New York Trip Report

American Robin: Please see the link below that will take you to my holiday and trip report section of my blog (see bottom of the page).

Here you can read my account from my visit to New York, an amazing city with lots to offer.

Yellow Warbler: You might not expect a busy city with busy parks surrounded by skyscrapers, traffic and hurly-burly of city life to be a productive birding destination. But like many cities there are some marvellous green spots that attract an eye-opening variety of birds that are drawn to these pockets of green during migration and to breed.

Cerulean Warbler: Late Spring may not be the best time of year to visit NYC as many birds in Central Park build their nests, lay eggs and raise their young at this time of year and migration halts.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird: So I concentrated my efforts on five main locations, Bryant Park, Central Park within Manhattan, Jamaica Bay  located on the southern side of Long Island. Sterling Forest and Doodletown upstate in Bear Mountain State Park.

Prairie Warbler: This allowed me to see a wider variety of birds and gave me the chance to experience birding outside of the city, visiting the southern coast and the forest hills upstate.

Black Skimmer: I was also extremely lucky to make some new friends, all experts in their fields, knowledgeable and welcoming.

Janet, Alan, Gail and Tom were great and their help and guidance were out of this world.

Worm-eating Warbler: Tom Stephenson is the co-writer of  'The Warbler Guide' one of the most extensively researched identification books on American warblers.

https://austinmorley.blogspot.com/p/new-york-june-2019.html

23/06/2019 RSPB Cors Ddyga, Anglesey

Savi's Warbler: Cors Ddyga is one of Wales' largest lowland wetlands and for more than 20 years, RSPB Cymru has been transforming these pasture fields into a wetland.

And have done a fantastic job too.

Savi’s warbler is, like the much commoner grasshopper warbler, a member of the genus Locustella. Literally meaning “little locust” a name given due to the birds buzzing like call it has.

Painted Lady: I didn't have to wait long before I could hear a low, insistent buzzing ringing out from the depths of the reedbed. Similar to gropper but a very different tone.

A first for me and great to see out in the open and showing well.

Also had a turtle dove, a nice surprise and the 2nd record for the reserve, or so I've been told and this rather worn looking long distant migrant butterfly, the painted lady.

09/06/2019 Pensychnant Conservation Centre, Conwy

Redstart: I recently received a lovely email from reader of my Blog, saying that one of my reports from Pensychnant inspired him to visit the place and he loved it. 

Well,  his email inspired me to visit the place again. Pensychnant is great, for a small donation you get to see pied flys, cuckoo and redstarts.

Having journeyed from Africa and Arabia to Wales each spring, redstarts seek out holes in broadleaved trees for nesting.

The pied flys were nesting in some boxes but were too busy foraging high up in the trees and often out of range for my lens.

However there were a pair of redstarts that were much more obliging.

This pair were actively attending a nest site and were busy bringing in food for their young.

 Barn Swallow: Another migrant from Africa, I got close to a couple of swallow who werenesting in the nearby out building.

So often overlooked, these marvellous birds are stunning, full of character and another amazing migrant.

08/06/2019 Flamborough, East Riding of Yorkshire

Black-headed Bunting: Migration hotspot Flamborough Head came up trumps this weekend as on Friday a very smart looking male black-headed bunting was found along Lighthouse Road.

Upon arriving on Saturday morning there were large crowds gathering alongside the road looking in to the hedge, I waited about 10 minutes before the bird made its first appearance before melting away again and disappearing.





The bird showed two or three more time, relatively well but i was only bale to mange some  poor distant  shots.

Still a new bird for this list, so I was very pleased indeed.

Ferruginous Duck: A little further down Lighthouse road near the golf course a Eastern sub-Alpine warbler was found, this was a little more illusive as it skulked under some brambles and within a young sycamore tree.

 The weather soon changed and the rain came along with some strong cold winds so Dawn and I decided to move on and try again for the fudge duck in South Yorkshire.

This time we got lucky as the bird was relocated to Jenny Browns Common where the bird has taken to following some male tufted ducks around a large pond.