Hello all, Today was an incredible day. After that I met and talked to Jacob Drucker around 8am and heard about his two-second flash of Red Crossbills flying over-head (at 6.30am) I made RECR the target of my morning walk. I checked up on the conifer stands on the east side of the Ramble (Cypress Hill), the pines south of Turtle Pond, and then at about 9:45am I struck gold when I found a flock of 8+ Red Crossbills in flight over Shakespeare Garden.
I first heard heard them and then got visual contact for long enough to get a picture of birds that fitted RECR. The birds flew south across 81st Street transverse (I feared they were gone), but luckily they returned after a minute or so to feed in the Hemlock Trees. It was a mixed flock of males and females. Once I got the word out by ways of a call to Jacob Drucker, a NYNYBIRD alert and a post to ebirdsnyc, I was over the next two hours joined by an ever growing group of birders. Many got to enjoy seeing them as they stayed in and around the Hemlock Trees for several hours during the day. Maybe they are still there? Sound recording: http://soundcloud.com/anders-peltomaa/red-crossbills-central-park (Type 3 later confirmed by Andrew Farnsworth and Matthew A. Young, of Cornell Lab of Ornithology) Photos here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/landp/sets/72157631339880598/ Manhattan is great birding, Anders Peltomaa PS. There were no records in ebird at all for New York County. A local longtime birder (PP) remembered having seen RECR in Central Park back in the 1950's. Does anyone have historical records of sightings in New York county (i.e. Manhattan). Emails off the list would be much welcome. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
