Leaving at the Height of Migration
It feels a little funny to be leaving New York right at the height of Spring migration. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in Prospect Park with Paul Keim and the Brooklyn Bird Club. We barely got a hundred meters in before I had to leave. There were just that many birds in the first few dozen trees. The group had 19 warblers by the tine the day was over including Prothonotary, though I only got about 6-8 of those myself. In any case, I should get some nice West Coast species and hopefully some life birds while I’m in San Francisco, though their migration goes through a little earlier than ours. On the other hand, the breeding birds should all be singing.
When I get home I’ll have to remember to block out the first two weeks of May in my calendar for migration in future years. Maybe next year JavaOne will be a couple of weeks later or earlier.
