New York County -in N.Y. City- including Manhattan, Randalls, Governors and Roosevelt Islands -the 4 main islands of the county- and the adjacent waters and skies above - thru Thursday, November 14th -
Much arrival - and plenty of departure and passage - has taken place this week, and in recent days more waterfowl and some other later-season birds have been on the move. More arrivals of Red-breasted Mergansers, as well as rarer sightings of Black Scoters - those latter on the Hudson River, for several observers at northern Manhattan, plus more of various other waterfowl passing by or arriving to stay a while. Last week, Ring-necked Duck was among the species passing, not the 1st-of-fall in the county however. Flights of both Common and Red-throated Loon have occurred, with some potentially stopping in or staying around here. More American Coots have been coming in but so far, not in their peak numbers of the full year. At least one of several reports of Lesser Black-backed Gull, for Nov. 12, was supported by good photos - A. Evans - and so a sighting at Pier 32 on the lower Hudson River shore of Manhattan is confirmed from there. At least a small number of Laughing Gulls were still around this week, in this county. While no real rarities seem to have popped up in reports from this county this week, so far, there are plenty of regular migrants coming thru, some also lingering on - a young male Indigo Bunting was ongoing in Central Park, and in the past several days at least 7 warbler species were seen in the county - with 6 or more just within Central Park in Manhattan, including Orange-crowned, Cape May -there have been more than one in Central, with one individual most-often seen at the Pinetum area of that park- and still a very few Palm, Nashville among the less-regular spp. around the county, and of others, semi-regular in late fall and even in winter, Pine, Ovenbird, Common Yellowthroat, and Myrtle form of Yellow-rumped Warbler round out the rest that have been found this week. There is a fair chance that a few other warbler species could still be hanging-in at odd locations anywhere in the county, perhaps in small parks or urban gardens and the like - as for any sorts of other passerine-type birds as well. Any locations in the county with lingering sapsuckers might be checked for a possibility of sap-stealers, that would be other small birds that can and will take sap - and any possible arthropod prey items - from sap-wells and adjacent places in the area of lingering well-drilling sapsuckers. This sort of thing has been seen multiple times over past cold-weather seasons in this county, with rarities that have -in multiple past years- included W. Tanager and other such vagrants as well as late-lingering species, such as Cape May Warblers, whose preferred winter diet can include much nectar -or sap if appropriate for their diet- and associated arthropods, known well on Caribbean isles where Cape Mays overwinter. Another example of this sap-stealing winter-behavior can be orioles, of whatever species, most-regularly here, just late and lingering Baltimore Orioles. Governors Island lately had some seasonal species such as ongoing E. Meadowlarks, and Pine Siskins which latter also have turned up in several locations in the county, and some of first reports of American Tree Sparrows for the county, by Nov. 13th, as well as some ongoing E. Bluebird sightings, including one or more still in Central Park this week. There were still a few Blue-headed Vireos in the county this week, but those have perhaps now moved on. Many other birds have been moving or arriving, including raptors of the day and the night and also a good many other types of birds recently. Thanks to many keen, quiet, courteous observers and photographers who have also offered many reports, via non-x alerts and as always, via eBird with the Macaulay Library archives for media, and also directly thru old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Good birding to all, Tom Fiore manhattan -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
