New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, Randall's, and Governors Island[s] Tues., May 18th thru Thursday, May 20th -
The volume of birds migrating was still very high, although of birds stopping off locally, both numbers (of many species) and the diversity had fallen off somewhat in this period. At least 21 warbler species were still being found as of Wednesday, down from the higher diversity in that group just the day before; but then a poss. slight jump for Thursday, thanks to a few additions. (No reports of a Prothonotary Warbler were made for Wed. or Thursday, after the sightings that continued in Central Park thru Tuesday, 5/18.) For Thursday, 5/20, an adult male Summer Tanager was seen in the area of the 'forever wild' sanctuary in Riverside Park (Manhattan), near approx. W. 116th St., an area where this species has turned up at times over many years. Also present in that general area, as in so many other parts of the county lately, are Scarlet Tanagers (of each sex). A female-plumaged Summer Tanager was in the Tulip-Poplar tree that has had both tanager species over recent weeks in the n. end of Central Park, more specifically, on the s. upper side of the Great Hill near about W. 104th St. on Thursday. Both Black-billed & Yellow-billed Cuckoos continued in the county, and also ongoing were a few Olive-sided Flycatchers. While the most-common migrant thrush just now has been Swainson’s, there are also Gray-cheeked types on the move, & some observed singing have appeared to be nominate Gray-cheeked (rather than Bicknell’s) although the latter is likely also pushing through now, esp. on all the favorable night-time weather for all of these many migrants. Yet another sighting of a male Cerulean Warbler, from Central Park, late in the day on Thursday - nice series of photos in a checklist from C. Schwamb: https://ebird.org/checklist/S88639859 <https://ebird.org/checklist/S88639859> - it seems reasonable to assume the same individual as seen earlier same day, from a short distance east, but there also may have been more than one in the area, as happened previously with huge numbers of observers at Central Park this month. The Philadelphia Vireo seen by many including K. Howley, & w/ Joe Giunta’s large group was also well-seen & photo’d at Turtle Pond, on Thursday. Mourning Warblers were found in (at least) 3 locations in Manhattan after much effort, at least for actually seeing & not merely hearing (all observed were singing males) - one in Central Park’s north end, by The Pool (near to W. 100th St.), one in Morningside Park’s upper-level area near W. 116 St., and one at Fort Washington Park, a bit s.e. of the “little red lighthouse”, which is under the NY side of the G.W. Bridge footing; this last in some of the sloping thickets that are pretty well impenetrable at most any season but can be at least viewed from the ped-bike path nearby; these all for my efforts on Thursday 5/20, & at least the one in the n. end of Central also seen (& photo’d.) by some others, but also went ‘unseen' a bit later, as the often skulking nature of the species came into effect. The most-northerly of these 3 encounters also involved some ‘fun' in tangles of Poison Ivy and ‘bramblies'. Great numbers of Common Terns are being observed at & from Governors Island, & that location had also hosted at least 5 species of shorebird this week (with Killdeer the one species of those which breed there). The ferries to Governors Island are free if departing before noon on weekends, & are also free at other times to some folks; see their web pages for more info. A Brant fly-out (headed north along the Hudson river) was observed from northern Manhattan in the early eve. before sunset on Thursday, presumably all made up of Atlantic Brant. To my knowledge, at least 24 warbler spp. were seen on Manhattan alone, with lingering Hooded & Prairie Warblers among those 2-dozen for Thursday. It also appeared (and sounded like), by then, Blackpoll Warbler had increased to be nearly the most-numerous of the migrant warblers on the day, and certainly with more & more female warblers being found, as we move into the fourth week of May. Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warblers have become rather hard to find locally. More Mourning Warblers are likely to pass in the coming days thru all of May. Interesting to note that at least a few Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers were still around on Manhattan, including in Central Park (also in uptown & lower Manhattan parks) to Thursday. Lots of migration again all around on Thursday night & early Friday... good 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/ --
