New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, and Randall’s Island
Tuesday, Jan. 12th - Thanks to C. Quinn, a re-find of the Greater White-fronted Goose (of the Greenland-breeding form) - at Randall’s Island, late Tuesday, after having gone ‘missing’ from the county for at least 4 days (presuming that is, this is the same individual also last seen at Central Park’s reservoir on 1/7) this latest sighting from Tues. at the Bronx Kill, seen sleeping at lower tide, among over 100 Canada Geese around the n.-w. part of the island. Numbers of Canada Geese on the island generally fluctuate & move about, & with them presumably the Greater White-fronted is also fairly mobile at times. Also continuing at Randall’s has been the adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, and as well in the same area at times, a young Black-crowned Night-Heron (and there are also Great Blue Herons seen off & on there); the Yellow-crowned has been regular at Little Hell Gate’s saltmarsh, often near the n. edges, & may or may not be rather skulking. There has been *no* re-sighting of a Black-headed Gull that had turned up on one day only (the last day of 2020) at Randall’s Island & similarly there has not been a re-find of a Lesser Black-backed Gull seen (& also photographed as was the Black-headed) there, a bit more recently - these and other gulls of note could be around, somewhere in the county, at roosting areas, or (just possibly) also coming in to the Central Park reservoir for a visit, as gulls will come & go there regularly. On Tuesday, many hundreds of gulls showed at the latter location, which may increase chances of some less-expected species dropping in amongst the many ‘usuals’ of Ring-billed, [American] Herring, & Great Black-backed Gulls. 2 Western Tanagers continue in Manhattan as before, the one at Carl Schurz Park & its immediate vicinity, around East End Ave. & often near East 86th St., where a main entry to that park is - however this bird can also be in other areas of that park & along East End Ave., as much as 2 blocks or so north/south of 86th St.- having been seen by me & numbers of others make such forays in recent days, and probably earlier, as well. The first of the W. Tanagers to be discovered & seen by many, at West 22nd St. near / east of Tenth Ave. in the Chelsea area, has also been making forays for some time now, & can be elusive at times. I have now seen that bird from 2/3-way up 22nd St. towards Ninth Ave.(from Tenth Ave.) & along W. 23rd St., as well as along Tenth Ave. itself, & there have been a few sightings and reports from along the adjacent High Line, which a small portion of is visible from Tenth at 22nd-23rd Streets. On Tuesday it did come in to the trees along W. 22nd, east of Tenth, but seemed not to stay - that bird also has gone to rooftops and then been out-of-view for periods. It’s hard to state which of these 2 different W. Tanagers is the tougher (lately) to locate, but it may be the latter; also there seem to be more frequent attempts by birders to observe the Carl Schurz Park bird (which also gives higher odds of additional reports from the latter site). As a nice bonus-bird at Carl Schurz, a well-photographed Orange-crowned Warbler was found there by L. LaBella, also Tuesday - that being at least the 4th warbler species seen in N.Y. County, in recent days. Of various & numerous other species about in N.Y. County, it’s seemed 2 species stand out a bit as having at least lingered on in some numbers, spread all through the county, &/or may have actually increased a bit as calendar-winter continued to now: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, which are turning up in many areas, & also Ruby-crowned Kinglet, which i have seen in slightly higher (overall) numbers in these first days of the new year than (averages) over time in the same period. So long as weather remains relatively mild, these birds are still doing reasonably well in their multiple locations. There are also ongoing smaller numbers of various other (half-hardy, to use the old term) species such as Hermit Thrush, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, and more; some less-common (in winter, here) sparrows have been lingering also, including a few Lincoln’s Sparrows and Chipping, Field, & Savannah Sparrow[s], with a few E. Towhees also around, among other species. Good mild-stretch birding to all, 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/ --