Manhattan, N.Y. City - Christmas day, 25 December, 2018 -
With early sun showing, & temp’s. above-freezing at sun-up, the first bird seen at Morningside Park was a lingering Eastern Phoebe, at the rear of the small pond, near W. 112-113th St. in the eastern part of this park; next up, very shortly after, and also lingering, an Orange-crowned Warbler, in the vicinity of a large, flat rock outcrop just barely north of W. 120th St. & not far west of Morningside Ave., also in the eastern part of this park - the warbler first found in a weedy patch, then as it often may be, up a tree that has a sap-flow, presumed a result of Y.-b. Sapsucker workings, one of the latter also being regular in the same area. N.B., the E. Phoebe can & does wander a bit, but a bit of patience at the one-&-only pond in the aforementioned area is likely to produce a sighting - with patience &, some sun is likely also of help. The O.-crowned W. may be prone to some wandering, but also has been quite partial to the (other) area noted above and patience may be rewarded, again some sun may be helpful for it, too.
Not that long after good views of these birds (& some closeup photos), my next stop of length was in Union Square Park, where a Cape May Warbler (1st-fall, & likely female, plumage) also is lingering. That warbler was again seen in the area of U. Square that is along the park’s w. edges, and both in a few trees nearest to the latitude of E. 16th St., as well as as far south as some shrubs just n. of the dog-run enclosure, & about even with E. 15th St. - this warbler can at times go into the shrubs & not be obvious, as well as spending time at what, again, appears to be a possible sapsucker well… or, at least, a sappy spot on one of the elms, specifically, one that is immediately east of a starbucks over on the street, & (the elm tree) having a prominently broken, felled limb on the ground, within the park edge. The other 2 warbler species also lingering at Union Square Park were actually a bit tougher to spot on Xmas day, as parts of the s. end of the park were locked-gated-closed off to any access. The shops were perhaps just closed for the day or even only for a part of, and all of the park may be open as usual in future. I did have bin’s. views of Ovenbird, & Common Yellowthroat (male); only the Cape May Warbler here gave a lot of photo-ops.
Checking around at a number of other lower-Manhattan parks was not all that productive, and I then returned to Central Park, where many of the birds being seen (there) on a regular basis by hundreds of observers this late fall were again present; I did however come up with an immature White-crowned Sparrow (photographed), thanks to a tip from Mike Freeman of Manhattan, this bird was on the bridle path just barely north of a main entry area from the E. 90th Street entrance (i.e., just west of Fifth Ave. & along the edges of the cindered bridle path. This bird was found by Mike F. just a day after the manhattan part of the Lower Hudson CBC count-period had expired.
Other species in Central Park on Christmas day included: Pied-billed Grebe (lingering, reservoir), Great Blue Heron, Canada Goose, Wood Duck (multiple, including 1 drake next to the leg-banded/exotic drake Mandarin duck, which I helped a few folks see at around 8:15 a.m., before moving on to native species), Gadwall, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Coot, Ring-billed Gull, [American] Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, ['feral'] Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Great Horned Owl, Barred Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl (all lingering & all seen by hundreds of observers in recent weeks), Red-bellied Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Yellow-shafted Flicker, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper (in 2 locations), Carolina Wren, Winter Wren (1), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1), Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird (4, in 3 locations), Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher (1, where it’s been since mid-autumn), European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Eastern Towhee, [Red] Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow (1 immature as noted above, photo’d. - and perhaps present for some weeks or more but not seen at this location until recently), Slate-colored Junco, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird (1 noted in same area as recent weeks), Common Grackle, Purple Finch (multiple, not many), House Finch, American Goldfinch, & House Sparrow.
- - - -
“He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
good end-of-2018 birding to all,
Tom Fiore
manhattan
--
NYSbirds-L List Info:
Archives:
Please submit your observations to eBird!
--
