aren’t here by [...]

The Prothonotary Warbler first noticed by the birding world over a week ago was still hanging out at the “main branch” of the New York Public Library at 5th Ave between 40th and 42nd Streets as recently as yesterday.  The bird was NOT seen today and many think it has moved on, spurred by the [...]

One advantage of being unemployed is that you have more free time.  This is key when an email goes out to the listservs about a Prothonotary Warbler being seen next to the famous lions outside the “main branch” of the New York City Library, which is next to Bryant Park.  As quickly as I could [...]

Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to see birds.  After the Ovenbird last winter, the American Woodcock this spring, and the wood-warblers in September I was hooked but a recent visit there has me raving about Bryant Park as a birding destination all over again.  Desi and I [...]