New York County (in N.Y. City), including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, & Governors Island Saturday, Feb. 12th:
Thanks firstly to all who were there and giving help, assistance, solid information, and also some views in scopes through the appearances of the Slaty-backed Gull which has been visiting the Central Park reservoir. For Friday, 2/11 that included Corey Finger, getting word out quickly including via this birding list, which inspired more folks to try again, or for a first attempt or some for 2nds or maybe even 3rds, & etc. - and on Saturday, 2/12 a full tip of the hat to Tom Burke (with Gail Benson), & of course to Tim Healy for placing this birding list again on immediate alert, as T.B. spotted “the Gull” after lengthy vigils for some who’d come early. For those present on Saturday a good showing *while it was around* by this ongoing special-visitor in Central. Many birders came again from all around the city and the region, and some came in or came back specifically thanks to the fast-alerting by T.H., as T.B. was able to first spot the much-hoped-for gull on the day. There have been many, many others in preceding days giving much kind assistance and sharing knowledge, some from birders with individually over half-a-century of field experience. And it has also of course been great finding so many younger / newer / very keen observers, in every way also sharing their joy in seeing birds, not least such a rarely-seen -in these parts- visitor. We can hope the Slaty-backed might be visiting again, allowing yet more observers to enjoy some views of this bird. As with so much of birding, patience can be very helpful. Also present on the C.P. reservoir at times on Saturday were as many as 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls & at least 1 Iceland Gull, with the varying no’s. (into multi-hundreds) of Ring-billed, and [American] Herring, and modest no’s. of Great Black-backed Gulls - and, as has become so regular of late, also visitations by Bald Eagle, and Peregrine, with supporting casts of Red-tailed Hawks and (on some days) Cooper’s Hawks. Two Western Tanagers are ongoing and the tanager at Carl Schurz Park had a number of admirers on Saturday; the Clinton / Hell’s Kitchen tanager (mostly W. 48th St. &/or east of Tenth Ave. wandering to W. 47th, at times, and in both Hell’s Kitchen Park, or Clinton Community Garden, the latter of which may be viewed thru a fence, from the sidewalk. Either tanager may take some patience to find; the Carl Schurz Park bird is at least moderately regular to the feeder array in the vicinity of E. 85th St. & along the western border hedge of the park; the schedules if any of the ‘West-Side-Western' Tanager seem a bit less predictable. (I have seen that bird as early as around sunrise-hour, & more rarely much much later in the day.) A Horned Grebe was a good find off Randall’s Island Saturday, esp. given lowered no’s. of that species in the region overall for part of this season. A Pied-billed Grebe was also continuing at Randall’s Island. At Inwood Hill Park a Snow Goose persisted, seen by a number of area birders there to (at least) Saturday, & a Long-tailed Duck was also continuing on the Hudson River, north of the G. Washington bridge, thru Saturday. Common Goldeneye also was ongoing thru Sat. around the county’s waters, esp. being found off Randall’s Island. Multiple Wood Ducks were continuing at Central Park, seen at several locations, and a hen Green-winged Teal has been ongoing at “the Pool” in Central as well. There have been American Woodcocks also moving around, some of those may possibly have been ‘escaping’ snow in areas east & northeast of N.Y. City, where the recent storm had dumped far more. A few of the Amer. Woodcocks have been in a couple of ’typical’ places where regularly found in late winter into spring, and there’ve also sadly been some which needed a bit of help and were taken to be rehabbed, from our most urban zones. Also moving, some seeming to trend clearly north-by-northeast, have been Bald Eagles and Turkey Vultures, some at times ‘escorted’ (a little) by local Common Ravens. Among other birds that were on the move, some in fair numbers for the date, included American Robins, and Common Grackles, with more modest no’s. of Red-winged Blackbirds. A large percentage of Am. Robins found on Saturday in particular were probing in newly-open, softer earth on lawns and such, for their worms, just ‘as if’ it were pretty-much ‘spring', which, with a temp. hovering to around 60 F. in Manhattan was very much in the air on the day. And singing cowbirds? It’s a strange upsy-downsy climate… There have also been Cedar Waxwings in scattered flocks, including to Saturday, generally not a common sight in Manhattan in mid-winter, but this year thus far they have not been that scarce. Some Killdeer were again being found, including a small no. on Governors Island to Saturday; it’s a species that might show some further increases if weather takes another spring-like turn in the coming weeks, along with those feisty Feb. woodcocks. The long-staying adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was still on Randall’s Island to Saturday and also being found there have been Black-crowned Night-Heron and Great Blue Heron. Belted Kingfisher also has been fairly reliable thru this winter at Randall’s, more occasional elsewhere. Mute Swan also reappeared around Randall’s Island, where semi-regular if erratically seen this winter. The pair of N. Pintails continued on at Sherman Creek, just north of Swindler Cove Park in northern Manhattan on the Harlem river. Both Field and Chipping Sparrows were ongoing at Central Park’s n. end, with [Red] Fox & (few) Swamp Sparrows in a number of locations, and Slate-colored Juncos have been ongoing. Chipping Sparrows also are showing up in other locations. Both Kinglet species have continued on in a number of areas in the county with more sightings in just a few places recently of Golden-crowned, whereas Ruby-crowned may be the more widely-distrubuted even still, and is typically the more regular ‘winter’ kinglet in N.Y. County unlike many other parts of NY state. Upwards of 1,000 recent-birder visitations have been made to the reservoir of Central Park, with the ongoing interest in the rare gull for the region; that does include a fair number of folks making return visits and the smaller numbers who like to see the reservoir at any time, and whatever is showing there. Many observers have been noting the singing of a variety of birds in the recent surge of mild weather and some of the singers also had been 'tuning-up' even in the colder intervals of recent. Some insects are also stirring on the days when temperatures go well above-freezing and even at times with sun when rather cold. 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/ --
