[nysbirds-l] Manhattan / N.Y. County, Tues.-Sat., 9/1-5 - migration

[Thomas Fiore]

For those who’ve never seen (or even heard-of) an albinistic hummingbird, 
here’s a chance, at least in photos - and these are real, not ‘faux', via a 
real Arkansas birder. Rare, but it happens.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S73069115   
-&-  https://ebird.org/checklist/S73134786 
 

The excellent discovery of a Black-throated Gray Warbler at Jamaica Bay 
Willdlife Refuge’s West Pond trail (the part that’s within Queens County, N.Y. 
City) on Friday, 9/4 and observed by a small crowd is interesting for the date, 
as well as its occurrence in N.Y., as an uncommonly-early fall date for this 
vagrant in the state; more records, including within Queens County in the past, 
are from the months of November into December (with at least some being seen in 
the efforts of scouting or searching on or before Christmas Bird Counts), 
although the species also is a very rare April vagrant as well in N.Y. state. 
Thanks to Donna Schulman of Queens Co. for posting the report quickly to this 
list-serve on 9/4, and to the original finder[s] of course for the discovery!

Rather distant from a lot of NY state, but still ‘next-door’ to some areas, a 
Brewer’s Sparrow, a quite-rare western-breeding vagrant, was banded at Powder 
Mill banding station in Rector, PA - the s.w. portion of Pennsylvania in 
Westmoreland Co.; and also ‘next-door’ to NY state, a less-rare but also 
vagrant-type migrant Western Kingbird was discovered on same day in 
Connecticut, both found on Friday, 9/4.

Some ‘early’ reports are flitering in of Pine Siskin, mainly just single birds 
coming in at feeders, in some places outside of boreal-breeding areas in the 
eastern U.S., and it may be interesting to watch to see if any further building 
of that species numbers occurs (away from breeding areas) in coming weeks. 

— — — — — — 
New York County, including Manhattan, Governors Island & Randall’s Island (all 
in N.Y. City) - 9/1-2-3-4-5 (Tuesday thru Saturday)

A Sora has been seen in Bryant Park (in midtown, one block east of Times 
Square) recently, unclear when it actually arrived there, and although 
obviously horrible habitat & surroundings for that type of bird, this is not an 
unprecedented occurence either for the species at that exact location, nor, 
more-so, for unfortunate Soras & some other rails that get plunked into urban 
Manhattan, sometimes requiring help to emerge from the city-streets or smallest 
of greenspaces.  A very small variety of other migrant birds were also in 
Bryant Park into Saturday, 9/5.  On the same day, 9/5 a Virginia Rail was found 
at Wall Street’s plaza (financial district, lower Manhattan; by P. Markee) as 
part of the 'Project Safe Flight' monitoring partnered with NYC Audubon for 
prevention of bird-glass collison injuries & fatalities. This of course an 
indication of likely additional movement by rails in the recent period; the 
Virginia at least perhaps having been attempting to migrate through on the 
night of the 4th-5th.

The KENTUCKY WARBLER is (so far) the least-common warbler species found this 
year in southbound movement in Manhattan (& N.Y. County), first reported on 
Wed., 9/2.  Also an excellent find (and photographed by the initial reporter) 
was (what was called) a GOLDEN-WINGED Warbler - one of several of the species 
in N.Y. City this past week or so - in Central Park on Monday, Aug. 31st - 
however, it’s also possible - as with some others around the city - that 
initially appear[ed to be of this species that it may have been a hybrid, with 
some evidence for a potential genetic backcross with Blue-winged Warbler, & 
thus potentially in the realm of what are most-often labeled as “Brewster’s” & 
“Lawrence’s” (named) hybrid warbler[s].

On a ‘local’ note, the few White-throated Sparrows seen and reported in places 
like Central Park & other city parks & green-spaces so far this month (& thru 
the summer, by some observers) are not “new” to the season i.e. they’re not 
fresh arrivals, they spent all the summer there - & those few birds have been 
consistently found in a lot of the same general locations for months, since the 
main departures of the species back in late April thru May.  At least 2 N. 
Shovelers are again being seen in Central Park - there were 2 found almost 1 
month ago there, which at the time was a slightly early arrival, although not 
so unusual for the species, only the location’s timing.

. . . . . . .
Tuesday, Sept. 1st - Migration includes of course those days when migrants 
mainly depart, and those moving thru the prior night mainly go on as well, 
rather than dropping in locally. Much of the movement locally on Monday night 
(8/31) took place early, and by near first-light, not all that many birds were 
still over Manhattan, other than local bird movements & a very few migrant 
‘stragglers’.  This even though a bit of foggy-drizzle had developed and 
potentially might have put a lot of 

[nysbirds-l] Manhattan / N.Y. County, Tues.-Sat., 9/1-5 - migration

[Thomas Fiore]

For those who’ve never seen (or even heard-of) an albinistic hummingbird, 
here’s a chance, at least in photos - and these are real, not ‘faux', via a 
real Arkansas birder. Rare, but it happens.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S73069115   
-&-  https://ebird.org/checklist/S73134786 
 

The excellent discovery of a Black-throated Gray Warbler at Jamaica Bay 
Willdlife Refuge’s West Pond trail (the part that’s within Queens County, N.Y. 
City) on Friday, 9/4 and observed by a small crowd is interesting for the date, 
as well as its occurrence in N.Y., as an uncommonly-early fall date for this 
vagrant in the state; more records, including within Queens County in the past, 
are from the months of November into December (with at least some being seen in 
the efforts of scouting or searching on or before Christmas Bird Counts), 
although the species also is a very rare April vagrant as well in N.Y. state. 
Thanks to Donna Schulman of Queens Co. for posting the report quickly to this 
list-serve on 9/4, and to the original finder[s] of course for the discovery!

Rather distant from a lot of NY state, but still ‘next-door’ to some areas, a 
Brewer’s Sparrow, a quite-rare western-breeding vagrant, was banded at Powder 
Mill banding station in Rector, PA - the s.w. portion of Pennsylvania in 
Westmoreland Co.; and also ‘next-door’ to NY state, a less-rare but also 
vagrant-type migrant Western Kingbird was discovered on same day in 
Connecticut, both found on Friday, 9/4.

Some ‘early’ reports are flitering in of Pine Siskin, mainly just single birds 
coming in at feeders, in some places outside of boreal-breeding areas in the 
eastern U.S., and it may be interesting to watch to see if any further building 
of that species numbers occurs (away from breeding areas) in coming weeks. 

— — — — — — 
New York County, including Manhattan, Governors Island & Randall’s Island (all 
in N.Y. City) - 9/1-2-3-4-5 (Tuesday thru Saturday)

A Sora has been seen in Bryant Park (in midtown, one block east of Times 
Square) recently, unclear when it actually arrived there, and although 
obviously horrible habitat & surroundings for that type of bird, this is not an 
unprecedented occurence either for the species at that exact location, nor, 
more-so, for unfortunate Soras & some other rails that get plunked into urban 
Manhattan, sometimes requiring help to emerge from the city-streets or smallest 
of greenspaces.  A very small variety of other migrant birds were also in 
Bryant Park into Saturday, 9/5.  On the same day, 9/5 a Virginia Rail was found 
at Wall Street’s plaza (financial district, lower Manhattan; by P. Markee) as 
part of the 'Project Safe Flight' monitoring partnered with NYC Audubon for 
prevention of bird-glass collison injuries & fatalities. This of course an 
indication of likely additional movement by rails in the recent period; the 
Virginia at least perhaps having been attempting to migrate through on the 
night of the 4th-5th.

The KENTUCKY WARBLER is (so far) the least-common warbler species found this 
year in southbound movement in Manhattan (& N.Y. County), first reported on 
Wed., 9/2.  Also an excellent find (and photographed by the initial reporter) 
was (what was called) a GOLDEN-WINGED Warbler - one of several of the species 
in N.Y. City this past week or so - in Central Park on Monday, Aug. 31st - 
however, it’s also possible - as with some others around the city - that 
initially appear[ed to be of this species that it may have been a hybrid, with 
some evidence for a potential genetic backcross with Blue-winged Warbler, & 
thus potentially in the realm of what are most-often labeled as “Brewster’s” & 
“Lawrence’s” (named) hybrid warbler[s].

On a ‘local’ note, the few White-throated Sparrows seen and reported in places 
like Central Park & other city parks & green-spaces so far this month (& thru 
the summer, by some observers) are not “new” to the season i.e. they’re not 
fresh arrivals, they spent all the summer there - & those few birds have been 
consistently found in a lot of the same general locations for months, since the 
main departures of the species back in late April thru May.  At least 2 N. 
Shovelers are again being seen in Central Park - there were 2 found almost 1 
month ago there, which at the time was a slightly early arrival, although not 
so unusual for the species, only the location’s timing.

. . . . . . .
Tuesday, Sept. 1st - Migration includes of course those days when migrants 
mainly depart, and those moving thru the prior night mainly go on as well, 
rather than dropping in locally. Much of the movement locally on Monday night 
(8/31) took place early, and by near first-light, not all that many birds were 
still over Manhattan, other than local bird movements & a very few migrant 
‘stragglers’.  This even though a bit of foggy-drizzle had developed and 
potentially might have put a lot of