N.Y. County, including Manhattan, Randall’s & Governors Islands Tuesday May 4th - & Wednesday May 5th ~viva Cinco de Mayo~
A female-plumaged Blue Grosbeak once again appeared in Central Park, not so far north of where some previous sightings had been, just east of Turtle Pond on Wed. 5/5. Thanks to J. Wooten for the initial spotting. Also ongoing & not entirely clear how many, but a *minimum* of 4 individuals found (2 locations) of Evening Grosbeaks still around Wed., 5/5 at Central Park. Interesting ongoing migration; the rains overnight (both Monday & Tuesday nights) as well as some in daylight hours did not keep all birds in-place, so there has been some ‘local’ departure, while also permitting much arrival, and quite a bit of minor to locally-moderate ‘fall-out’ - even in what is usually a busy time each spring. Some of what we consider 'early' migrants, such as Pine Warbler & Louisiana Waterthrush, as well as Palm Warbler (although the latter often still passing into mid-May or later in some years here) were still lingering, and in the (modest) multiple, with singing males still present. Other examples of these sorts of 'early-birds' that are lingering a bit, Winter Wren & (more regularly for Manhattan in particular) Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, of which some presently in same small parks or green spaces for many, many months (overwintered individuals). Presumably all or most will be moving on, as May continues. This also likely to apply to lingering duckage, such as the 3 Ruddy Ducks at the C.P. reservoir present to at least Wed., as well. Some good migration seen on / from Governors Island (southernmost point of the county) on a number of days, going back to last weekend (May 1-2) as well as the past several days, with at least 18 warbler species recorded, and many other migrants, as well as some breeders or potential breeders. Common Raven has been appearing on the island, although unclear if there is a pair around? (and there are also Fish Crow, & sometimes American Crow also there). On Mon., May 3rd, it was fairly good there for sparrows on stopover, but then, so were a lot of other areas good (for sparrow diversity) in N.Y. County. Good migrant diversity has also been seen on Randall’s Island over recent days, along with many other locations, well-known & not, in N.Y. County. However for Wed. 5/5, some highlights (for the county) there included 2 female Blue-winged Teal, still (? - and yet not recorded there by several of us, who were there since this species and almost certainly the same 2 teals, appeared at exact-same location a week prior...) at the pond, which is viewable with modest effort on the southeast sector of the island (look thru black fabric, unless permitted inside to view), as well as Least, Solitary, & Spotted Sandpiper[s] (same site), also at least 6 Bobolink (by Fort Jay, the higher no’s. seen later in the day), and numerous other migrants - thanks to G. Willow for this update, which also included Common Tern of which several were additionally noted from The Battery (which overlooks Governors Island, and upper N.Y. Harbor). At Inwood Hill Park's mudflats on May 4, a Greater Yellowlegs was again found. An Orange-crowned Warbler was found in Fort Tryon Park on 5/5 (M. Waldron et al) and also present in that park (as well as others) was Tennessee Warbler. One of the most-numerous ‘boreal-nesting’ warblers of recent days was & is Cape May Warbler, with many dozens (!) present in the county into 5/5; the latter among the spruce-budworm outbreak beneficiaries over a recent spate of nesting seasons in their range. Also quite common-widespread around the county have been N. Parula, Yellow, & Black-and-white Warblers, & Ovenbird, in particular. Many other species have been found in good numbers as well. More Bobolinks were on the move by Wed. in the area, including several at Central and Riverside Parks into the post-rain afternoon (although as far as known, none offering the views as those males at Fort Jay field area of Governors Island). Also, there was some interesting movement of various passerines, with warblers in particular, simply working north thru & just over tree-tops, as clouds rolled back in later in the day on Wed. - almost all movement was in a northerly direction - this well before sunset-hour. At least 14 warbler species were found in the northern parts of Riverside Park, as well as (additionally) in the area around & to the north of Grant’s Tomb & W. 122 St. Also moving in good numbers, particularly mid-day (without so much fog as in early a.m.) were Chimney Swift, perhaps their best local flights so far this spring. A couple of notes on species I at least don't commonly make a note on, the northbound movement of Red-bellied Woodpecker has been interesting, esp. in just the last few days - some others, both in N.Y. County & elsewhere in the city & region have also noticed this; numbers could be called 'modest' but for that species, are indeed notable on the move. (A good many moved south, to - - - - ?, last fall.) And we are also seeing Blue Jay movements recently, often easy to overlook in spring with so many other birds on the move. Of course, many are noticing those Red-breasted Nuthatches returning north in numbers, after their big fall movements. Pine Siskins & Purple Finches (more of the latter) were again moving and being seen & heard to Wed., 5/5 in N.Y. County, along with the obviously-rarer-here Eve-beaks. A very few Eastern Wood-Pewees have turned up, both seen & heard being the combo one wants at this early stage (some Euro. Starlings do a fair rendition, & even the Mockers can give it a try, so a heard-only “pewee” when still before mid-May ought to have a visual as well whenever possible.). The E. Phoebes have almost all moved on from N.Y. County, with a few exceptions, & the other flycatchers in their place so far are E. Kingbirds (some seen migrating in daylight, as is their way), Great Crested Flycatchers, and (for Empidonax-genus) Least Flycatcher the only definitive “Empid.” so far, heard as well as seen. Some of the other Empidonax are beginning to trickle in to the region, including just to the south/s-w. of N.Y. County & within N.Y. City. Yellow-billed Cuckoo has also been found again, but a lot more of them are expected at some point this spring. (So are a lot more of many neotropical-wintering migrants. I was - surprised - when someone the other day said to me, “IS IT OVER?”… wow. The month of May is migration-month. More to come!) The group of 8 Bonaparte’s Gulls that stayed much of Tuesday 5/4 on the Central Park reservoir were not re-found on Wednesday. (A good many Bonaparte’s Gulls were seen in New England states on Wed., however…) And there seemed to be no new sighting of a Yellow-breasted Chat for Wed., 5/5 (at Central Park, nor elsewhere in the county.) ... At Central Park on Tuesday, 5/4, I photo’d. a Monarch butterfly, not the first for that park this spring, but one of just a small number so far & still on the early side. Small numbers of migratory Monarchs were being reported also in the surrounding states particularly to the south of NY. good ongoing May migration 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/ --
