New York County (in N.Y. City), including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, and Governors Island Friday, 1st of April -
A nice arrival of a lot more spring-birds, even through (and some setting-down because-of) rains of the prior night, & early morning on Friday, with an accompanying (strong) wind-shift, becoming northwest as the morning dawned. The first-of-year YELLOW-THROATED Warbler in the county has been found just south of Belvedere Castle in Central Park, seen by a number of birders, in the Ramble’s northern edge, this being right near the W. 81st Street Transverse & not far from the Shakespeare Garden. *Thanks* to Paul Sweet (A.M.N.H. - American Museum, Natural History) for finding, and then amongst others, for an early report on this nice First-of-April sighting! Many more observers, and more-to-arrive, as this may of course be a popular bird to seek, in a popular park… (also, this species has a habit of sometimes moving about a lot in local areas here, when in our local parks, and esp. within the park it is being seen now; the Yellow-throated could show itself most anywhere in the Ramble area, or even move out to some outlying section not too far away, mid-park.) At least 5 warbler species were found in N.Y. County including season’s-first (& year-first, of course of the above & also next) for this county, of Louisiana Waterthrushes (including the one seen and heard in the light before 7 a.m., at Central Park’s n. end), and more of Palm (“Yellow” form) Warblers, many more Pine Warblers, and some [Myrtle] Yellow-rumped Warblers. Also arriving were Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and with those, more of Golden-crowned Kinglets, plus more Yellow-shafted Flickers, E. Phoebes, & a number of other expected early-April migrators. In addition to birds seen in various of the larger parks and green-spaces of the county, there are migrants showing in smaller areas such as some pocket-parks, community gardens, and other somewhat less-birded places. Thanks among many others to M. Rakowski for the early reporting that includes 3 warblers (Louisiana W.-thrush, Palm & Pine Warblers) plus Brown Thrasher, & 2 Rusty Blackbirds as well as the lingering drake Ring-necked Duck on the Meer, all at Central Park’s n. end in the early-birding walk held with the friendly group she leads. There are additional Br. Thrashers and Rusty Blackbirds besides those in the n. end of Central Park. as a small additional note, the Carl Schurz Park (east side of Manhattan) Western Tanager continues on there for Friday, 4/1. Much much more is around, migrant-bird-wise, and also still on the move in some diurnal migration… all around the region... good April birds, 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/ --