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New York City, two trips.
New York City, August/September 2007 PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jos   

 

New York City, metropolis extraordinaire, not perhaps the first place that springs to mind when planning a birding trip! However, amongst the towering blocks and a population that packs in at 25,000 persons per Short-billed Dowitchersquare kilometre, the city has two major saving graces, stunning locations that offer just fantastic birding - Central Park in the heart of Manhattan and Jamaica Bay out beyond JFK airport. It was to these that I decided to focus my short break, a week of excellent birding in the ultimate of urban jungles, the third most populous urban area in the world.

Timing of the trip was crucial to its success - lying on the East Coast flyway, the city falls on a major migration route and, in an otherwise virtual sea of concrete, the 330 hectares of Central Park and almost 4000 hectares of Jamaica Bay act as crucial stopovers for tens of thousands of birds.  Jamaica Bay, famed especially for its waders, is at its best from late August to early September, whilst Central Park sees the annual warbler migration commencing from late August and building up to a peak about a month later.

 

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 October 2015 )
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Cape May & New York, October 2015 PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jos   

  Grey Catbird

 

Travelling from the 16-23 October, this was a short trip to catch the best of the autumn migration on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, splitting time between the legendary Cape May and the superb Central Park of New York City. Timing was such to catch the end of the annual warbler migration, but also the first arrivals of sparrows and, hopefully, some good movements of raptors over Cape May.

 

 

 

 

Raccoon

 

Cape May is always a bit of a gamble with dates - birding success is closely linked to the prevailing weather conditions and southerly winds can see the site virtually devoid of birds for days on end, both in terms of passerines and raptors. Fortunately however, the weather was simply superb – not only unbroken sunshine from start to finish, but also a cold front pushing birds through whilst at Cape Cape, then unseasonal warmth in New York allowing me to bask in the glory of temperatures rising to 21 C.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 November 2015 )
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