Central Park, and all the rest of Manhattan (in N.Y. City) - Thursday, August 31st:
A strong migration with many hundreds-of-thousands of birds flying past Manhattan for Wednesday night into early Thursday morning, and some which did put down for essential rest and of course feeding, while vastly more of those migrants simply passed on thru, continuing south and south-by-southwest towards wintering-grounds. As is expected here, a great diversity of warblers were among the diversity of migrants, and some rarer (or less-commonly-seen) warblers were among these. At Central Park, while a bright Golden-winged Warbler was again present and seen by multiple observers very early on, near the same location as seen on Wed., later moving very-slightly within same part of Central Park, a skulking (as is typical) Connecticut Warbler was *overlooked* by almost all, which came in to an area a short way east of where the ongoing Golden-winged was re-found. It is possible that that Connecticut Warbler may linger on in the area. Others of that species were being found in this city and region, this day and even a bit earlier, on the early-ish side for the species. A few warblers that in most previous years would have been seen as on early-side, but *this* summer have mostly already occurred in southbound-migration here, showed on this very good migration-day - examples including Palm (of the yellow form) and Myrtle Warblers, each of these also having been seen previously. At the same time, there are still some birds which were summering in Manhattan, which continued on and were being noted recently (again) and are not *new" fall-season arrivals, for example of the *very few* Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers that stayed in parts of lower Manhattan, or the far-greater numbers of White-throated Sparrows in a number of Manhattan locations, or the Hermit Thrush (one or more) in Central Park seen over recent days, weeks - and all summer. Good migration and a diversity of drop-in visiting birds were found from the northern tip of Manhattan (Inwood Hill Park and other adjacent parks and green-spaces) all the way south across the island, and in particular in some mid and lower Manhattan green-spaces, very small parks included. At some small parks up to 8, and even ten species of warblers were found, and in the larger parks, far more overall. With so many birders in Central Park and some out seeking migrants from first-light (and some also at and into dusk and moonrise times there) it is not surprising that the diversity seen appears so high as reported out of that park... while there are also many other parks that have most or even all of same species passing-thru. Inwood Hill Park as one example, the challenge at that latter park being that some of the woods is highest in all of the county with what are even known to some as old-growth forest by urban standards of this region. In addition some of the early-birds at the northern end of Manhattan may have moved along by later on in the day, as did so many migrants more-generally on a good day of movement regionally. Species listed below designated with *CP* were seen within Central Park, on Thursday, the last day of August. Many of those species were also found elsewhere in Manhattan on the day. Canada Goose (*CP*) Mute Swan (viewed only from along East River) Wood Duck (*CP*) Northern Shoveler (*CP*) Gadwall (*CP*) Mallard (*CP*) American Black Duck Mallard x American Black Duck (hybrid types - (*CP*) Green-winged Teal (*CP*) Rock Pigeon (*CP*) Mourning Dove (*CP*) Yellow-billed Cuckoo (*CP*) Common Nighthawk (*CP*) Chimney Swift (*CP*) Ruby-throated Hummingbird (*CP* - multiple and including some fly-by individuals, also seen in other locations in Manhattan, as previously) Killdeer Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper (*CP*) Solitary Sandpiper (*CP*) Laughing Gull (*CP*) Ring-billed Gull (*CP*) [American] Herring Gull (*CP*) Great Black-backed Gull (*CP*) Common Tern (lower Manhattan, N.Y. Harbor area / Hudson River in particular) Double-crested Cormorant (*CP*) Great Blue Heron (*CP*) Great Egret (*CP*) Snowy Egret (*CP*) Green Heron (*CP*) Black-crowned Night-Heron (*CP*) Turkey Vulture Osprey (*CP* - and multiple other fly-bys, a great migration of this species today region-wide) Northern Harrier Cooper's Hawk (*CP*) Bald Eagle (*CP* and other locations, fly-bys, a nice modest movement of some of these today) Red-tailed Hawk (*CP*) Eastern Screech-Owl, Great Horned Owl (usual recent-resident owls of Manhattan) Belted Kingfisher (*CP*) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (*summered-over* individuals in at least 2 known sites in Manhattan) Red-bellied Woodpecker (*CP*) Downy Woodpecker (*CP*) Hairy Woodpecker (*CP*) Yellow-shafted Flicker (*CP*) American Kestrel (*CP*) Merlin (a few migrants of this species which has increased so greatly as a northeastern-U.S. breeder over recent decades) Peregrine Falcon (*CP*) Monk Parakeet Olive-sided Flycatcher (*CP*) Eastern Wood-Pewee (*CP*) Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (*CP*) Alder/Willow Flycatcher. or, as some call these, Traill's type Empidonax-genus flycatcher) (*CP*) Empidonax (genus) flycatcher species - many of this category also seen and not-heard (*CP*) Eastern Phoebe (*CP*) Great Crested Flycatcher (*CP*) Eastern Kingbird (*CP* - and also a few migrating south; many have already departed this month) Yellow-throated Vireo (*CP*) Philadelphia Vireo (*CP* and elsewhere; thus multiple but not many) Warbling Vireo (*CP*) Red-eyed Vireo (*CP*, increased again on Thursday) Blue Jay (*CP*) American Crow (*CP*) American/Fish Crow (some in this category in Manhattan, with some actual Fish Crows likely) Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee (*CP*) Tufted Titmouse (*CP*) Northern Rough-winged Swallow (*CP*) Tree Swallow (*CP*) Barn Swallow (*CP*) Red-breasted Nuthatch (*CP* - and might be ongoing or / also newly arrived) White-breasted Nuthatch (*CP*) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (*CP* and some migrating south in early morning flight) House Wren (*CP*) Carolina Wren (*CP*) European Starling (*CP*) Gray Catbird (*CP*) Brown Thrasher (*CP*) Northern Mockingbird (*CP*) Veery (*CP*) Gray-cheeked Thrush (*CP*; slightly early for most, typical summers, which this one has not been, many earlier-than-average arrivals of many species have been occurring) Swainson's Thrush (*CP*) Hermit Thrush (*CP* which includes a couple of over-summered individuals in the Ramble area of that park in particular; a few also may have summered elsewhere in mid/lower Manhattan) Catharus (genus) thrush sp.- some reports can be categorized within the generic, including for (*CP*) Wood Thrush (*CP*) American Robin (*CP*) Cedar Waxwing (*CP* and a modest general movement as well) House Sparrow (*CP*) House Finch (*CP*) American Goldfinch (*CP*) Chipping Sparrow (*CP*) White-throated Sparrow (*CP* and many in various mid and lower Manhattan greenspaces etc. all of these still being over-summered individuals, a *normal* occurrence in this county) Song Sparrow (*CP*) Swamp Sparrow (*CP*) Lincoln's/Swamp Sparrow (a few reports may fit in this category) Eastern Towhee (*CP*) Bobolink (*CP* - a small number of fly-thru individuals detected in morning flight, plus others) Baltimore Oriole (*CP*) Red-winged Blackbird (*CP*) Brown-headed Cowbird (*CP*, and a large increase overnight and into Thursday, in general) Common Grackle (*CP*) - Ovenbird (*CP*) Worm-eating Warbler (*CP*) Louisiana Waterthrush (possibly this species, if accurately ID'd, would be a 30th species of American Warbler on the Thursday) Northern Waterthrush (*CP*) Golden-winged Warbler ((*CP* - as seen by many over 2 days now in a few nearby parts all within the Ramble area of Central Park, was still being followed in the Park by some into very late-day on Thursday - seen by 40++ individual observers as the warbler moved about, beginning very early at the Azalea Pond again.) Blue-winged Warbler (*CP*) Brewster's Warbler hybrid type, (*CP*) Black-and-white Warbler (*CP*) Tennessee Warbler (*CP*) Nashville Warbler (*CP*) Connecticut Warbler (*CP* in the Ramble, east of the Gill and Azalea Pond / feeders areas) Mourning Warbler (*CP* and seen reliably in the north end of that park; also elsewhere out of that park.) Common Yellowthroat (*CP*) Hooded Warbler (*CP*) American Redstart (*CP* - BY FAR, the most numerous warbler species around the county and on the move today and likely, in the region - many-dozens in Central Park, far more for all of Manhattan; some seen in street trees, small greenspaces, etc. etc.) Cape May Warbler (*CP* and in a number of other parks and even some small greenspaces of Manhattan) Northern Parula (*CP*) Magnolia Warbler (*CP*) Bay-breasted Warbler (*CP* - and a modest increase just overnight) Blackburnian Warbler (*CP*) Yellow Warbler (*CP*) Chestnut-sided Warbler (*CP*) Blackpoll Warbler (*CP* - still scant) Black-throated Blue Warbler (*CP*) Palm Warbler (*CP* - yellow form) Pine Warbler (*CP*) [Myrtle] Yellow-rumped Warbler (*CP*, very scant) Prairie Warbler (*CP*) Black-throated Green Warbler (*CP*) Canada Warbler (*CP* - these have diminished in numbers now) Wilson's Warbler (*CP*) - Scarlet Tanager (*CP*) Northern Cardinal (*CP*) Rose-breasted Grosbeak (*CP*) Indigo Bunting (*CP*, modest increases, in general) and likely some additional species for all Manhattan. Thanks to the many keen, quiet observers from all around the borough (and from around the world, too) for sharing sightings, reports, and use of the GroupMe alerts and other sources of reporting, with eBird as usual an archive for many. Good September birds 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/ --
