Saturday, 19 September, 2009 - Riverside Park & Central Park,
Manhattan, N.Y. City
The highlight of visits to each park was a young-of-the-year
Connecticut Warbler at Riverside Park, near the "meadow" area north of
the 118 St. tennis courts, around 5:45 p.m., after my late visit to
the nearby "drip" area. A skulking bird in a part of the park that is
not so much visited even by Riverside "regulars", it was in excellent
view for only a few seconds, but at close range. Attempts to view it
well again were foiled by the undergrowth including masses of poison
ivy, including some large vines blocking narrow foot trails... an area
with birds to be sure, but less than ideal for viewing in a number of
ways, with steep slopes in the wooded area, mainly overgrown trails
used by the homeless & other non-birders, & brambly vegetation in
addition to the very healthy poison ivy. A look at the meadow itself
produced a few sparrows & wrens & some birds in the sun-lit trees,
while the "drip" had a fair variety of more-common warbler species & a
few other migrants. In surrounding woods and along the Drive there
were more migrants, about a dozen warbler species in all on an
afternoon visit.
At Central Park earlier, fairly good variety but not so many in
overall numbers - this perhaps in part due to a fairly prominent
flight continuing from the night before thru the early morning, with
some land-bird species still moving south well into mid-morning as
seen headed out and over the city to the south & west of Central's
same boundaries - among the most obvious of these were Northern
[Yellow-shafted] Flickers, which flew in the hundreds, but also
included icterids such as blackbirds, orioles and a few bobolinks, &
also a number of small passerines with warblers & others among. I was
unable to relocate either Y.-b. Chat seen a few days ago.
A hawk flight developed as well and I found viewing conditions
difficult with a very clear blue sky - some Broad-winged Hawks were
seen by simply laying on a lawn (at the park's north end) & putting
the binoculars up to the sky for a while, with a few other raptors
also seen that way: Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawks; these all seen in the
11-noon period. At least 19 species of warbler were found in the park
today including the Hooded & Mourning Warbler[s] that other birders
saw in the Ramble area; I saw at least 17 other warbler species in the
n. end, and only a few of the species seemed relatively numerous. A
couple of Lincoln's Sparrows were the highlights for that group with
more Chipping, Swamp, & White-throated arrived. Flycatcher diversity
may have diminished somewhat with fewer Empidonax and no E. Kingbird
(that I saw), while E. Phoebe increased.
There has been a fair amount of weather conducive to good migration
(meaning good for the migrants, not always good for urban birders)
over the past few weeks, probably allowing many migrants to head for
their wintering grounds with less stopping off hereabouts than is
sometimes seen. In other words just because birding may have seemed
"slow" in some local patches does not equate to actual migration
having slowed... perhaps quite the contrary!
Good birding,
Tom Fiore,
Manhattan
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