New York County -in N.Y. City- including Manhattan, Randalls Island, Governors Island and the skies and waters adjacent - thru Sunday, October 22nd -
One of various highlights for the county were the at-least 11 species of waterfowl noted by multiple observers for Sunday morning, 10/22 at the Hudson River off and near Dyckman Street's western-terminus pier in northern Manhattan - the species included Surf Scoter and up to two-dozen Black Scoter, as well as many hundreds of Atlantic Brant flyovers, Wood Ducks, over 40 N. Pintails, 1-dozen Green-winged Teal, and at least 2 Common Mergansers as well as more-regular waterfowl of the county. Also seen were both Red-throated and Common Loons. Further sightings included at least 9 American Pipits and 9 E. Meadowlarks, as well as Rusty Blackbird, and a wide variety of raptors and all 3 typical falcon species, plus Black Vulture and fair numbers of Turkey Vulture on the move. The Bald Eagle show was impressive for some of those gathered at the pier or nearby. Multiple observers came for some of the flight, with some fine reporting and photos in eBird from D. Aronov, A. Cunningham, E. Peterson, and T. Healy as well as a number of others; the scoters in particular notable for all for this county, even if slightly-expected on the strong winds and weather for the date-period. Common Raven and at least a couple of Chimney Swifts were among the variety of other birds on the sky and river watch, which for some who stayed on, lasted well into afternoon, starting from first-light on Sunday. At Randalls Island in N.Y. County on Friday, 10/20, a Lesser Black-backed Gull was seen - M.B. Kooper. Laughing Gulls also were still being seen there, in reduced numbers as expected by now, and other gulls of the usual species, esp. Ring-billed Gull were numerous at times in and before the big rains. Going back to 10/19 at Randalls Island a Dickcissel was seen by a number of observers, and there have been some sightings of Great as well as Double-crested Cormorants from there. A Clay-colored Sparrow was also seen at Randalls last week by multiple observers, and E. Meadowlarks were in the multiple there. Nelsons Sparrow was still being seen at Randalls, on some days in the multiple at least over the past week. The warbler diversiity on Randalls was fairly good for all of the past week. A Short-eared Owl was seen and well-photographed at Governors Island early in the day on Sunday, 10/22, likely one of the better places to chance into that species in the county - that sighting in a Brooklyn Bird Club field trip to the island. As is typical at that site, the island becomes -usually- very busy in general with arriving tourists and other visitors, as almost any day not featuring terrible weather features, and more so on many weekend days. Other sightings on Sunday at Governors Island included American Pipits. At Central Park, the Vesper Sparrow on Sat. 10/21, at the parks north end was well-reported, thanks to M. Rakowski, with A. Drogin, and thereafter seen and photod by others as well. An Orange-crowned Warbler seen again at the north end of Central Park was well-documented on Sunday, 10/22, not the same individual that many many others have been watching at the Shakespeare Garden in recent days. The light flight of E. Bluebirds on Sunday, 10/22 was not much noted, other than from the far-east side of Manhattan, although at least several made appearances in Central Park on the day. Pine Siskins and Purple Finches also made appearances in flight and on stopovers at Central Park and elsewhere again on Sunday, but also were not that much noted. A minimum of 16 warbler species were still present in Central Park to Sunday, 10/22, including the multiple-location Orange-crowneds. A number of sites in northern and particularly lower Manhattan also have had fairly good warbler diversity. White-crowned Sparrow was among the various sparrow species again seen in Central Park into Sunday. Baltimore Orioles have been showing there, as well as multiple other sites around the county. As it has for many, many months, a Eurasian Eagle-Owl that is an escaped bird from the Central Park zoo, is continuing on in that park, feeding on rats to be sure and likely a variety of other small animals. Yellow-breasted Chat observers by now come to over 500 observers for the times it has been seen in Central Park lately; that being among several sightings of the southbound-season this year, from a few different parts of that park over months. Many other migrants and arrivals of some potential ongoing wintering species have been found all around the county, the above just a sampler. Thanks to the many leaders of not-for-profit guided walks and other keen observers for a lot of good finds lately, and for the many alerts sent via the groupme system and of course thru eBird reports, alerts, and for photos, archives of the Macaulay Library. 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/ --
