There may be some further follow-ups (on this list) to the excellent finds by Dr. Richard Veit, with Richard Zain-Eldeen, of the LeConte’s Sparrow (as well as Grasshopper Sparrow), and the later addition of Sedge Wren in the same area of the southern-most locality of New York State - Conference House Park on Staten Island (Richmond County, which is the most-southerly county in N.Y. state) -
in any event, here are links to 2 photos by Dr. Veit of the LeConte’s Sparrow from there, found Sunday, Oct. 25th. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/274354141 in-flight photo: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/274354201 Congratulations on these excellent sightings! (It’s likely that one-dozen -or more- native sparrow species were found in the above location, with a number of additional birders also arriving.) — as an additional note and as many already will be aware, the time to check closely any hummingbirds seen now (& on into the month of May, or really, year-round!) is here, with the sighting of a well-photographed male Rufous Hummingbird (in southeast N.Y. state, in eBird, &/but is at a home-feeder - thus, one should check with that home-owner or local birders who may have further directions or notices regarding visits, or, as sometimes happens, 'no-visit' requests). We’ve learned over recent years, hummingbirds of multiple species can potentially occur in the northeast & this is the start of the most-likely time of year in which vagrant hummers may show, out-of-range in eastern N. America. And while Rufous is the hummigbird species that is by far most-regular among ‘vagrants’ in the family to the east, a surprising number of other species have also turned up in states east of the center-line of the U.S., & of those, at least several others have been documented for N.Y. state. This could be the season or the year (ahead) in which one of you, somewhere in NY state, find a new species for the state - &/or one of the hummingbird sp. that are a bit more regular to the east. — — More than 130 species of migrant & (some) resident birds were seen in N.Y. County (including Manhattan, etc.) on Sunday, Oct. 25th - further reporting to follow, but not (by me) today. A fairly good chance too that any number of other counties surpassed that number of species -possibly by a lot- on the day, with all the migratory movement AND a reasonably good day for watching. good October getting-near-November birding, 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/ --