This is just a quick post to share two of the latest birds that made it onto my year list after a quick run to Doodletown and to Mine Road on Saturday morning. The Orange County / Rockland County border by the Hudson River, where Bear Mountain State Park, Harriman State Park, and the United States Military Academy all come together has the best variety of woodland breeding birds to be found within an hour of New York City. How good? Well, the two birds below kind of speak for themselves…
Cerulean Warbler at Doodletown
Kentucky Warbler along Mine Road
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Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
Wow. Green of envy Corey. Two of the warblers I missed during my 2 week trip. Cerulean is somewhat a nemesis bird for me. Chased in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia without luck.
@Gunnar: They are pretty darn good birds. Next time you’re in the states you should swing by New York.
Those would both be lifers for me. We don’t get a lot of Ceruleans out here in California and I just haven’t been lucky enough to chase down a Kentucky.
Here in Mass there are a couple good places for cerulean…..Skinner State Park in Hadley and Wompatuck State Park in Hingham. I got my life cerulean last year at the latter after hearing one sing in 2010 and trying to see him for close to 2 hours!
@Vermfly: You guys have some pretty darn cool birds to make up for your lack of Ceruleans though.
@Kirk: Have Kentucky Warblers been showing up more often up there as well? For the last several years here in New York there have regularly been one or two or three or four not just as migratory overshoots but actually setting up territories.
Yes but I didnt have a chance to see one YET. They were seen at Moose Hill Sanctuary in Sharon, Marblehead Neck in Marblehead and Mount Auburn Cemetary in Watertown/Cambridge. There was even one seen at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln as recently as yesterday (May 20th). This is pretty much a nemesis bird for me and a friend of mine.
I have noticed alot of posts on the local Massachusetts Listserv last year of hooded warblers probable breeding in southwest mass and Freetown State Forest as well. It seems as though they are extending their breeding range north recently. I wouldnt be surprised if there were confirmed breeding Kentuckys in Mass before long considering also the proliferation of Carolina Wren and Red-bellied Woodpecker in the last 10 years here.