A fantastic *documented* (with excellent textual descriptions, and photos) sighting of Zone-tailed Hawk for Kings County (Brooklyn), N.Y. City on Saturday (4/2) morning, and thanks of course to Mike Yuan for being a rapid-messenger and the notice of that bird (as seen by others) for this list-serve. It may be tough to ’top’ that for spectacular in April (and of course, hugely unexpected for the region, if not totally unprecedented). Congratulations to the finders, and multiple observers on-watch at Green-Wood cemetery, in Brooklyn. (It would be nice to hear of any follow-up sightings, especially if so fully-documented as this Brooklyn sighting was, from any part of the northeast, or even from e. Canada. Further, this sighting deserves even more of a write-up [perhaps being prepared or done] for its’ rarity, and for the quality of observations made of it as a flyover.)
Another fantastic bird for NY state, the drake Cinnamon Teal was (again) seen in Livingston County, NY on April 2nd, by multiple observers. And an exceptionally often-accommodating and long-staying drake King Eider was still gracing the mudflats area of Great Kills Park on the shore of Staten Island (Richmond County), N.Y. City as seen by multiple observers again Sat., 4/2. (Interestingly, there’s also a drake Cinnamon Teal that’s been seen, into 4/2, at Centre County, Pennsylvania, with many observers there.) .. Extra-limital mega-rarities: A report from 4/1/‘22 indicates that the hemispherically-rare STELLER'S Sea-Eagle was seen in Nova Scotia, Canada, with this photo added to the Macaulay Library archive by another person (to see ‘observation details’ notes within the link; scroll down from photo) - https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/431061541 <https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/431061541> And with a bird that might’ve left Maine (the Steller’s) a while back, a species just-found is a Northern Lapwing, in ‘down-east’ Maine at Addison (Washington County, ME), with a photo of the bird seen there on 4/2/’22 by one of the 3 reporters also placed in the Macaulay Library archive - https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/431162171 <https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/431162171> - - - - New York County (in N.Y. City), including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, & Governors Island - On Friday, 4/1, Randall’s Island managed to equal Manhattan’s Central Park with the number of warbler species found on the day (five), and that also brought the total species for N.Y. County to six (on the day), with the (overwintered) Orange-crowned Warbler again seen - and a very good sighting of a Louisiana Waterthrush - on Randall's, quite ‘rare’ as a documented sighting for that location (the rest of the warbler spp. there on that day being Palm, Pine, and [Myrtle] Yellow-rumped). 2 E. Meadowlarks were seen at Governors Island on Friday, and again on Sat., 4/2 - and also sighted there Friday were 2 Rusty Blackbirds, Palm, Pine, & Myrtle/Yellow-rumped Warblers, [Red] Fox and Chipping Sparrows, & some additional migrants, as well as generally-resident species. The meadowlarks on Governors Island may well be lingering from those (3, then) seen on 3/31, by A. Deutsch & L. Hertzog. Thanks as well to A. Barry, C. Weiner, and to G. Willow, & others, for reports from Governors in recent days. As seen by many many observers, 5 warbler species continued in Central Park on Saturday, April 2. After just a brief episode of 'non-avian nonsense’ or t.u.b.s, the Yellow-throated Warbler gave vast numbers of observers a nice show, esp. later around the s. side of Turtle Pond, as well as return-showings in the nearby parts of the Ramble, just south across the cross-park “Transverse” (which carries cross-town traffic in a below-grade-level conduit), with the trees and greenery of the park soon to start leafing out on either side. Thanks to Christian Cooper (& others)! - who helped to get some folks on the regular-but-rare warbler in the a.m., with all sorts of help given by many through the later hours of the day, in quietly enjoying the Yellow-throated celeb.-bird, and all of these various freshly-arrived migrants. That Central Park Yellow-throated appears (from multiple photos, made by many photographers) to be of the form known as “albilora” that is most-often found farther west (or interior) as opposed to those which have yellow in their lores (and are known by the third-epithet “dominica”). Both forms have occurred in even Central Park (and, around NY state) - and at least once, both forms showed on the same date[s] and area, at Central Park. The other warblers (seen by many in Central on Saturday) included Louisiana Waterthrushes, Palm, Pine, and [Myrtle] Yellow-rumped Warblers. Also, still another keen observer noted that a Louisiana Waterthrush was still present on Randall’s Island again on Sat., a nice species to see there. Back in Central Park, 3 Warbler species have been seen in the area northeast of “the Pond”, a fair part of which is not-open at all hours and can require an admission, or a membership for entry. Pine Warbler has been seen in *at least* 21 distinct locations just in Manhattan, in the two days of this report’s period. The Carl Schurz Park Western Tanager has been more-skulking in not showing as much as was sometimes so in mid-winter; that was so a year ago as well, ahead of that spring’s departure. Some (almost-certainly not quite all) of the birds found by 100’s of observers all around N.Y. County on Fri.-Sat., April 1 & 2: Canada Goose [Atlantic] Brant (many ongoing) Mute Swan (at least 1 reported again off Randall’s Island) Wood Duck (multiple on passage; just a few lingering) Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Green-winged Teal (1 hen, on Central Park reservoir, to 4/2) Northern Shoveler (nice no’s. still around, esp. Central Park) Ring-necked Duck (lingering drake, Central Park ‘Meer’) Greater Scaup (fairly few out on NY harbor area) Bufflehead (fair no’s. continued) Common Goldeneye (still off Randall’s Island) Hooded Merganser (modest no’s.) Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck (only modest no’s.) Red-throated Loon (in the multiple on county salt-waters, besides the 1 lingering at Central Park’s reservoir) Common Loon (very modest no’s.) Great Cormorant (getting scarcer) Double-crested Cormorant (many) Great Blue Heron (multiple esp. on passages) Great Egret (multiple) Snowy Egret (v. modest no’s., so far) Black-crowned Night-Heron (multiple) Black Vulture (almost a ‘regular’ now) Turkey Vulture (multiple) Osprey (regular now, on passages) Bald Eagle (regular) Sharp-shinned Hawk (scant so far) Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk (4/2; a confirmed sighting) American Coot (small no’s. continuing at Central Park) Killdeer (in 2 typical county-locations) American Woodcock (few) Laughing Gull (still ’scarce’) Ring-billed Gull [American] Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull American Kestrel (regular, multiple around the county) Merlin (small no’s. around, some on passage) Peregrine Falcon (regular, multiple around the county) ['feral'] Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher (recent influx and passages) Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (recent influx & passages) Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker (modest increases by 4/1) Eastern Phoebe (many) Blue Jay (numerous) Common Raven (regularly seen now in the county) American Crow (numerous) Fish Crow (fairly regular now in some select sites) Tree Swallow (modest numbers) Northern Rough-winged Swallow Barn Swallow Black-capped Chickadee (scant) Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch (v. scant) White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper (multiple) Carolina Wren Winter Wren (a very slight uptick) Golden-crowned Kinglet (increased recently) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (modest no’s.) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (still early-ish, scant so far) Hermit Thrush (increased a bit) American Robin (near-ubiquitous by now) Gray Catbird (all so far overwintered here) Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher (multiple, but not many) European Starling House Sparrow (overabundant) Cedar Waxwing (good numbers ongoing in multiple locations) Western Tanager (only seen at Carl Schurz Park, east-side/Manhattan; the other Manhattan (west-side) tanager had been sought but not seen too recently) Eastern Towhee Slate-colored Junco (increased) Chipping Sparrow (increased, but still not that many) Field Sparrow Savannah Sparrow (few so far) [Red] Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow (large increases) Lincoln's Sparrow (ongoing individual which had wintered at [&/or near] small Greeley Park, midtown Manhattan) Swamp Sparrow (small no’s., but also some increases) White-throated Sparrow (many, as expected into April) Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Eastern Meadowlark (as noted above, Governors Island) Rusty Blackbird (multiple, but not very many) Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird (some increases seen) Orange-crowned Warbler (Randall’s Island - one, overwintered) Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warbler (multiple) Yellow-throated Warbler (likely of the white-lored form ‘albilora’) Pine Warbler (many locations) Palm Warbler (multiple) Louisiana Waterthrush (several) Purple Finch (v. scant) House Finch American Goldfinch & likely some others: 100+ species, in the 2 days of this report; a few also intentionally not-listed. An Iceland Gull was confirmed (in eBird) for Central Park’s reservoir back on 3/30. Good -and ethical- 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/ --
