A short walk southwest from the Manhattan ferry terminal (and northeast from the Brooklyn terminal) brings you to Nolan Park House 17, home to NYC Bird Alliance’s seasonal nature center (normally open from May through September). Borrow binoculars and participate in one of our free guided bird walks, or get oriented and strike out on your own. The center’s other programming includes conservation displays, a children’s room with books and activities, bird-inspired artwork, and open artist studios. Find more details and updates on house hours, bird walks, and special events. 

 

Nolan Park itself is a beautiful “campus” of open areas and trees. Its yellow homes once housed high ranking officers in the Army and Coast Guard. It now hosts many bird species year round. During migration, scan the trees and grounds for migrating warblers, kinglets, thrushes, orioles, tanagers and more. 

During migration, check the open areas around Fort Jay (built in 1794 upon fortifications from the American Revolutionary War) for grassland birds such as Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark, and American Pipit, as well as warblers and mixed flocks of sparrows. Scan the skies here for raptors, particularly during fall migration. Eastern Kingbird may nest in this area.

Colonels Row, made up of residences dating to the late 19th century, is flanked by several rows of mature trees that attracted migrating land birds such as woodpeckers, flycatchers, warblers, and orioles. This is also a popular spot for Fish Crows, which nest here in good numbers.

 

In recent years, this area has also hosted one or two pairs of an unexpected breeding species: Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. From May to August, check the London Plane trees east of the entrance to the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School for the birds’ flattish, circular nest of large sticks, usually at least 15 or 20 feet up. If you’re patient, you may get to see the adults arrive and feed their scruffy, brownish nestlings.

South of Colonels Row is an area of native plantings and meadows crossed by several paved trails (The area is named for several hammocks that are available here for lounging.) This habitat is attractive to warblers, sparrows, and other songbirds during migration. During the breeding season, check this area as well as the Hills for nesting species such as Tree Swallow, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Mockingbird, Gray Catbird, Yellow Warbler, and Song Sparrow.

 

The Hills are a manmade landscape complete with a hiking trail to the top (and a slide back to the bottom, if you choose). The scattered trees in fields around this area may attract many kinds of land birds during migration; check overhead for swallows and Chimney Swifts.

Legend has it that Buttermilk Channel, which separates Governors Island from Brooklyn, was named for the cattle that were led across it in colonial times, through waters rough enough to churn their milk into buttermilk (no one knows for sure!). Today, three piers jut into the channel, and in recent years have hosted nesting Common Terns and Herring Gulls. The piers, named after their letter-like shapes (from north to south, Y, T, L), are known as Yankee, Tango, and Lima. (The names are drawn from the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet.) Yankee pier, part of which has collapsed into the channel, is used by the Brooklyn Ferry. 

 

The Tango and Lima piers, which are not accessible due to safety concerns, continue to host nesting Common Terns, though the populations shift from year to year. The birds are most plentiful from May to early September, and may be seen from the waterside trail (“Craig Rd S.”). A spotting scope is helpful. NYC Bird Alliance’s has enhanced the Lima pier habitat with oyster shells; this enhancement was followed by an increase in the nesting tern population. (Read more about work with Common Terns. And don’t miss NYC Bird Alliance’s “It’s Your Tern” Festival, which takes place on Governors Island each June.) 

 

Northwest of Tango Pier, check a fenced in area where a large pool/puddle sometimes attracts waterfowl and shorebirds. Killdeer may nest in this area. Also check the rooftops of maintenance buildings inland from Tango and Lima; from May through the summer, you may spot nesting Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls and their brownish young.