Manhattan, N.Y. City - Monday, Dec. 20th: Two Western Tanagers were again seen, the one at Carl Schurz Park - visiting the feeder array there &, for some, also seen in that vicinity moving and perching beyond the feeders, at East End Ave. near E. 85-86th St. - the park also may be entered at the park’s southwest corner at E. 84th St., from that entrance, walk immediately to the left (north) on that path just inside and parallel with East End Ave., & you will arrive to the feeder-area shortly, as the gate to the “Catbird Playground” also becomes visible on the opposite side of same path. The other Western Tanager which had been discovered a bit more-recently (the Carl Schurz Park bird had been known of this season from around the Thanksgiving holiday) was seen at Clinton Community Garden again, and in the street trees just outside the gate (the garden itself is open to key-holders only, but it is possible to view much from the street) on West 48th St. a bit east of Tenth Ave. - it may also be worth checking at the Hell’s Kitchen Park on the nearby corner at Tenth Ave. and also in any of the nearby street trees and shrubberies. Please be considerate of all who live in the areas & who may use these neighborhood parks, including Covid-19-safe sensibilities. (thanks again to A. Burke for his find of the Clinton-garden W. Tanager, and to all who’ve offered updates on that, & others of the species in Manhattan this month!)
A Yellow-breasted Chat was still at Bella Abzug Park, a part of the Hudson Yards development, in the area between Tenth Ave. and Eleventh Ave., and in the streets from West 35th St. & south - that Chat can be tricky to see, as with any of that species in winter, but it can pop up at any moment; better chances may be with the more time spent seeking, but luck & patience both also have a role. A variety of other species are also lingering in Bella Abzug Park & include at least Ovenbird, and probably also still at least 1 Common Yellowthroat. The area is adjacent to the northern portion of the High Line, but it seems that B. Abzug Park’s small areas of habitat have sheltered the more-diverse & poss. more-numerous set of native non-feral birds of that area. Keep in mind that the sun, at this season, is a bit limited in reaching a lot of that area and mid-day thru early afternoon can have slightly brighter sun; on the other hand, activity may also be found as usual as early as daylight begins. (thanks again to Alan Drogin, & others who have been observing at the Hudson Yards site and elsewhere.) A Dickcissel was also continuing on Monday 12/20, at the Dyckman Fields area of Inwood Hill Park; it may be seen associating with House Sparrows, & it (and that flock) might wander a bit around edges of those fields, all of which are just north of the western terminus of Dyckman Street, in northern Manhattan. Many other birds seen on the day of the Manhattan & New York County [section] of the C.B.C. were also continuing in various respective areas of the county, but some of the rarer species may or may not have been found on Monday, if even sought then. - - - - with obvious interest in the rare-in-North America sea-eagle that had most-recently been to visit New England: Here (below) are 4 articles, written and posted before the news that the Steller’s Sea Eagle had landed along the Taunton River around Dighton, Massachusetts; the Smithsonian article also references some other articles including the one that many may have previously read, from the N.Y. Times Science page. The 2020 (‘arrival?') of that Sea Eagle on Alaska’s Denali highway, which was covered by many bird-sightings lists & by local-state and regional news at that time, has been less-noted of recent. This Sea Eagle is quite the traveler, it seems. This species is large, but wingspread is fairly similar (as to the largest individuals of each) in that regard with our Bald Eagle. (A somewhat larger eagle species that’s native to a larger mainly-arctic (and sub-arctic) region is White-tailed Sea Eagle. (And then there are a number of other large eagle species currently classified with these, in the same genus…) These birds are all in the genus Haliaeetus - shared by a number of large eagles, and so in that sense, our Bald Eagle is also a “sea-eagle” in that it shares the same genera of the Steller’s. There is a supposition that this group of eagles may be *among the oldest of living genera of birds*, in part from a discovery made in Egypt. (See-Rasmussen, D., Tab, O., Storrs, L., & Simons, E. L. (1987). Fossil Birds from the Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation, Fayum Province, Egypt. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 62: 1-20 -for some more on that.) There are at least ten species now considered to be in Haliaeetus, worldwide, and the genus is thought to have possibly derived and evolved from the region of what is presently known as the Bay of Bengal. The bill on Steller’s Sea Eagle may compare in heft with the largest other raptors - such as the bill of the Philippine Eagle, and also with the various largest 'Old World Vulture’ species’ bills. Weights of any birds of prey vary a lot, but the largest and heaviest Steller’s Sea Eagles may compare with most others among the heaviest (among larger species), in weight. In some parts of the more-typical range of Steller’s Sea Eagle, they may show a preference for taking Slaty-backed Gull as a food-source. (See: "Asian raptors: science and conservation for present and future: The proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Asian Raptors.” -2010- S. Gombobaatar, R. Watson, M. Curti, R. Yosef, E. Potapov, and M. Gilbert (eds.) Asian Raptor Research and Conservation Network, Mongolian Ornithological Society, and National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.) … and the species, which is widespread and regular (into the low thousands) in northern-most Japan - Hokkaido - is seen often in winter there; also, 'around 35% of eagles wintering in Japan move inland and feed largely on mammalian carcasses, predominantly sika deer (Cervus nippon)'. The northern Japanese wintering numbers may come to 2,000 or more birds. It is possible to see the species in flocks there, at times. In Japan, this species is listed as a “National Treasure” - and these are seen in great numbers at times, especially by February, from places such as the Nemuro peninsula of northeastern Hokkaido, and also at & around Abashiri, which is located near the southern edge of the Sea of Okhotsk (of which, parts of the Siberian coast of that large sea harbor breeding Steller’s Sea Eagles in the cenral parts of their known breeding areas.) In my own copy of “A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Japan and North-East Asia” by T. Shimba, the bird is named as *O-Washi* in the Japanese language in that book’s appendices. Some organizations list Steller’s Sea Eagle as vulnerable, while some others list the species’ population as “stable’ and not under threat. The article below on the Denali (Alaska) sighting is of course from a much earlier sighting, but presumed to still have been this same individual eagle. Also, the C.B.C. (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) had a story up on the Nova Scotia sightings, and of course there are also stories from the other areas in eastern Canada where the great bird had also appeared and indeed stayed for some time - and, where some think this current U.S. (Mass.) visitor just might return to… possibly at some future date. https://www.adn.com/outdoors-adventure/2020/09/05/in-a-far-from-normal-autumn-on-the-denali-highway-a-stellers-sea-eagle-makes-a-rare-appearance/ <https://www.adn.com/outdoors-adventure/2020/09/05/in-a-far-from-normal-autumn-on-the-denali-highway-a-stellers-sea-eagle-makes-a-rare-appearance/> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/steller-s-sea-eagle-nova-scotia-rare-bird-sighting-1.6237014 <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/steller-s-sea-eagle-nova-scotia-rare-bird-sighting-1.6237014> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/stellers-sea-eagle-dazzles-birders-on-lone-odyssey-180979035/ <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/stellers-sea-eagle-dazzles-birders-on-lone-odyssey-180979035/> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/science/stellers-sea-eagle.html <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/05/science/stellers-sea-eagle.html> Happy Winter Solstice (occuring in late afternoon here) and on-going good birding, 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/ --
