Saturday, 1st of May - At Central Park, there were birders out from pre-dawn through dusk (at least) and among all these observers spread from all corners of that park to all other pointswith good sightings from all around the site. One guided walk had to be given its due, that which honors the memory of Starr Saphir, who passed too soon (of cancer, eventually) yet inspired literally thousands of birders of all ages and proclivities, many of those birders active today, some of them mentored as observers with and by Starr, who was not just a leader of walks in Central Park, but an educator, who had birded from the Pacific (in Mexico & California, where she first learned her craft, as well as in SE Arizona) to the Indian ocean, where she led a birding tour in Kenya for some lucky folks, and in a whole lot of other places around the globe, such as Homer, Alaska where she got closer to being one of the then-small club of “700-species-observers” of North American birds (north of Mexico, that was).
During this Saturday’s May-day memorial walk for Starr’s memory, offered by the non-profit Linnaean Society of New York, some of the highlights included the singing male Yellow-throated Warbler at the western edge of The Lake, and a couple of those wonderful city-rarities, Evening Grosbeaks - still in the Ramble of Central Park, along with many dozens of other migrants; thanks to Lenore Swenson for her role as the leader for this annual walk. (Incidentally, the all-time attendance-record for any bird-walk, ever, in N.Y. County is forever held by Starr Saphir, which took place in Central Park. I know, I was on that particular walk, it was as if every birder who lives in N.Y. City had shown up on the day. And that was well before these times & the social-media buzz that’s now so ubiquitous.) All told, birders in Central Park alone were finding more than 20 species of warblers, & 90+ species of birds on the first of May. For the county as a whole, including those outlying islands (Governors, which re-opened to the general public on May-day, and Randall’s Island[s]) there were far more than 110 species found on the day, even with a lot of blustery wind to give a bit of a challenge. Nice sightings from the windy s. tip of Manhattan & Governors Island, to the wind-chilled eastern reaches of Randall’s Island, to Inwood & the Hudson and Harlem and East rivers. At the “least”, Least Flycatcher was a freshly-confirmed addition to 2021 species seen & heard in N.Y. County, with several or more in Central Park alone. Marsh Wren was among the 4 species of wrens again in Central, just as was seen on Friday 4/30, the others as expected being Winter, House, & Carolina Wrens. There were again 5 species of vireos in Manhattan, all of those also being found in Central Park - Red-eyed, White-eyed, Yellow-throated, Warbling, & still Blue-headed Vireos were all present. Thrushes seen & well-documented were Veery, Wood, Swainson’s, and above-all, in great numbers Hermit Thrush, of which Central Park alone had far more than 100, and many other parks also had large numbers - yep, Am. Robins too! For sparrows, at least 8 species were found in N.Y. County - Field, Chipping, Savannah, Song, Swamp, Lincoln’s (& the first few of migrants just showing this or in most-recent days, as well as the 2 known overwinters of Lincoln’s), White-throated (in the many hundreds and hundreds) & White-crowned (which are now not so tough to find), plus E. Towhees galore, & still as of Saturday a few Slate-colored Juncos, in a couple of less-birded sites. In all there were still *at least* seven Evening Grosbeaks lingering in Central Park, & a few more also again in part of Riverside Park (near W. 91st) but likely others could have been in some additional sites in Manhattan or other parts of the county; while feeding these birds are sometimes quiet, & surprisingly ‘hidden’ at times in the increasing leaf-out around town. There also are still Purple Finches & some Pine Siskins about & passing through and the American Goldfinches may be building a bit. Other (rarer for N.Y. County) finch species are also still a possibility, so brush up on those flight- & contact-calls. … There might be more & new migrants by or after Sunday, thus a more thorough list by next week. Among many species to **watch** for: Golden-winged Warbler. good May 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/ --
