Mokka mit Schlag » 2007 » April

Hartshorne Woods, Monmouth County, New Jersey, 2007-04-29

Tamias Striatus, Prospect Park, April, 2007

Title says it all. I have a user group meeting at Google’s Chelsea office, and I’m debating whether it’s worth lugging my laptop into town or not. If there’s no Wifi, I might as well just bring pencil and paper.

Migration has kicked into full gear. Over 70 species a day are being seen in local parks. This morning I got to Prospect Park a little before 6:30, and started at the North end. Some days the Vale of Cashmere is empty, but some days it’s packed with birds. Today it was packed. Ruby-crowned Kinglets were practically dripping out of the trees. I was hoping for the Summer Tanager and Orchard Oriole found yesterday, but no such luck. I did see four warblers and several year birds though. This Northern Waterthrush was the first:

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Yesterday I joined the Brooklyn Bird Club for our annual trip to Western New Jersey, specifically Hyper Humus, a relatively recently discovered hot spot. It started out as a nice winter morning when we arrived at the site at 7:30 A.M., progressed to Spring around 10:00 A.M., and reached early summer by 10:15.

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Seems you can now go bird watching via the Internet. I haven’t been able to test it out yet (20 user limit apparently) but this is certainly cool. Personally, I can’t imagine it replacing actually being out in the field by any small amount. On the other hand, I’ve always found it quite sad to meet senior birders who are no longer able to hold binoculars steady or get to the park. I can imagine this might be of some interest to them. At least one elderly birder did a big year on TV, after he could no longer get out so much. This certainly tops that.
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