A Beautiful Spring Day in Central Park

Today was just an incredible day in Central Park. Temperatures got up into the low 70's and I photographed both a Monk Parakeet and Yellow-throated Warbler, both for the first time in Central Park.

I had not spent a lot of time in the park in the past week because I was correcting the galleys for my book, The Birds of Central Park. I was amazed at the quality of the galleys (Abrams is using a 175 line screen) and only had a handful of corrections to make. I wasn't sure how much to sharpen (the printing process blurs the image) but was good on all but two photos. I corrected those and made notes on some color corrections and sent them off to my editor. I was on a two week break from school and start teaching again on Monday. I have a pretty good schedule this coming semester--crucial because spring migration is upon us.

I discovered the Monk Parakeet up on Nutter's Battery. This hill overlooks the Harlem Meer and is one of the places I always check for Palm, Pine and prairie Warblers. Only saw one Pine Warbler but I did hear this odd call from an outcropping above my head. When I looked up there was the Monk, taking a drink of water out of a small pool formed by an indentation in the rock. It was around 7am and the sun had not risen enough to illuminate the bird so I waited until he flew up into a nearby tree. Once up in the tree he began to strips and eat the buds and I was able to photograph him for about 10 minutes before he flew off.

I then took the M4 bus downtown to look for the Yellow-throated Warbler. I stayed all afternoon and got several nice shots.