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 -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") 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