The birding world, of which Central Park is a microcosm that I entered into in May 1932, is incomparable to today’s world. Of the several factors involved, the most obvious is that today there are more birders than birds. In 1932, there were very few birders but many more birds. You have waves of water today. We had waves too, but of birds, lots of birds.
In referring to my notebooks of the thirties, I found a good example of one such day. I lived at that time on the upper West Side, one block from the Central Park West and 100th street park entrance. On the morning of May 6, 1934, I walked through that entrance to witness a tremendous wave in progress to be immediately surrounded by all manners of passerines and others. My species list for that day, a child’s list, was 66 species, all sight identifications, none by ear. The rationale for the sight identifications is simply explained. I did not learn songs for several years, not that I lacked the natural ability to do so. But, on any good day, there was such a welter of songs that it was extremely difficult to filter out the songs of individual species so you could concentrate your attention enough to learn them.
There are many more examples from my records of the abundance of birds in those times: forty Canada Warblers on May 26, 1935; twenty- five Black-and-white Warblers and forty-five American Redstarts on August 11, 1936; thirty- five Blackpoll Warblers on September 9, 1936; eight Bay-breasted Warblers on September 25, 1936; May 11, 1938, 103 warblers of sixteen species; Sept 2, 1938 sixty American Redstarts; March 14, 1939 seventy-one Purple Finches; April 22, 1940 five hundred White-throated Sparrows; March 18, 1940 sixty Fox and fifty-five Song Sparrows; one hundred Song Sparrows on April 1, 1940.
We are all familiar with the usual reasons for the huge decline in bird numbers – population growth and urbanization resulting in destruction of habitat, both here and on the tropical wintering grounds, acid rain and pesticides. But there is one factor that affects Central Park birding that you may not be aware of. Eighty years ago, there were still open spaces nearby. I went to DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. One day during lunch hour, I found four Spotted Sandpiper nests with eggs in the open lots around the school. In nearby Van Cortland Park, there were breeding warblers and Eastern Bluebirds. The suburbs around the city were much less developed. Breeding bird counts in Greenbrook Sanctuary in the adjacent Palisades have documented the decline in woodland birds. These reservoirs of birds no longer contribute to the migrants in Central Park.
Eight decades are time enough for some major changes to occur that effect our Central Park birding today. It was much colder then. One day in February 1934 I attended high school in fourteen degree below zero weather, the coldest day in New York City history. Piles of snow would remain in the streets of Manhattan until the spring thaw, because they would freeze so hard the plows could not budge them. Of course, this had an effect on the common wintering birds we see today. American Robins did not winter then. I saw my first robin of 1935 on March 1st. I took a Xmas count in the Park in 1935 and had a total of fifteen species. Northern Cardinals and Northern Mockingbirds were rare; Mourning Doves and Tufted Titmouse were very rare; Red-bellied Woodpeckers, an accidental with one record.
Some birds have adjusted to life in the big city. It was four years before I saw my first American Crow in the Park and almost six years before the first Red-tailed Hawk. The Park also bore witness to population shifts in our common water birds over those eight decades. Some examples: Buffleheads unknown; Ruddy Ducks and Northern Shovelers very rare; Great and Snowy Egrets unknown; Double-crested Cormorants accidental; Great Black-backed and Ring-billed Gulls rare, but Laughing Gulls were common transients.
In conclusion, I repeat my opening remarks – the Central Park birding world of the Thirties is incomparable to today’s world. Editor’s Note: Irving Cantor, Fellow of the Linnaean Society, has been a member of the Society for 75 years. Next month Irv will celebrate his 83rd year of birding.