New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, & Governors Island Saturday, Oct. 9th -
A Wilson’s Snipe was among various migrants and visitants on Governors Island Saturday morning; those also seen there included 2 Yellow-billed Cuckoos, 2 E. Meadowlarks, and 2 Indigo Buntings (thanks to G. Willow for some of the day’s reports from there). A Snow Goose was seen from the Ramble area flying over Central Park (by a group led by T. Winston for a non-profit org., who noted surprise at seeing that species!) on Sat. morning. At least 4 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, as well as 2 Spotted Sandpipers, and many other species were seen on Randall’s Island (with early-birders D. Aronov & A. Cunningham reporting) where at least a couple of Nelson’s Sparrow were also continuing on; a single Broad-winged Hawk was also noted there (not terribly ‘late’ yet for this area) along with a nice flight of 7 Common Loons (mirrored by other loon flight from around the region, on the day as well as prior days, likely newly arriving / passing birds), and a goodly number of Laughing Gulls, at a site which can be very good at times for that species (also seen in more modest numbers elsewhere in the county on same day). There also was still Green Heron at Randall’s, getting late for that species in the area by now. A Connecticut Warbler was noted (L. LaBella) at a small park in lower Manhattan (Tribeca area) with only 2 Common Yellowthroats also noted there; while now slightly-late for the former species, it is also occasionally found even later in the region. At least 17 additional warbler species were found in N.Y. County on Sat., and of those, at least 16 species were (also) found in Central Park; those included such as Bay-breasted, Tennessee, Cape May (all in the low multiple) and obviously, many others as well; the tally of warblers at Central also included lingering Northern Waterthrush seen (& photo’d.) by many observers, while that species also was (possibly lingering) at Battery Park (T. Olson). Many sparrow species again increased a bit with the day’s (and long weekend’s) ongoing east & NE winds, with Chipping Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, and Slate-colored Junco being still more widely-noted. There are still White-crowned Sparrows popping up in various locations, and some other sparrow species might be sought, in addition to those so far reported for the county. Some county-observers were still noting fairly high numbers of Chimney Swift; these may soon be mostly-south of our area, but late birds can linger especially when regional weather is still relatively mild. Red-breasted Nuthtaches continue, but their numbers have not really increased or been esp. high, lately. There also have been infrequent sightings lately of Purple Finch from N.Y. County (and in the wider region, very modest no’s. of Pine Siskin from a variety of locations). Again a salute to all the many observers who are checking the smaller parks and green-spaces (some not so well-known & some rarely-birded) of the county, and finding interesting birds, with still numerous migrants about. And to all, offering reports of sightings. There are still fair numbers of Monarch butterflies around the county, and as expected some seen on the move headed generally south by southwest in their quest to reach central Mexico’s mountains for their winter-gatherings. 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/ --
