With the strong attention to a certain rare-here Martin species - highly-likely 
a Gray-breasted Martin, which was still being seen thru Saturday 3-29 in - - 
-Staten Island -Richmond County, NY- - -, by-now witnessed over recent days by 
hundreds of birders from at least several states, the arrival-or-find of a 
Yellow-throated Warbler at Staten Island on Saturday elicited rather-less 
attention - that latter bird also seen with the original finder of the rare 
Martin, and during a walk led for the not-for-profit NYC Bird Alliance.
--
Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City - Saturday, March 29th -

Among slightly surprising early-birds were a Prairie Warbler, thanks for the 
Prairie sighting on Friday, 3-28 from A. Deutsch - the last a confirmed 
sighting for that early-date, while a Saturday 3-29 report, from a different 
observer, of an Indigo Bunting needs some follow-up, if confirmed as-such, this 
male bunting -reported as such, in bright color- would be a 
very-early-overshoot, not a standard arrival of that species which are 
generally 4 to 6 weeks later in the spring here. A remote chance also exists 
that this could have been a bunting which overwintered much-farther north than 
in Central America, and thus came in from wherever on the highly-unusual warm 
to hot weather which pushed thru the southern and mid-Atlantic US states on 
Saturday, and infiltrated parts of southern NY state as well, bringing local 
temps in some parts to the mid-70s F. An exceedingly-remote chance that any 
such early-bunting in that genus and bluish of color could be checked for a 
chance of a real-rarity, but that would need -much more- documentation, and 
there is precedent for rare-overwintered and more-occasional early-overshoot 
early-spring arrivals of Indigo Bunting, in the wider region, and specifically 
also in Manhattan.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on Saturday in Central Park, while a bit earlier than the 
mass arrival of that species, was not wholly unexpected by near-end of March, 
in the conditions of the day and prior night. The arrival of Louisiana 
Watertrush, not well-reported yet, was another even-more-anticipated early-bird 
at Central Park, consistent with end-of-March first arrivals, and with arrivals 
now in the rest of the region and southward.

A Lesser Black-backed Gull in adult plumage is and was that same 
adult-individual returning to the C.P. reservoir which was originally found 
there by J. Suzuki on March 23, and also photographed on that date, also seen 
there by multiple other observers since then, including to Saturday, March 29 - 
thus that adult bird was present, or often-visiting, for at least one full 
week. The last definite sightings for any Black-headed Gull at Central Park 
came on March 26th. A Bonapartes Gull was seen and photod in-flight going by 
Randalls Island, just east of Manhattan, on Saturday - thanks to R. Zucker, and 
A. Cunningham, and there were -many- other fine bird sightings from Randalls on 
the day as well. More sightings from all around this N.Y. County in a future 
report.

March and also April are excellent months to be checking gulls locally, for the 
possibilities of uncommon or rarer species. The arrival of early-ish Laughing 
Gull for N.Y. County was also somewhat-anticipated, and at least had been noted 
from Randalls Island as early as 3-26 and also a couple of times since then in 
the county.

Central Park also had many-more than one dozen Palm Warblers in all, and 
greater numbers of Pine Warblers in -again- all parts of the park on Saturday. 
Both of these species also showing in other parks and greenspaces in the 
county. The Louisiana Waterthrush was seen -so far- only at the far-northwest 
part of the park, and rather late in the day. It is also possible that some 
other early-migrants arrived and have yet to be uncovered, perhaps lurking in 
less-birded areas. Slight increases were seen for Brown Creeper, while for 
Golden-crowned Kinglet - the latter into the many-dozens for all of Central 
Park on Saturday, as well as a very-impressive very-early morning-flight of 
Yellow-shafted Flicker, totaling at least 100-plus of that species, some 
lingering thru the day in various areas of the park. Other increased 
arrival-species may be apparent in the next day or two with more observing.

Later on, nice flights of some raptors took place on Saturday, with Turkey 
Vultures also on the move over Manhattan, and beyond. An active movement of 
Black-capped Chickadee has begun with some of the migrations of that species 
slightly-obscured by the factor of so many having been readily seen over all of 
winter here, a lot more than in some of other recent winters, this also so of 
Tufted Titmouse in some places, with the titmouse a somewhat more 
regular-breeder in this county in the modern birding era.

It has been possible to observe 3 species of ardeid birds, including Great 
Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, and Great Blue Heron, at the Pond in the 
southeast corner of Central Park, with all of those present at times there on 
Saturday 3-29. Northern Rough-winged Swallows continued on their many-days stay 
over the Meer, in particular in Central Parks northeast corner, still there 
thru Saturday. Tree Swallows have also been seen at times in multiple locations 
in Manhattan and the other islands of this county. Snowy Egret also has been 
reported recently for Central Park, and has been confirmed for N.Y. County by 
now.

For this observer a nice end-of-day near-dusk sounding-off and sign of the 
spring was the throaty rattle of Belted Kingfisher moving up The Loch of 
Central Parks north, for a late evening call of the spring.
--
A photographed flight of Snow Geese - before 8 am - was a nice highlight of 
sightings from Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan on Friday morning, 3-28, 
thanks to M. Waldron for the photos in eBird and the Macaulay Library.

Chipping Sparrows, Yellow-shafted Flickers, and Golden-crowned Kinglets are 
three of the species which were widely seen throughout this county by Saturday, 
and included sightings from smaller parks and green-spaces on Saturday, with 
perhaps 50-plus of that kinglet species in Manhattan alone, and much-increased 
numbers of the Chippies and the Flickers in just one day from Friday to 
Saturday, by many, many observers through all of N.Y. County, including all of 
Manhattan island. Many of the flickers moving in early morning may have 
continued on in the excellent conditions for onward migrations on Saturday 
morning.

Thanks to the many keen, quiet, courteous observers and photographers who found 
or saw and photographed many species and gave reports all via non-x alerts and 
thru eBird with the Macaulay Library for media.

Good birding to all,

Tom Fiore
manhattan



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