Many birders all around the country have taken note (& some have seen) the remarkable influx northwards of Brown Booby - in this year so far, this species has shown up in waters of, or offshore from - North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Maine, and the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, among others. Brown Booby has also been recorded this year at inland sites in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, & Alabama, & perhaps elsewhere inland. Worth keeping an eye out just about anywhere for this and other unexpected birds.
At least 2 Marbled Godwits have been found at Plumb Beach, in Brooklyn (Kings County), N.Y. City as of Friday, 8/9; these were photographed & were placed in eBird. A Swallow-tailed Kite was seen at the Braddock Bay ‘fall’ hawk-watch, Monroe County, NY by David Tetlow, on 6th August; some others of this species have been seen & photographed well north of their typical or expected range in the past 10+ days. Always worth having “an eye to the sky” for any such finds... - - - - More migrants have been coming through at Manhattan & N.Y. County; a further & more detailed summary will be offered in coming days. --- Manhattan (& New York County), N.Y. City - Friday, 9th of August, 2019 - A highlight of the season so far for New York County was the discovery of a White-rumped Sandpiper, found Friday, Aug. 9th by Nadir Sourgi, photographed & also seen by others on the day, at “Muscota marsh" & the Spuyten Duyvil creek area, off West 218th Street, the northern end of Manhattan island, west of Broadway. This area has been producing nice numbers of some of the more typical & expected migrant waders (as called by most birders around the globe; known to Americans as ‘shorebirds’) - and the find of a White-rumped for Manhattan is particularly notable. Also a very nice find on Thursday, Aug. 8th, at the Swindler Cove / Sherman Creek site, which has mudflats at appropriate times as well, of a Semiplamated Plover, photograped by Tom Gray at that location, & also a generally very uncommon find for Manhattan island or its immediately adjacent estuary-sites. These areas are also in northern Manahttan, east of the eastern end of Dyckman Street. In warblers, & at Central Park in Manhattan, a female-plumaged Hooded Warbler was reported by Tod Winston on Friday Aug. 9th, & also seen by others at the park’s west side; this among a modest fresh arrival with many more of various warblers & other ‘land’ birds coming along, some now - and many more soon enroute, southbound. (Note, among the many species that can be & are moving diurnally, esp. if watched & listened-for in morning flight, are various flycatchers, esp. & increasingly Eastern Kingbirds, as well as members of the Icteridae, blackbirds & related species, such as Bobolinks, & Orioles. And there are many other species that can be found moving in part during daylight hours, the more so as August continues along.) -- In the past week since Sunday, at least the following warblers, 15 or more species with the above-noted Hooded, were seen (& none of those listed below are first-of-fall sightings; additionally none are at all unexpected now within the 2nd week of this month.) Six or more of these species have been seen in numbers, and a few have been fairly numerous on a county-wide basis. Blue-winged Warbler Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Magnolia Warbler Blackburnian Warbler Black-and-white Warbler Worm-eating Warbler American Redstart Ovenbird Northern Waterthrush Louisiana Waterthrush Common Yellowthroat Canada Warbler Additional species include the following seen in New York County in this past week since the first Sunday of the month. Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Black Vulture (seen from Inwood Hill Park, & also from other northern Manhattan lookouts to the Hudson river & vicinity) Turkey Vulture Canada Goose Wood Duck Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Osprey Bald Eagle Red-tailed Hawk Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper American Woodcock (one report) Laughing Gull Ring-billed Gull [American] Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Common Tern ['feral'] Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon MONK Parakeet (photographed, at least several observers, on Governors Island, New York County, on 8/8) Yellow-billed Cuckoo Eastern Screech-owl (resident) Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker Eastern Wood-Pewee Empidonx [genus] Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Yellow-throated Vireo Warbling Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow Barn Swallow Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch (first of season, from reports, as of 8/8) White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren House Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Bobolink Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole House Finch American Goldfinch -- Butterflies found in the past week in New York County include (but are not limited to) the species below. Black Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur. Cloudless Sulphur (has been seen at least several times, including from Manhattan island), Gray Hairstreak, Eastern Tailed-Blue, Summer Azure, American Snout, Variegated Fritillary (most likely & seen multiple times on Governors Island, a part of New York County), Pearl Crescent, Question Mark, Eastern Comma, American Lady, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Common Buckeye (enjoying an ongoing big year in the northeast & generally), Red-spotted Purple (same comment as for Common Buckeye), Hackberry Emperor, Monarch (in numbers), Silver-spotted Skipper, Wild Indigo Duskywing, Peck's Skipper, Sachem, Zabulon Skipper. Many many other insects, in an array of familiies, are also being seen in very good to modest numbers at all sorts of locations in New York County. --- "Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.” - Terry Tempest Williams (contemporary activist, and author of many books) Good -& quiet- enjoying nature, Tom Fiore, manhattan - & elsewhere -- 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/ --