N.Y. County, including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, & Governors Island Monday to Thursday, March 22nd to 25th -
At Carl Schurz Park in Manhattan, the long-staying (overwintered) female Western Tanager, and an Orange-crowned Warbler continued as of 3/25, and both have been seen multiple times this week, with the tanager often showing at a feeder array near East End Ave. & south of E. 86th St., while that warbler is most-often near the s. / s.w. part of Gracie mansion’s perimeter at the northern end of the park; both of these birds may take some time and patience to see. On Randall’s Island, at least 1 Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warbler seems to have overwintered, or in any event was present in late winter, and again thru 3/25. 2 Wilson’s Snipe were photo’d (E. Mackevicius, w/ J. Olson) on the ballfields at Randall’s Island in late morning, Thursday 3/25, with some Killdeer also continuing there as well as the long-staying (overwintered) adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. American Woodcocks continued to be found in at least several locations to 3/25, including Bryant Park and Central Park. (n.b., the Snipe were part of a broader flight of that species in the region.) Osprey arrived (as a flyover) at least by Tuesday, 3/23 at N.Y. County; also moving earlier in the week have been some more Turkey Vultures, along with Bald Eagles. Also on the move have been some Great Blue Herons, and Belted Kingfisher. Golden-crowned Kinglets continued their recent slight increase, while some Ruby-crowned Kinglets continued, some of those having wintered locally (and others perhaps not too far away). With a fairly good push of birds overnight into the area a number of newer arrivals are fairly likely now. …. On 3/19, an American Tree Sparrow was at Governors Island (still closed to the general public for now), & it will be interesting to see if any spring-time birds of that species show in the county. Other species also seen in the past week in &/or from N.Y. County included: Mute Swan (off the s. end of Manhattan) Canada Goose [Atlantic] Brant Wood Duck (additional arrivals and passage) Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail (a few that had lingered) Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Bufflehead (some further passage this week) Common Goldeneye (as usual, off Randall’s Island far to east) Hooded Merganser (few) Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck Red-throated Loon (small no’s. out on rivers & harbor) Common Loon Great Cormorant (ongoing) Double-crested Cormorant Black Vulture Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Coot Ring-billed Gull [American] Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull ['feral'] Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove American Kestrel Merlin Peregrine Falcon multi-owls Belted Kingfisher (including newly arrived at Central Park) Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker Eastern Phoebe (multiple locations, now increasing) Blue Jay Common Raven (multiple locations) American Crow Fish Crow Tree Swallow (few & all fly-overs) Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch (scant) White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren Winter Wren Hermit Thrush American Robin (large increases) Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling House Sparrow Cedar Waxwing Eastern Towhee (fairly few that all overwintered) Slate-colored Junco Chipping Sparrow (still just locally-overwintered) Field Sparrow [Red] Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow (at least 2 which had wintered) Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird House Finch Pine Siskin (scant) American Goldfinch (modest movement just underway) - and likely at least a few additional species. … More & more plants are coming into bud & bloom, and will now continue to despite any cooler periods, and somewhat the same for arthropods of which by now hundreds of species have been active. Of butterflies, a recent emergence were a few Cabbage Whites, while E. Comma and Mourning Cloak also were continuing to be seen. A presumably rather rare occurence in the East River (east of Manhattan) were the 3 Common Dolphins (according to a senior scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and N.Y. Aquarium) seen (& video’d.) there on Tuesday 3/23, also featured in many newspaper and tv news sites, etc. - it’s thought a bit rarer to have seen Common Dolphins (rather than Bottlenose) in the estuary, although the ID may not be definitive. The sightings on Tuesday were mainly from the east side of the E. River, in the vicinity of Greenpoint, Brooklyn (Kings County, NYC), but that area is visible from lower Manhattan. good birding to all, and a healthy Passover for those observing, as well. Tom Fiore manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
