N.Y. County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, Randall’s Island and Governors Island to June 1st:
A male Summer Tanager was seen & photo’d. (A. Evans) at small Canal Park in lower Manhattan on June 1st (and that was not the first for that location. A female Summer had stopped in earlier this May.) Incidentally, the recently-documented [May 27] sighting of Summer Tanager at the Brooklyn Bridge Park (not all that far from lower Manhattan) was of a differently-plumaged individual. At Randall’s Island, nesting Cliff Swallows were still present (as well as often 3 additional swallow species seen: Tree, N. Rough-winged, and above-all in numbers, Barn), and Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was still present as well as Black-crowned Night-Herons. More than 125 species of birds occured on or over Randall’s Island in the month of May - and the actual total numbers were likely quite a lot greater for that month. Approximately the same no. of species were found for this May on Governors Island, where the small but active Common Tern colony continues out on the restricted, no-access piers (and plenty of foraging of course in the N.Y. Harbor, with this tern species also showing at times well up the Hudson River and occasionally East River (lower) this past month, off Manhattan that is. Late (for this county), a Blue-headed Vireo was seen in Central Park’s north end, on June 1st. A Black-throated Green Warbler, running quite-late for this county, was found in Tompkins Square Park in lower Manhattan on June 1st. Some of the other warblers also still showing from end of May into the first day of June included - N. Waterthrush, Canada Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler; and somewhat more-frequently, American Redstart, Blackpoll Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and Ovenbird. Of any of these, Yellow Warbler is one of the liklier breeders, but some straggling migrants of that species (some of which nest to arctic-habitat in Canada) may be found into June here. In addition, we will usually have some warblers that linger, some are potential breeders - Common Yellowthroat and (other, ‘local') Yellow Warbler, as well as American Redstart, while some are unlikely to attempt nesting in this county (such as N. Parula, Black-and-white Warbler, or Ovenbird as examples of species that have lingered and even summered-thru, in past years here). Plenty of Ovenbirds are being sighted in multiple Manhattan locations, even now in June. Other warblers also are persisting in some rather unexpected locations, as well as in the larger parks. Migration wound-down greatly as of May 28th, with far fewer species found, and overall numbers of individual migrants generally dropped off after that date here. To May 28th, up to 20 or more species of warblers were being found, and after that it was a struggle to come up with ten species of warbler on 1 day. However, an uptick to numbers of migrants is again likely with a favorable night of migration into June 2nd. So, there are nonetheless still migrants pushing thru, and more will be likely for a week or more yet, with some real stragglers possible even to the summer-solstice. In addition, in this county we regularly find some birds for which the vast majority of their species are migrants (and will have moved on to breeding areas) yet, although not breeding in the county, will linger on, some for all of the summer - a good example of such are White-throated Sparrows, which are perhaps the most-numerous wintering songbird in Manhattan, and of which more than just a few linger on thru all of spring and some all the way on thru the summer months. Those may be seen in some of the larger parks (such as Central, Riverside, Inwood Hill, etc.) and also in some small greenspaces or garden spaces, scattered around the county, particularly on Manhattan island. There are a long list of various birds that may attempt to nest here (and which species have at times in past summers), examples including such as Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, even Ruby-throated Hummingbird; as well as species some might not expect could breed in any part of Manhattan or this county: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, or Scarlet Tanager, and some other forest-loving species (these also have been found in June and sometimes on into summer here), as examples. There are many other species as well - and still a good chance of further ‘discoveries’. In Central Park (not the best breeding-site in the county for all species) there are at least 3-dozen nesting species as of now, perhaps slightly more. All nesters deserve some consideration and space. Thanks to the many ongoing keen and quiet observers 'in the field’ locally, for sightings and for many reports. 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/ --
