2010 BGBY List

This is all walking from my home, no bike or public transit; and certainly not a car.

Prospect Heights, January 1, 2010

First three birds just walking to Tom’s for breakfast on New Year’s Day:

  1. House Sparrow
  2. Rock Pigeon
  3. European Starling

Yes, I’m back in the city.

Prospect Park, January 2, 2010

  1. Canada Goose
  2. Mute Swan
  3. American Black Duck
  4. Mallard
  5. American Coot
  6. Ring-billed Gull
  7. Mourning Dove
  8. Red-bellied Woodpecker
  9. Downy Woodpecker
  10. Blue Jay
  11. Black-capped Chickadee
  12. Tufted Titmouse
  13. White-breasted Nuthatch
  14. Hermit Thrush
  15. American Robin
  16. White-throated Sparrow
  17. Dark-eyed Junco
  18. Northern Cardinal
  19. Red-winged Blackbird
  20. Common Grackle
  21. House Finch
  22. American Goldfinch

Prospect Park, January 3, 2010

  1. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
  2. Rusty Blackbird
  3. Fox Sparrow
  4. Wood Duck
  5. Red-tailed Hawk
  6. Northern Mockingbird

Prospect Park, January 9, 2010

  1. Ruddy Duck
  2. Red-breasted Nuthatch
  3. American Crow
  4. Northern Shoveler
  5. Herring Gull
  6. Great Black-backed Gull
  7. Bufflehead

Prospect Park, January 17, 2010

  1. Great Blue Heron
  2. Golden-crowned Kinglet
  3. Hairy Woodpecker

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, January 18, 2010

  1. Cooper’s Hawk

Prospect Park, February 14, 2010

  1. Swamp Sparrow
  2. Song Sparrow

Prospect Park, February 21, 2010

  1. American Pipit

Had to go to the park a second time today to get the pipit. After I got back from my first trip, I got a tweet from Peter Dorosh telling me the pipit had returned. I’d tried for it 4 or 5 times before without success, and I was sure it had left since no one had reported it for a few weeks, but it returned today. the same bird or a different bird I don’t know.

Prospect Park, March 7, 2010

Missed this yesterday because I didn’t look in the Pools, only on the Lake:

  1. Ring-necked Duck

Prospect Park, March 27, 2010

  1. Cedar Waxwing
  2. Eastern Phoebe
  3. Northern Flicker

Prospect Park, April 18, 2010

  1. Lousiana Waterthrush
  2. Yellow-rumped Warbler
  3. Black-and-white Warbler
  4. Palm Warbler
  5. Pine Warbler
  6. Tree Swallow

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, April 24, 2010

  1. Eastern Towhee
  2. Brown Thrasher

Prospect Park, May 1, 2010

  1. American Redstart
  2. Wood Thrush
  3. Warbling Vireo
  4. Spotted Sandpiper
  5. Scarlet Tanager
  6. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  7. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
  8. Prairie Warbler
  9. Ovenbird
  10. Osprey
  11. Orange-crowned Warbler
  12. Northern Waterthrush
  13. Northern Parula
  14. Nashville Warbler
  15. Indigo Bunting
  16. House Wren
  17. Gray Catbird
  18. Great Egret
  19. Great Crested Flycatcher
  20. Eastern Kingbird
  21. Double-crested Cormorant
  22. Common Loon
  23. Baltimore Oriole
  24. Black-and-white Warbler
  25. Belted Kingfisher
  26. Blackburnian Warbler
  27. Black-throated Blue Warbler
  28. Black-throated Green Warbler
  29. Blue-headed Vireo
  30. Blue-winged Warbler
  31. Chestnut-sided Warbler

Plus a European Goldfinch that “doesn’t count”.

Prospect Park, May 2, 2010

  1. Chimney Swift
  2. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Prospect Park, May 8, 2010 (International Migratory Bird Day)

  1. Blackpoll Warbler
  2. Tennessee Warbler
  3. Common Yellowthroat
  4. Veery
  5. Yellow Warbler
  6. Bay-breasted Warbler

Prospect Park, May 9, 2010

  1. Hooded Warbler
  2. Magnolia Warbler
  3. Canada Warbler
  4. Red-eyed Vireo
  5. Eastern Wood-Peewee
  6. Swainson’s Thrush
  7. Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Prospect Park, May 16, 2010

  1. Lincoln’s Sparrow
  2. Gray-cheeked Thrush
  3. Least Flycatcher
  4. Great-crested Flycatcher (probably seen earlier)
  5. Black-billed Cuckoo
  6. Cape May Warbler
  7. Olive-sided Flycatcher
  8. Laughing Gull
  9. Wilson’s Warbler

Prospect Park, May 22, 2010

My first life bird on this list!

  1. Kentucky Warbler
  2. Black-crowned Night-heron
  3. Green Heron

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, June 23, 2010

  1. Turkey Vulture

Prospect Park, July 16, 2010

  1. Black Skimmer

An unusual bird for the park, and I wasn’t even birding as such. It flew over the night the New York Philharmonic was playing a concert in the park:

Prospect Park, August 28, 2010

My second life bird on this list!

  1. Common Nighthawk

Prospect Park, September 6, 2010

My third life bird on this list!

  1. Mourning Warbler

Prospect Park, October 24, 2010

  1. Vesper Sparrow
  2. White-crowned Sparrow

Prospect Park, October 31, 2010

  1. Yellow-breasted Chat

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, November 20, 2010

  1. American Tree Sparrow

Bicycle

I finally got my bike working again only nine months after I left California. With this, I can add a few more:

Marine Park, June 6, 2010

  1. Monk Parakeet
  2. Snowy Egret
  3. Least Tern

As I build up my bike legs again, I should be able to reach Four Sparrow Marsh (Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Seaside Sparrow), Floyd Bennett Field (Savannah Sparrow, Horned Lark, Great Cormorant, American Woodcock, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Brant), Plum Beach, Fort Tilden, and even Jamaica Bay.

Public Transit

Taking the subway I can add a few more:

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, May 30, 2010

  1. Boat-tailed Grackle
  2. Willow Flycatcher
  3. Yellow-crowned Night-heron
  4. Little Blue Heron
  5. Wilson’s Phalarope
  6. Semipalmated Plover
  7. Semipalmated Sandpiper
  8. Willet
  9. Ruddy Turnstone
  10. Dunlin
  11. Fish Crow
  12. Glossy Ibis
  13. Forster’s Tern
  14. Common Tern
  15. American Oystercatcher

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, August 8, 2010

  1. American White Pelican
  2. Black Tern
  3. Least Sandpiper
  4. Greater Yellowlegs
  5. Lesser Yellowlegs
  6. Short-billed Dowitcher
  7. Stilt Sandpiper

I’ve now passed last year’s Brooklyn total, though that was a short year (just four months). I haven’t yet caught up to last year’s Orange County total.

Obvious Misses

What should be on my list but isn’t (mostly birds seen in Prospect Park on days I was there):

  1. Brant
  2. Worm-eating Warbler
  3. American Wigeon
  4. American Woodcock
  5. Hooded Merganser
  6. Northern Sawwhet Owl
  7. Yellow-throated Vireo
  8. Bobolink
  9. White-faced Ibis
  10. Lesser Scaup
  11. Greater Scaup
  12. Common Gull
  13. Prothonotary Warbler
  14. Yellow-billed Cuckoo
  15. Bicknell’s Thrush
  16. Baird’s Sandpiper
  17. Hudsonian Godwit
  18. Sharp-shinned Hawk
  19. American Kestrel
  20. Peregrine Falcon