Notable extra-limital birds on the east coast have included a European Golden-Plover seen by many thru 4/15 at Duxbury, Massachusetts, and a White Wagtail (of the “white-faced’ form) seen by many in Hampton County, Virginia, also thru 4/15. This could have implications for a chance of other European-Eurasian species being discovered, especially along the immediate Atlantic shores & their vicinity in any northeastern state (or Canadian province); weather had been somewhat favorable to these kinds of unexpected sightings.
... New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan & Governors & Randall’s Islands Tuesday, April 13 thru Thursday, April 15 - A female Western Tanager was continuing at Carl Schurz Park into Thursday, 4/15 - that bird, which some of us have watched molting into first-alternate for weeks now, and photographed the molt processes, is wandering a bit more in & around that park, but still may appear at times by a set of feeders, near the n.w. side of the catbird playgound, south of East 86th Street, just inside the park off East End Avenue. This bird has been present more than 4 months. .. 4/13: An Eastern Meadowlark was yet again seen at Central Park on Tuesday; an unusually long stay for the species on Manhattan. Also seen Tues. was a Vesper Sparrow (rare, but regular in N.Y. County, & can be overlooked as a passage migrant) also on the N. Meadow ballfield, as well as Savannah Sparrow (with thanks from all later observers to E. Paredes for the initial Vesper find). Many more Savannah Sparrows have been showing on Randall’s Island. Laughing Gull was seen at Central Park, as well as again along the East River. 2 Forster’s Terns showed up off Governors Island, seen from the S.I. ferry, and less-regular there (in season) than the Common Terns which are regular, but may be a bit later to arrive. A sky-watch from northern Manhattan in the afternoon provided looks at multiple passing raptors, including at least several Broad-winged Hawks (also being widely seen at local & regional hawk-watches, with the larger arrivals of the latter yet to come through). .. 4/14: A male Pileated Woodpecker was continuing at Inwood Hill Park, in northern Manhattan, again with multiple observers. In addition to the various lingering birds, a good many arrivals were found this Wednesday in N.Y. County. Among the most numerous (and increased just overnight) were Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Chipping Sparrow, while also increased if in lesser numbers were (among others) Brown Thrasher, Hermit Thrush, & Slate-colored Junco, with much more-modest arrival of other sparrow species, as well as Blue-headed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, & Black-and-white Warbler. Of warblers, at least 9 species were present in the county by Wednesday, especially notable among those the male Wilson’s Warbler first noted at Central Park by Paul Sweet (A.M.N.H.), with scores of other observers also able to see this individual very early arrival; also of note although not nearly so early were a few Yellow Warblers (& the latter species also having made it to as much as 90 miles north of N.Y. City on the day), along with N. Parula in different locations from the prior few seen (and initially, also very early as is the Wilson’s Warbler just found) in recent weeks in Central Park. At least 2 Common Yellowthroats also have shown in Central park, one of them observed by many. The other 5 warbler species seen are all listed below. .. 4/15: A Yellow-throated Vireo was another early-bird (although again, as with most of other recent early arrivals, some others of same species have been seen in the city or in the region already or nearly concurrently) in Central Park, with many observers. The expected arrival of Blue-headed Vireo also continued as did a number of other more typical mid-April migrant arrivals. There has been a flight of finches, esp. of Purple Finch, through the area, with some of those, as well as at least a few Pine Siskins showing in N.Y. County. With luck, we could see some more of these or even other ‘winter’ irruptive finches pass through on their to breeding areas. Some of the species seen in the 3 days of this report, 4/13-15, in N.Y. County - Canada Goose (modest no’s.) [Atlantic] Brant (still in numbers) Wood Duck (few; & one drake has been regular all winter & spring at Central Park) Gadwall (ongoing) American Black Duck (few) Mallard (common) Northern Shoveler (still in numbers at Central Park) Bufflehead (modest no’s. continued) Hooded Merganser (few remained) Red-breasted Merganser (fewer) Ruddy Duck (fewer) Red-throated Loon (in flight and around the islands) Common Loon (in flight and around the islands) Great Cormorant (relatively few, East River, harbor) Double-crested Cormorant (fairly common now) Great Blue Heron (some flyovers, including local flights) Great Egret (daily regulars, fly-overs & some feeding) Snowy Egret (now daily with close observing picking these up as fly-overs, east-west & west-east) Green Heron (as of 4/15) Black-crowned Night-Heron (few) Black Vulture (up to 4 at a time observed & photo’d.) Turkey Vulture (multiple) Osprey (multiple) Bald Eagle (multiple, esp. from northern Manhattan) Northern Harrier (scant flybys, w/ efforts) Sharp-shinned Hawk (few flybys, w/ efforts) Cooper's Hawk (few, but some also lingering so far) Broad-winged Hawk (several, 4/13, northern Manhattan sky-watching) Red-tailed Hawk American Coot (some lingering in Central Park) Killdeer (few) Laughing Gull (scant, but can be watched for from lower Manhattan, etc.) Ring-billed Gull (this & the next 2 species are regular now in the county) [American] Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Forster's Tern (2, off Governors Island, SI ferry in NY County waters, 4/13) ['feral'] Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove American Kestrel (regulars in many many locations) Merlin (scarce for the report period) Peregrine Falcon (regular breeders) multiple owl spp. (m.obs.) Belted Kingfisher (scant) Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (still numerous, & a good many had overwintered in Manhattan) Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker (scant) Yellow-shafted Flicker (many, big-big arrivals still to come) Eastern Phoebe (regular) Blue-headed Vireo (few, but increased since earlier few) Yellow-throated Vireo (early find, Central Park, T. Perlman, many observers, photos, audio-video) Blue Jay (regular and a few poss. on the move) Common Raven (multiple sightings from many locations; often one or 2 seen, rarely more) American Crow (regular) Fish Crow (now very regular in a number of locations, recently esp. so over Randall’s Island) Tree Swallow (multiple, esp. on Governors Island, also Randall’s Island, and some for other locations) Northern Rough-winged Swallow (increased a little) Barn Swallow (very few, but a slow increase) Black-capped Chickadee (greatly decreased) Tufted Titmouse (decreased) Red-breasted Nuthatch (one that is regular, wintered in Central Park’s Ramble) White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper (increased) Carolina Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet (still passing thru) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (strong new arrivals) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (v. modest increase) Hermit Thrush (increased) American Robin (many) Gray Catbird (scant, & these are likely still over-wintered individuals whereever they are in the county right now) Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher (increased; a few poss. on-territories) European Starling House Sparrow Cedar Waxwing (very few) Western Tanager (ongoing female at Carl Schurz Park, molting into 1st-alternate as some of us have watched for many weeks) Eastern Towhee (increased) Slate-colored Junco (increased) Chipping Sparrow (large arrivals) Field Sparrow (multiple locations) Vesper Sparrow (nice to see in spring for Central Park & the flashmobs, again a find by E. Paredes) Savannah Sparrow (multiple locations - seen in at least 1 dozen different parks & green-spaces) [Red] Fox Sparrow (scant to nearly-gone now) Song Sparrow (multiple) Lincoln's Sparrow (ongoing overwintered singleton at Central Park’s compost area) Swamp Sparrow (increased a bit) White-throated Sparrow (increased a bit) Northern Cardinal --- Orange-crowned Warbler (ongoing, overwintered at Carl Schurz Park) Northern Parula (2, Central Park & Trinity cemetery, upper Manhattan) Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warbler (muliple locations) Pine Warbler (many, multiple locations) Palm Warbler (near-common) Black-and-white Warbler (minimum of 4 in Central Park) Louisiana Waterthrush (few, in a few locations) Common Yellowthroat (one, Central Park) Wilson's Warbler (male, record or near-record early date for the county, extremely early for the region, Central Park - Paul Sweet/AMNH) --- Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark (ongoing - and highly-unusual for such a lengthy stay in Central Park’s n. end) Rusty Blackbird (several in breeding plumage) Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Purple Finch (small flight observed in mid-morning 4/15, also a few present previously in several locations; moving in numbers regionally) House Finch Pine Siskin (few, onward or brief stopovers on both Wed. & Thurs., 4/14-15) American Goldfinch (some recent increase, but hardly common yet) … & perhaps some other species as well. …. The interval of chillier weather is prolonging of some of the flowering around the county, & a slowing-down of some of the bud or leaf-out of some trees; some trees are dropping blossoms in recent rains and wind. Many insects in multiple orders and families have been seen in the past week in N.Y. County, of course more so on the sunnier days. Good birding to all, 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/ --
