New York County -in N.Y. City- including Manhattan, Randalls Island, and Governors Island Monday, April 29th -
A widespread migration push occurred in the night of April 28th into April 29th in the mid-Atlantic to northeastern region of the U.S. and the N.Y. City area certainly had its share of that fresh passage and arrival of birds. Many species which overwinter in the neotropical regions of the hemisphere came along in good to very good numbers, and many species also reached far, far beyond the local area, on passage and in arrivals noted from multiple eastern states. In some areas, there may be have been modest or even good fallout-type of conditions on the early morning of April 29th, with, in some areas, some light fog in the late-late-night to the morning of Monday, 4-29. The good migrations are continuing as well with the last day of April likely to show yet-more in fine passage and stop-in of these vast numbers of so many birds on the move. As just one indicator, New York County on Monday had at least 29 species of migratory American warblers show in all of the county, and at just one large park of Manhattan island -Central Park- at least 28 of those warbler species were found, and those Central Park sightings are listed below - In addition to the Blue-winged Warblers with standard appearances, there are some birds showing characters of hybridization with Golden-winged -crossed with Blue-winged- and these may have some odd songs, also may be mixed-batch plumages that do not exactly-equal what is in a field guide, app, or standard photos from guides. The hybrids of these aforementioned warblers are a lot more regular on migration passage than was once seen in this area, matching to some extent the increases of hybrid-types of these closely-related species, more generally. Blue-winged Warbler - multiple, increased here just overnight from Sunday into Monday, also seen at other sites. Tennessee Warbler - multiple, some are detected exclusively by song in spring around here. Nashville Warbler - multiple, and including some females as well as singing males. Northern Parula - VERY many, and also seen in numbers in many other locations in the county. Yellow Warbler - many, and also seen in numbers in many other locations in the county. Chestnut-sided Warbler still modest numbers, but increased from Sunday to Monday here. Magnolia Warbler - still modest numbers, but increased from Sunday to Monday here. Cape May Warbler - modest numbers and all known-of were singing males for Monday. Black-throated Blue Warbler - many, and also seen in numbers in many other locations in the county. Myrtle -Yellow-rumped- Warbler - a good morning-flight of this species, into the thousands for all of county, and very good numbers recorded all day for some locations in the county. Black-throated Green Warbler - many, and also seen in numbers in many other locations in the county. Blackburnian Warbler - multiple, and already including some females as well as males. Yellow-throated Warbler - this standout species remained at Central Park as for recent days, still singing a lot. Pine Warbler - in the multiple, with still some males passing and a good number of drab and less-drab females or 1st-spring individuals. Prairie Warbler - many-multiple, in a good number of sites in the county. Palm Warbler - many-multiple, in a good number of sites in the county. Bay-breasted Warbler - probably first-of-spring in the county, a few showed in at least 2 locations in Central Park. Blackpoll Warbler - no longer a rare find at end of April, a very few came in as seen at Central Park and Riverside Park northern end. Black-and-white Warbler - many, and also seen in numbers in many other locations in the county. American Redstart - many-multiple, in a good number of sites in the county. Worm-eating Warbler - multiple at least for several parks. Ovenbird - many, and also seen in numbers in many other locations in the county. Northern Waterthrush - many-multiple, in a good number of sites in the county. N.B., on migrations, this species will sometimes appear nearly anywhere, and in big-migration passages, they may show in very unexpected urban locales. Of course these usually will not linger long in habitat that is truly unsuitable, but water seems less-required on passage stops than for the following, less-common overall waterthrush species. Louisiana Waterthrush - a good late-ish push of this species, some non-singing perhaps females, and seen in multiple locations that included at least a few sites where this species would be unexpected. Common Yellowthroat - many-multiple, in a good number of sites in the county - females are also increasing. Hooded Warbler - multiple at least for several parks and some females are showing in multiple sites as well. Wilson's Warbler - perhaps the first-of-spring arrivals, not many just yet. Canada Warbler - slight increase just overnight, from Sunday into Monday and with a fair number singing well. A bit of the good shorebird movement came thru Manhattan and a few species stopped off at least for a while, including both Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, as well as Least Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Wilsons Snipe and even a few newly-passing American Woodcock. The Killdeer sightings from some sites in the county were from locations where they are fairly-regular. Purple Sandpiper was again found off the shoreline of Governors Island. In this county, the day may have also been termed Monday-of-the-Marsh Wrens, as a good many of that species came in and were seen in at least 5 very-separated sites of N.Y. County, with at least several on Manhattan, and also occurring on Randalls, Governors, and Roosevelt Islands, each of which is fairly near to Manhattan island. At Central Park alone, there were multiples of this species on the day, a bit uncommon for such numbers in a single day in this county, although very much an annually-seen migrant. Also showing a bit of an increase were Yellow-billed Cuckoos, which were also found in other locations outside of both Central Park, and outside of New York County. Nice increases were seen in these other mainly neotropical-wintering migrant birds - Green Heron, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Laughing Gull, Eastern Kingbird, Least Flycatcher, Great Crested Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Veery -modest increase-, Swainsons Thrush -also modest increase-, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole, and at least a few others just-now-increased of various migratory species. Some other sightings, but maybe not as migratory or not-at-all, were of ongoing finds of Monk Parakeets with some nesting in the county, and of nesting species, the Ravens that are doing so, in at least a few known locations here. - as mentioned previously, Monk Parakeet is an accepted locally-occurring breeding species, well-established in parts of the wider NYC area, in more than one state. Among the many migratory species also noted -besides the many listed above- on the day were - Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Canada Goose, Atlantic Brant, Wood Duck, Gadwall, American Black Duck, Green-winged Teal -of these, a pair were still lingering on at The Pool in Central Park-, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, American Kestrel, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-shafted Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue Jay, Fish Crow, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, House Wren, Winter Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, Eastern Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Slate-colored Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch, and certainly some additional species! - the full listings are not meant to cover all of the species noted in the county, just a large sampling of the days sightings. - - - Also migrating to some extent were some butterfly species, probably most-notably in the area, American Lady as well as Red Admiral butterflies, and also smaller numbers of some other spring-migrating butterfly species, which are all a bit less well-known as migrators, relative to the famed Monarch butterfly. Trees, shrubs, and many other plants are all leafing out or showing leaf-buds in such rapid progression, along with flowering having taken place or starting to, many ahead of the schedules seen in past decades, and all of these contributing to increased amounts of arthropod emergences and activity, which also equals far more food for hungry migratory birds. This rapidly increased leaf-out also means a bit more work by even the keenest observers, for good viewing of some of the more-arboreal or skulking species of arriving and passing migrant birds. All-good for the birds themselves, generally! Good birding to all, with thanks to the many-diverse reporter-observers of so much of the recent migrations. Tom Fiore manhattan -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") 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