Monday, 19 December, 2011 - As much for the report itself as well as a reminder that a lot of birds of this special interest may be found at this time, and for this species just have been in a neighboring state very near a NY state border, is the N.J. sighting of a Townsend's Solitaire (along the Appalachian trail in northern New Jersey...) See: https://lists.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1112&L=JerseyBi&T=0&F=&S=&P=17744 https://lists.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1112&L=NJBIRDS&T=0&F=&S=&P=1848 (same message, NJ RBA "special") & .. - - - - - - - - - - Manhattan, New York City The Rufous Hummingbird continues at the entry to the "Rose Center" planetarium and American Museum of Natural History off West 81 Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West - inside the small park (immediately south of West 81 St.) and particularly in the flower plantings next to entry area as noted. The flowers are not going to continue to offer the bird nectar all winter and in much colder weather it will also be far less likely to find enough inverterbrate prey as food (as all hummingbirds consume in addition to nectar), thus it should be looked for in coming days - yet these hummingbirds are far more hardy than some people realize and this species in particular does breed into southern Alaska (and has occurred north of it's known breeding areas) as well as in high-elevation areas. I've seen rufous (as well as a few other western-breeding hummingbird species) at elevations well over 10,000 feet, more than a few times in the west, in very cold morning (and overnight) temperatures. Still the one at AMNH would be "wise" to move south sooner rather than later... which it can be well presumed it is capable of and may well do at a time of its own choosing. (The AMNH Rufous Hummingbird is generally 'last' seen, during our early-sunset days, around 4:20 to 4:30 p.m.) It can appear as early as sunrise or even befoe
There were a number of interesting sightings around Manhattan on the day of the CBC (which takes in a part of adjacent New Jersey, as the full title of the count is "Lower Hudson", and thus it adds species not seen, and some rather unlikely, for the modern-day Manhattan birder to observe! In coming days perhaps a complete tally can be offered, but as of now, I suspect the species tally just for Manhattan has reached up to about 80 species of "countable" birds so far, with the chance of a few more if count period species can still be discovered, through Wed. 12/21. Interesting to see how many (many!) warblers, in numbers & modest variety were found on CBC's so far conducted in points north of NYC, including New England states and e. Canada, as well as individual reports still coming along. There are also a number of flycatchers (of more than one species) around, including the long-staying Cassin's Kingbird in Massachusetts and various other normally-neotropical- wintering birds in the north half of North America. Just to clarify slightly a note in Ben Cacace's report from today (for Sunday sightings, 12/18) there have been at least several sightings of Swamp Sparrow in Manhattan in this month, but not all may have been publicly reported and it is possible that none have been included in the CBC count week period so far. Among these are sightings in northern Manhattan, as well as in Central Park. Ben C. wrote " SWAMP SPARROW sighting is the only one on Manhattan for the month of Dec/ 2011 " - which it can be assumed is to be taken in context of just one particular reporting mechanism, but not literally "the only one on Manhattan..." etc., as it reads in the post to this (and another) list. (Swamp Sparrow is rather uncommon but not extremely rare in winter in NYC, see various other CBC's in the area.) Among the Manhattan locations of Swamp Sparrow was Swindler Cove off the east end of Dyckman Street, but not seen for the CBC day as of Sun. evening, when I and two others were there... Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
