Yesterday, I went out with the Urban Park Rangers on a Brooklyn, Queens Birding Big Day event. I got to the meeting place, the Woolman Rink in Prospect Park around 7:30 am and birded a bit picking up a couple of species before the group started gathering around 8:00; by 8:30, we were all boarded up and heading out to the first stop in Prospect Park. In all, we covered a total of 6 sites…well I should say 7 for me since I was up at 5:00 AM restocking the feeders in the garden and doing a bit of backyard birding. The locations birded were Prospect Park, Forest Park, Alley Pond, Rockaway Beach, Salt Marsh Nature Center in Brooklyn and Drier Hofferman. The group seemed to be a bunch with different levels of birding experience, with some better than
others; for the most part everyone seemed to be helping each other finding species, though we did get the occasional “you are blocking me” comment. One that I always find amusing especially, if it comes from someone who parks themselves behind another birder and then attempt to look for a species. The toughest spot might have been Forest Park for some, as it was not easy finding warblers high in the canopy. Coincidentally, it was this location that I had my best birding, finding, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Canada Warbler and the highlight and life bird for some in Bay-breasted Warbler. I also had 4 species of vireo. At Rockaway beach, the group had nice looks of
a Ring-necked Pheasant and many were pleased at seeing this bird as well as the nesting Plovers. Towards the end of the day, I had a nice surprise at Drier Offerman in finding a Prairie Warbler. There was also a reported sighting of an Orchard Oriole at this location, but I did not see it, so it did not make my list of 101 species. After about 10 hours of birding we returned to Prospect Park and departed. The rangers did an excellent job and my thanks to Anthony, Tom and Jerry for a fantastic job. It is not easy driving around a bunch of demanding birders.
Yesterday, I went out with the Urban Park Rangers on a Brooklyn, Queens Birding Big Day event. I got to the meeting place, the Woolman Rink in Prospect Park around 7:30 am and birded a bit picking up a couple of species before the group started gathering around 8:00; by 8:30, we were all boarded up and heading out to the first stop in Prospect Park. In all, we covered a total of 6 sites…well I should say 7 for me since I was up at 5:00 AM restocking the feeders in the garden and doing a bit of backyard birding. The locations birded were Prospect Park, Forest Park, Alley Pond, Rockaway Beach, Salt Marsh Nature Center in Brooklyn and Drier Hofferman. The group seemed to be a bunch with different levels of birding experience, with some better than 
others; for the most part everyone seemed to be helping each other finding species, though we did get the occasional “you are blocking me” comment. One that I always find amusing especially, if it comes from someone who parks themselves behind another birder and then attempt to look for a species. The toughest spot might have been Forest Park for some, as it was not easy finding warblers high in the canopy. Coincidentally, it was this location that I had my best birding, finding, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Canada Warbler and the highlight and life bird for some in Bay-breasted Warbler. I also had 4 species of vireo. At Rockaway beach, the group had nice looks of 
a Ring-necked Pheasant and many were pleased at seeing this bird as well as the nesting Plovers. Towards the end of the day, I had a nice surprise at Drier Offerman in finding a Prairie Warbler. There was also a reported sighting of an Orchard Oriole at this location, but I did not see it, so it did not make my list of 101 species. After about 10 hours of birding we returned to Prospect Park and departed. The rangers did an excellent job and my thanks to Anthony, Tom and Jerry for a fantastic job. It is not easy driving around a bunch of demanding birders.
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