New York County, including Central Park & all Manhattan, as well as Randall’s & Governors Islands Tuesday, May 4th:
A flock of 8 alternate [breeding]-plumaged Bonaparte’s Gulls were on the Central Park reservoir for a rather rare (but not at all unprecedented) showing in that park; also seen was one additional Bonaparte’s Gull in similar plumage, moving up the Hudson River off the W. 12th St. area, early; there might’ve been some others of this species moving in the area. (It would have been extra-excitement had any turned out to be one of the more-petite smaller gulls that can occasionally show amongst Bonaparte’s flocks, the little gull, but such was not the case for these!). Thanks to R. Young for some of the early spotting at the reservoir, and to D. Aronov et al for (untweeted) rapid alerts. (oh, and *no one* was observing there at the hour of ~ 1 a.m.!) (at least most or all of this Bonaparte’s Gull flock were still present on the C.P. reservoir into the 2-3 p.m. hour, with multiple happy observers.). N.B. - there are of course Laughing Gulls moving as well, & the latter are regular now as fly-bys and in some places around N.Y. County, feeding-loafing-etc., whereas Bonaparte’s are not seen regularly in this county. A shy Yellow-breasted Chat is among the sought-after migrants in the county, & one in Central Park was giving some views, but also playing hide-&-seek as per fairly usual with the species away from breeding sites. Additional to that 'not-quite-a-warbler', were at least 25 actual warbler species, including Tennessee, Bay-breasted, Cape May - latter in the multiple!!!, Hooded, & more, in many parks and green spaces; some species have had fresh reinforcements arrived overnight. Perhaps one of the greater bits of evidence of new migrants arrived overnight are the many White-crowned Sparrows (as well as other sparrow species), the latter being seen in multiple locations, occ. in groups of twos, threes, and even 4 at a time. (It’s a good thought to keep a watchful eye for any really-rare Zonotrichia, too, although this White-crowned arrival is really an on-time kind of event for here.). That Chat may well stick around for some days, also that species will sometimes move to other locations within same park, or possibly decide it especially likes the area near the Swedish cottage - the rustic building below the Shakespeare Garden. Some interesting sightings (& reports) from the outlying islands both south & east of Manhattan island - Governors, and Randall’s. However those reports will wait a more thorough list at some point. There are also many great birds being seen in northern & uptown manhattan, with plenty to be found in all the smaller as well as larger parks and greenspaces of the county. And irruptive “winter” finches (that are also seen in spring, hereabouts) are still passing through & some lingering, with American Goldfinches moving as well - the more-streaky, the much larger, and the raspberry-red or nicely-marked species are all of special note… Good to see the guided walks going out for the nonprofits NYC Audubon, the Linnaean Society of New York, and the A.M.N.H., all long-standing N.Y. City organizations with great walk leaders, & a whole lot of migrants observed. and good “ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka, sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet, chew-chew-chew-chew-chew” to all - yes, that’s 'Tennessee-talk’. 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/ --
