Hiking around Central Park at dawn on the last day of summer vacation is not something I thought I would ever enjoy. However, I decided that it would be a unique opportunity to explore the wildlife of the park so early in the day, since not many people would be around. Although my group made every effort to make it to Central Park on time, we had some bad luck with the trains and ended up being 45 minutes late. Thankfully the BioBlitz director was able to get us set up with a group not long after we arrived, and we set off to explore the birds of Central Park.

Immediately we encountered some morning doves, robins, and cardinals. We learned that the morning doves are related to pigeons, which was apparent by the similar way that they walk and move their heads. The director also explained that the “robins” we saw were actually thrushes, but they are called robins because  they resemble the European robin. Even though we were given binoculars, it was a bit of a challenge to locate some birds that were pointed out to us because they were hidden among the leaves on the trees. Unfortunately for us, there didn’t seem to be many birds to observe after the first few that we saw, possibly because of the early hour and humid weather.

Although our group didn’t get to see as many birds as we thought we would, we still saw plenty of interesting things around the park. We passed by a few waterfalls and bridges, which I found to be very peaceful and beautiful, and we saw plenty of plants and flowers. We also went down a lot of paths that I’d never seen before and probably wouldn’t have explored on my own. Being surrounded by trees and plants almost made me forget that we were even in the city, because I would normally associate the city with skyscrapers, traffic, graffiti, etc. It was definitely a different perspective of New York City for me.

Having only been to Central Park twice before, BioBlitz was a great opportunity for me to explore and familiarize myself with such an important and famous part of New York City. It was a bit of a let down since our group only saw a few birds, and mostly just wandered around wondering where they all were hiding. The good part of it all was getting to see the city in a much different way than I ever had before, and it made me feel more connected to the city’s natural environment. I think its incredible that a great amount of wildlife and nature can exist in the middle of such a chaotic urban area. Overall this event made me appreciate Central Park more, and hopefully I’ll see a few more birds the next time I decide to visit.