New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, Governors Island and Randall’s Island, and skies-above-all watched for migrators. Thursday, Oct. 27th:
A fairly broad range of migrants and arrivals of the season, on winds that came gusty and out of the west (overnight from Wed.), and NW and also north at times, and stayed fairly strong much of if not all day from pre-dawn into after darkness hours. Some birds were simply hunkered in, and had remained from prior days in same areas - such was so of the *Yellow-breasted Chat*, in the northeastern edge of the Central Park Ramble, again showing for many observers and photographers, and seen thru late in the day. A bird that (as I believe) may have actually been in that general area for weeks and lately has been more obliging of and for many quiet observers. More than 100 species of native and wild birds were seen on the day (and night) in the county, for Oct. 27th. While some had visions of hawks and other raptors moving en masse with the fresh northerly winds, it may have been waterfowl that really ruled a part of the day’s sky-watching, with that action continuing to after darkness fell, and some species still moving over Manhattan or the adjacent area. Many Canada Geese passed - many, many hundreds; also moving in decent numbers (into quadruple-digits, for those really counting them!) were Atlantic Brant - if any *other types* of Brant were seen, hope there are photos… In any event, for raptors on the move (in daylight!), these included Bald Eagles, Osprey, Red-shouldered & Red-tailed Hawks, along with Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, plus N. Harrier, and some falcon movement, those including all 3 of the regulars, but with many of athe local Peregrines and American Kestrels also lingering on; there also may be ‘visitant' Merlins which could stay in some areas for a good while, in addition to those (mostly) moving on. Vulture movement was also much in evidence again, with some Black Vultures seen along with far more Turkey Vultures in the wind. Other birds moving again included Cormorants (with most, if not all deemed Double-crested), in their typical loose flocks. Other waterfowl also were moving besides geese, of which some *may have been* duck spp. that are not common for N.Y. County. There have been good no’s. of blackbirds, lately including more Common Grackles, as well as Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds in the flights, which are sometimes esp. evident from vantage points on the Hudson and East River locations of the county, but also at times from other points. A few Rusty Blackbirds have been stopping in, perhaps to stay a while as sometimes happens for the county’s parks, such as Central Park in patrticular with its’ multiple shorelines with shady, leafy edges - i.e., typically not the C.P. reservoir shore. There were a lot of migrants and some lingerers at both Randall’s Island, and at least modest numbers of new migrants at and over Governors Island. Plenty of extremely-high and-or distant birds were on the move as the day went along… A Monk Parakeet at Corlears Hook, along the lower East River greenway, is just one of the latest of that species showing up in the county, as they have been expanding a bit and more sightings continue to be made. An excellent sighting for Morningside Park was an E. Meadowlark there (S. Chang), on the ballfields area not far north of West 110th St., in mid-day; this is a park the observer-finder birds on somewhat regular basis, so it’s also a bonus as a sort of nice ‘patch’ find. That park also had a nice variety of other species, for the same observer. This was also an Eastern Bluebird kind of day, a species that had already been passing thru in recent days of this month, and more might be potentially expected as Oct. ends and November begins - one of those passing on Thursday was photo’d. at the n. part of Central Park - and that was not the only one of the day in the county. Bluebirds can and will move diurnally, and may not linger too long in a given site in N.Y. County, indeed it’s a bit uncommon that any do linger (in that county, that is…), although we have records for some that have done so. Also moving, perhaps in quite low numbers thru the county - Pine Siskin, in company with far more Purple Finches, and a modest uptick of American Goldfinch starting to show in better numbers. (Some siskins also were noted at multiple locations in the region, on the move on the day, albeit in still-modest numbers locally). A Vesper Sparrow lingered a while at Central Park’s n. end for various observers; this has been a good season for that species in the area. A late Swainson’s Thrush was again detected in Central Park, along with the now near-common Hermit Thrushes, the latter being found in many locations. There’ve been some good movements of corvids recently, with American Crows in some numbers at times. Common Ravens continue to be seen in a number of locations in the county. Blue Jays are showing signs of their movements, as have a wide variety of other land birds including some which can have some ‘irruptive’ tendencies - some of our typical woodpecker species, for example. And the Tufted Titmice have simply been “all over the county” for some weeks, with a bit of increase also for Black-capped Chickadee. too - the latter more so in just the past week although modest in comparison to those titmice (so far). Red-breasted Nuthatches also contiunue to be found in many locations, and White-breasted Nuthatches have been moving a bit as well, more recently. Overall, it was a day that both brought some new birds on, and had some lingerers seen, again. Warbler variety was fairly good for this deep into the month of October. Some species will need to be confirmed, and would be very late indeed, however in-flight or moving warblers and some other passerines are not all that easy without photos or video, esp. for those not that familiar with the calls and other autumn-season vocalizations, if any are given by the bird[s] in question. As one example a 'canada warbler' this late in the season in NY or even anywhere in the northeastern or midAtlantic U.S. regions is very rare (now) and a good photo would be the ideal means of certainty on such a late find. The warbler tally, dependent on some others needing full confirmation, stood at at least one-dozen reliably identified species on the day in the county… and this is not far off some of what’s been reported elsewhere in the area - in N.Y. City and vicinity, recently, although some of these birds are inevitably moving on. Sparrow diversity remains relatively high, and some species still in numbers. - - There may be few still moving, but for butterflies, a few Monarchs came on the winds, passing down along the Hudson river south-bound on Thursday. More reports as the northerly winds bring in more birds, 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/ --
