Extra-limitally, a Say’s Phoebe was continuing at the 'Sikorksy Airport’, Fairfield Connecticut, as reported via the CT-Birds list-serve and via eBird, through Sat., 3/26.
.. .. .. Locally in N.Y. City, on Sat./ 26th, there were ongoing nice ‘spectacles' of N. Gannets by the many hundreds at selected sites off the Atlantic-facing shores of at least 2 counties in the city; Razorbills were also ongoing (& in nice double-digit no’s.) from Breezy Point in Queens County, N.Y. City, and that location also provided many American Oystercatchers - as well as a very good count of staging Long-tailed Ducks. A lot of waterfowl and related groups of birds were on the move all around the region. - - - New York County (in N.Y. City), including Manhattan, Randall’s Island and Governors Island Friday, 3/25 & Saturday, 3/26: with much more diurnal movement noted on Saturday. At least 100 species of birds were seen in the county reported-on here in the 2 days of this report’s period - by a great many combined efforts over those days, especially so on 3/26. An American Oystercatcher was seen & photo’d.* from Randall’s Island on Saturday early morning, a real rarity in or over N.Y. County, even while a standard migrant/arrival and at an expected time of year in the local area; also moving on the rather good morning of migration were some Killdeer, Pectoral Sandpiper (one, from Governors Island, on 3/26, very uncommon for or in N.Y. County), and multiple Wilson’s Snipe, as well as American Woodcock. *The 3 observers of the Am. Oystercatcher early on Saturday each made photos of that bird, and all are nice, clear views; I’ve taken the liberty of giving a link to just one of those photos, from the Macaulay Library archive: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/428816771 <https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/428816771> (obviously, congrat’s to each observer: D. Aronov, A. Cunningham, and T. Healy, for their fine efforts & work on a lot of birds in N.Y. County). Unfortunately the Pectoral Sandpiper from Governors Island (which flew off early, headed roughly northeast) was not photo’d.; that site is a good place to seek out a variety of species including waders or as most Americans tend to call them, ’shorebirds’, although more attention has been devoted in that regard, at that site, for the south-bound seasons of mid summer into fall. The Western Tanager was ongoing at Carl Schurz Park on Manhattan’s east side, most regular at & near the feeder array just east of East End Ave. inside the park, and south of a main entrance at E. 86th, up some stone steps to the south where the feeders are located; this bird can take patience at times, and may also appear to the north of the noted feeders, in shrubs, trees, & of course in flight at times. Another way of stating the same feeder-location is to seek the n.-w. gate of the Catbird Playground in the same park, and look to the (immediate) west. N.B., it may be that the tanager is best sought in morning to mid-day, however it’s also been seen at times rather later, in some days. A few Snowy Egrets (and more of Great Egrets, as well as migrating Great Blue Herons) were noted from over Randall’s Island and Manhattan, with G.B. Herons (esp. in flight) from a number of locations. Ospreys were moving as well, along with some other diurnally-moving raptor-like species - the vultures; a good day for Turkey Vulture migration in particular, and some Black Vultures also moving. Modest no’s. of Loons - more Red-throated and at least a few Common, have been seen again, on the salt-waters around N.Y. County. Waterfowl still around included at least 2 Common Goldeneye picked out off of Randall’s Island, in their ‘usual’ area. A drake Ring-necked Duck was lingering at the Meer in Central Park’s n. end; also continuing in various locations in the county were Wood Duck, Gadwall, N. Shoveler, Greater Scaup, Bufflehead, Ruddy Duck and Hooded & Red-breasted Mergansers. And lingering in small numbers, American Coot. Great Cormorants are still present, with Double-crested increasing (on passage days), through Sat. 3/26. While Black-crowned Night-Heron is being found in a few locations, the sightings of Yellow-crowned seem to have halted for now; the latter species has had clear arrivals in the region, such as on Long Island, NY but still in modest no’s. overall. (Many more herons, ibis, etc. have started to show up in southern N.J. and may start to be noted closer to N.Y. City, if not already by now.) Some movement was still occuring (even with a few showers of varying intensities in and around N.Y. City) thru the end of the day on Saturday. Some areas may have had the thunder and lightning as was witnessed for example from the ‘outer’ islands off Manhattan (& part of the same county). A Horned Lark was seen & photo’d. on Governors Island, on Friday 3/25. Some further sightings from Saturday at Governors Island included a report of a lingering Lesser Scaup, and of a Lincoln’s Sparrow (both Fri. & Sat., & one of at least 2 reported to be lingering on in the county recently), as well as Fish Crows and Common Raven, the latter also seen in multiple other locations in the county. Some of the other sparrows also seen recently have included Field & Chipping (probably still those lingering on, rather than freshly-arrived), Swamp (few), [Red] Fox, Song, Savannah (very few), and White-throated Sparrows as well as good no’s. of Slate-colored Junco. Swallows on the move, esp. by Saturday, included small no’s. of Barn (seen from several locations) and Tree, the latter ongoing in at least one or two locations, but with additional birds headed up the Hudson, East, & Harlem rivers as well as through a few of the larger parks such as Central Park and Inwood Hill Park. There were fairly good no’s. of American Robins again on the move, with a smaller no. of Cedar Waxwings and also, a very few of Purple Finch; Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles, with much smaller no’s. of B.-h. Cowbirds also were moving in the morning. Rusty Blackbirds were in a couple of locations including at both Central (north) and Riverside (north) Parks. Another slight uptick of E. Phoebes, and rather general to the season so far, far more song (or calls) from many birds than had been in preceding weeks (even when song was heard). Pine & [Myrtle] Yellow-rumped Warblers are ongoing in at least several locations in the county, and at least one Orange-crowned Warbler was again seen (late in the day) at Randall’s Island, on the edge of the freshwater wetland, and with a small flock of other (more-typical) wintered-over birds. The coming freezes (esp. in overnight periods) will hopefully not be too detrimental to any of the arrivals (or some lingered) and esp. so for the insect-specialist feeders. As it’s been placed in eBird by now, a mention that a Snowy Owl was ongoing at a location on the Hudson river off mid-Manhattan, photographed on Saturday night, as it ate some juicy rats. . . . We must hope that the coming freeze over up to 3 nights won’t be a big problem for too many plants, insects, and by association any birds under added stress. More-temperate weather is hoped for just at the very tail-end of the month. Good spring birding to all, with thanks to all of the many ethically-minded observers finding a lot of great birds and offering reports, 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/ --
