Manhattan, N.Y. City - Sunday, May 22nd - At least 24 species of American Warblers were still being found at Central Park (and for all of Manhattan, a nearly-similar no. of at least 22 species), all in the collective as found & reliably reported by many experienced observers. A singing male Pine Warbler was reported from Central Park, by one of our most experienced warbler-watchers; that is fairly late esp. for a male and may be watched in case of any pairings being noted. Also running a bit late for N.Y. County county (& in Central Park) was Worm-eating Warbler; likely not-relevant to that species, but the species does still breed in the local region, even to within just 5-6 miles (perhaps even less) of Manhattan & the Bronx (on the west side of the Hudson river *north of* the G.W. bridge / well n. of Fort Lee, N.J. - breeding in areas of the fully-protected Palisades, and prob. also in some additionally protected woods of Bergen County, N.J. - there are additional warbler spp. that are not known, or would be exceedingly scarce as breeders in at least N.Y. County (if not all or most of N.Y. City’s 5 counties) yet do breed within 5-10 miles of the city (and of Manhattan), as well as many additional songbirds etc. which in N.Y. County are seen as migrants, or occ. longer-visitants/lingerers.
Numbers overall of many migrants were a bit diminished by Sunday (relative to the preceding rushes of migrations), yet there were still more than 100 species of wild & unrestrained birds found in Central Park alone for Sunday, and far more than that for all of N.Y. County. Female birds have become equal or greater than of many migrants, esp. among such groups as the warblers. There may also be 1st-year male birds involved in some of the sightings, these can occ. be detected/determined in part by the fact of their singing, which females in the Parulidae don’t typically do (if at all, although I’m not familar with all species resident in the tropical regions of the Caribbean, Central & South America [which are many, in addition to our migrants and a goodly no. of warblers that could be rare to very rare in for ex. TX, but may be fairly common in parts of Mexico & farther south). In N.Y. County, we also will (annually) get at least a modest no. of non-breeding/lingering migrants, some of which may linger all summer, or at least far into the usual breeding season, and yet are un-mated - that is why some care is required in sorting out what is or is-not actually breeding in locations such as are in N.Y. County. And, of some species of songbirds (& others) which may even be paired-off, there can be failures to complete the breeding cycle - success of course being finding eggs, or their result with young and then with fledged young, which then survive the first days or more of life out of the egg and out of the nest-place. The varied challenges faced by a lot of possible (and potential) breeders in many urban environments are many. … Still on the move as late as 5/22, seen from Randall’s Island at least several Common Loons, and some waterfowl of interest included at least 6 Wood Ducks, and large (4-digit) numbers of Brant [all would be presumed ‘Atlantic Brant’], the latter which may be starting to stage in earnest for a take-off at some point for their far-north breeding areas. A nice addition to a relatively small list of warblers seen there on Sunday morn’ was a singing male Mourning Warbler (a species also still noted for Central Park - in the C.P. ‘Ramble’ - on Sunday, by multi-observers). A good many of the (other) species noted from Randall’s could be watched for any signs of breeding-activities, as is so for the Osprey pair that are set up just off-island. (Indigo Bunting is a species that has at least attempted to breed in N.Y. County over the years, and may try again in some locations.) More than fifty species of birds have already set-up for nesting activities in N.Y. County, and a goodly number of those on Manhattan island, in the habitats where they are able to do so. A nest however is not the final stage in success with breeding, of course. 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/ --
