Wednesday-5th, Tues.-4th., Mon.-3rd, & Sunday-2nd of October, 2016 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City -
There has been a lot of migration in these past 4 to 5 days, and while yet again much went past Manhattan, onward in the night, there have been a good many & various stop-ins, with species variety remaining good, & numbers of some migrants either still rather good, or for some, increasing, and for a few, increasing greatly, as compared with just the previous week here. A very strong flight of sparrows & kin have been arriving & moving through - there've been at least twelve members of this group reported, with one being a fairIy rare bird in CentraI, and that one not abIe to be re-found some hours after the initial sighting - a LARK Sparrow, mentioned for Tuesday, 10/4, at the north end of the park, as noted by one of our sharp-eyed young birders & then sought by just a few who got word of that sighting - which was specifically from an area that's been good over the years for a variety of sparrows, the "knoll", a small rise at the northeast corner just outside the North Meadow ballfields, in the park's north end - this site good for a Vesper Sparrow, found on Wed. afternoon, by B. Inskeep, and seen later there as well. All the other sparrows & kin are more-expected and all showed increased numbers as of Wednesday, 10/5 - Eastern Towhee (both sexes), Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White- throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, & Dark-eyed Junco, all seen in much greater numbers than they'd been thus far this season - with White-throated Sparrow leading the pack in numbers, well into the many hundreds, park-wide & as noted by many. Song Sparrow, often a bit overlooked here as a migrant, is still some time away from a typical period of stronger arrival numbers, but Eastern Towhee put in an excellent showing with dozens of fresh arrivals, park-wide (as often is so, most evident in the north woods, where less-disturbed by human activity), and White-crowned Sparrow numbers perhaps quadrupling overnight, park-wide on Wed. (a few areas had up to 5 or 6 in view at once). Dark-eyed Junco numbers were up into high double-digits with scattered groups of 8, 10, or more in specific areas. On Tuesday, at least 20 warbler species were present in the park, and as has been so for more than a week, the Palm was & continues to be the most numerous warbler species, park-wide, the majority noted being of the "eastern" or "yellow" form. There have been good movements of warblers & other passerines and assorted other "land" birds in early- morning ongoing flights, with many hundreds of Myrtle warblers passing, and a mix of many other species as well - on Wednesday morning, the passage of Yellow-shafted Flickers was impressive, with far more than 250 passing over the Great Hill in the first 20 minutes of the day, & many, many more than that moving in the first 2 or 3 hours of the day - this not even close to a maxima of this common morning-flight indicator species for this time of year. (in other words, impressive, but not jaw-dropping by any means!) Some of the many other species for which numbers increased as of Wednesday: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (over 100 found park-wide, with 20+ in the Pinetums east & west areas alone), Eastern Phoebe (just one example, 14 of this species seen simultaeneously at one point, in the morning, at the west section of the Pool, near W. 100-103rd Streets), Golden-crowned Kinglet (with more than 12 in the Pinetums east & west areas, & 20+ in the north end of the park), Hermit Thrush (more than 60, park-wide), & the sparrows (& kin) as noted above. Among the species seen, by more than 200 observers in total, and including the excellent bird-walk leaders who work with & for such non- profit organizations as the Linnaean Society of New York, the NY chapter of the Audubon Society (NYCAS), the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and other fine walk-leaders and participants who emphasize courtesy, care, & respect for the birds, birders & all the many other park-users: Common Loon (fly-overs, a few in this period) Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Turkey Vulture (fly-overs) Canada Goose Wood Duck Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Northern Shoveler Green-winged Teal (readily seen at the Meer, often in SE quadrant lately) Ruddy Duck (continuing dozen at the reservoir, often NE quadrant) Osprey (fly-overs) Bald Eagle (fly-over) Northern Harrier (fly-over) Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin Peregrine Falcon American Coot (1, Meer) Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Laughing Gull (still showing at reservoir at times, & a few fly-overs; intermittently) Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove (many) Yellow-billed Cuckoo (at least to Monday, 10/3, Ramble) Common Nighthawk (1, during day on Tuesday, 10/4 - rather late) Chimney Swift (varying from few up to over 50 on Monday, 10/3) Ruby-throated Hummingbird (still regular, & not that late just yet) Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (many in park now) Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker (many hundreds of fly-overs by Wed, 10/5) Eastern Wood-Pewee (still regular, & not that late just yet) Eastern Phoebe (many - as of Wed., a good increase in arrivals) White-eyed Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Yellow-throated Vireo (a bit late, by Wed., Shakespeare garden) Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay (many) American Crow Tree Swallow (fly-overs) Barn Swallow (fly-overs) Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch (at least 25 fly-overs at the north end, 10/5) White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren House Wren (common) Winter Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet (as noted above, in numbers now) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (multiple but not very common now) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (thanks to Jordan SpindeI for noting this on 10/3) Gray-cheeked Thrush (fewer) Swainson's Thrush (fewer now) Hermit Thrush (big new arrival, the first real "push" of these, as of Wed) Wood Thrush (fewer now) American Robin Gray Catbird (fresh arrivals of more as of Wed) Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing (many in flocks of varying sizes) Tennessee Warbler (multiple) Nashville Warbler (multiple) Northern Parula (still widespread into Wed) Yellow Warbler (few) Chestnut-sided Warbler (few) Magnolia Warbler (multiple but now uncommon) Cape May Warbler (minimum of 6 in park Wed, with minimum of 4 at Pinetum-west on Wed) Black-throated Blue Warbler (multiple) Myrtle [ex-Yellow-rumped] Warbler (good movements on Tues & Wed earIy mornings) Black-throated Green Warbler (multiple) Pine Warbler (multiple) Prairie Warbler (at least to Monday) Palm Warbler (by far most common warbler within the park now other than passages of Myrtle) Bay-breasted Warbler (few) Blackpoll Warbler (fair numbers continuing to pass into Wed) Black-and-white Warbler (multiple) American Redstart (multiple) Ovenbird (not scarce) Northern Waterthrush (scarce now) Common Yellowthroat (multiple) Wilson's Warbler (not that many by Wed) Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Vesper Sparrow (as noted above) Lark Sparrow (as noted above) Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Scarlet Tanager (still in some numbers) Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak (rather common) Indigo Bunting (multiple, but not common) Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Baltimore Oriole (uncommon now) House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow - - - - - - - - - - - - "The ultimate measure of humanity is not where we stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where we stand at times of challenge and controversy." - Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. good birding and thanks to all who seek to add to real knowledge, Tom Fiore Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
