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To reach some of our country’s best spots to see birds can require hours of travel. But some birding meccas are much more easily reached. There’s even one where more than 230 species of birds have been sighted, and to which you travel in style – by taking a cab down Fifth Avenue. New York’s Central Park! The park’s best-attended birding season is spring migration, but birding can also be exceptional during fall migration. And quite a few birds nest here during summer, from Baltimore Orioles to Red-bellied Woodpeckers to Eastern Kingbirds, like this one.
BirdNote®
Birding Central Park
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Sounds of hiking, exertion] “Whew! Made it, at last!”
To reach some of our country’s best spots to see birds can require many hours of travel, plus a strenuous hike.
But some birding meccas are much more easily reached. There’s even one, where more than 230 species of birds have been seen, to which you travel in style – by taking a cab down Fifth Avenue. [Cab and city traffic] Ah! New York’s Central Park!
Central Park’s best-attended birding season is spring migration, from April and May into early June, but birding can also be exceptional during fall migration. Plus quite a few birds nest here during summer, from Baltimore Orioles [Baltimore Oriole song] to Eastern Kingbirds [Eastern Kingbird rapid trills] and Red-bellied Woodpeckers [Rolling call sequence].
The park is vast – 862 acres, or 1& 1/3 square miles – so you’ll want to head for the best birding spots. Birders favor a section known as The Ramble, where paths wind through 38 acres of trees and along the rocky outcroppings of a good-sized lake. You may also want to check out Cherry Hill and Strawberry Fields.
And when your day of birding Central Park is done, you can skip the strenuous hike and hail a cab! [Honking horns and city traffic]
Have you done this, gone bird watching in Central Park? Tell others about your experience, on BirdNote.org. I’m Mary McCann.
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Sounds of the birds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Song of Baltimore Oriole recorded by A.A. Allen; call of Eastern Kingbird 50238 recorded by G.A.Keller; call of Red-bellied Woodpecker by W.L. Hershberger.
Some city ambient from CP Marantz II T17.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2012 Tune In to Nature.org June 2012 Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# centralpark-01-2012-06-10
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Mary McCann
NarratorSights & Sounds
