N.Y. County including Manhattan & Randall’s Island, N.Y. City Tues., Wed., Thursday, February 9th, 10th, & 11th -
Greater White-fronted Goose - last definitely seen on Monday, 2/8 in Central Park, and no reports since, despite some still looking at various sites in N.Y. County where geese are gathered in any numbers. On Tues. morning, I witnseed a moderate number of geese (all being Canadas, from what I saw) headed in varying flock sizes, southeast away from the northern 2/3 of Central Park & on out of the park - at least headed towards the East River if not beyond, on that a.m. - however, the Gr. W.-fronted may well show again; time will tell… (there has also clearly been a bit of shuffling of waterfowl & other waterbirds, and gulls, etc., in the past week, even if some or all is mostly-local movement). Through Thurs. 2/11, a drake Wood Duck & hen Red-breasted Merganser were continuing on the C.P. reservoir, & fair no’s. of Red-breasted Mergansers are appearing on the rivers around Manhattan, & the N.Y. harbor. Some of the recent waterfowl movement has included Mute Swan, which are somewhat irregular in the county in most recent years, despite being fairly widespread in the region. Iceland Gull has been occasional at Randall’s Island, and was seen again on Thursday, this last at the western edge of the island near the R.F.K. (ex-Triboro) bridge. Good numbers of gulls continue to frequent the C.P. reservoir at times, and the larger concentration at least by Thurs. 2/11 was nearer the east edge, well n. of 90th St., with many more gulls also scattered all around; at one point Thurs. there were more than 500 gulls present, the majority of them Ring-billed. An adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron has been ongoing at Randall’s Island, with some further sightings also of a non-adult Black-crowned Night-Heron, & regular sightings of Great Blue Herons there. Belted Kingfisher also has continued on at Randall’s Isl., and Field Sparrow has turned up there, as they had in a few other N.Y. County locations, including Highbridge Park in Manhattan. A Merlin was seen at Randall’s Island as well on 2/11. A Red-shouldered Hawk was again seen at Inwood Hill Park. Western Tanager - female - again at Carl Schurz Park on Thursday, 2/11, photo’d and seen with others, early afternoon at the feeder array near East End Ave. inside the park south of East 86th St. (top of stairs, from 86th). This bird’s been fairly reliable for me at that location, but can be otherwhere for lengthy times too, away from those feeders. A solo Rusty Blackbird has continued on at the Ramble in Central Park. Red-winged Blackbirds started showing in what appear to be slightly higher no’s. than seen earlier in the winter, and in more locations, while Common Grackles seem just slightly more widely-distributed, although some of each of the latter 2 species have been around for this winter so far. 3 Common Redpolls showed at Carl Schurz Park by the feeders on Thurs. afternoon. A single Common Redpoll was seen at Battery Park City Park on Tues., 2/9. good winter 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/ --
