By Wednesday eve. of April 3rd, hundreds of observers had come to see a Virginia Rail --stranded-- in Bryant Park for at least several days since first being publicly reported there, this is smack-dab in the middle of downtown Manhattan, N.Y. City one city block west of Times Square. The rail most recently in the sw quadrant of that park. It is a species that shows -or hides- both in that park and more-generally around Manhattan urban areas virtually each spring, and also is vastly more-common as a migrant than many realize. This is not a rare species, but is of course rather rarely-seen except by those who seek them out - or, to some extent, who have long worked in bird-rehab as well as on other urban-bird issues, just referring to the city that never sleeps, N.Y. City and specifically to Manhattan. At least one Purple Sandpiper was still present thru Mon., April 1st at a long-standing site this year, Pier 26 on the Hudson river off lower Manhattan. Good numbers of amongst many other species, sparrows which lately included more-of White-throated Sparrow have been all around New York County, indicating initial movements of these. Many have been increasingly singing at times, as have Red Fox Sparrows also in good, if more-limited numbers and locations. Better chances for a lot more local migration come by at-least this Monday, and subsequently, if forecasting by meteorologists can be believed!
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/ --
