So as not to have this be only in response to the post by Patricia Lindsay, on the events of a “slingshot" migrant event, or what I’ll call a migrant-overshoot event, or set of events, spanning several recent days, & culminating (maybe) in one truly-rare-for-New England species…as noted and linked-to below, I am placing some further reports from Manhattan into the record here, which may or may not have been widely noted.
The following warbler species were noted on Manhattan island &/or on the adjacent isles of New York County (of which Manhattan is the largest parcel) on Sunday, 4/21: Nashville Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warbler, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Louisiana Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, and Hooded Warbler. Of these, at least 8 species were seen in the multiple; also those 8 species were further seen rather widely in multiple states & locations to the north of N.Y. City (& some quite a lot farther north). The earliest of the preceding in terms of typical or expected arrival dates in spring are Nashville and American Redstart, although in recent years each of these has turned up at least as early. Two less-birded parks I’ve been checking in northern Manhattan lately include Highbridge Park, and St. Nicholas Park; the larger but more divvied-up of these being the former, & St. Nicholas Park having less overall obvious habitat for migrants; nonetheless, it does receive some! There are any number of smaller parks & greenspaces in the northern half of Manhattan island that see migrants drop in, of course the more so on strongest passages where there’s a good general drop-in of birds. These 2 noted parks can sometimes hold an advantage of looking into canopy trees with their steep slopes each of which face east. Other parks in parts of Manhattan have this potential. It seems no one turned up a Yellow-throated Warbler again in Central Park (or elsewhere in Manhattan) on Sunday 4/21, but the species may well show itself again, and also could be lingering but in a new part of the same park. A rather early Veery was confirmed thru eBird in Central Park for Tues., 4/16, that sighting by long-time birder Ricki Ravitts. This seems to be among the species that’s come at least in small numbers much farther north earlier than would be anticipated; some others of this species have been reported north of N.Y. City, not all necessarily confirmed to species. Wood Thrushes have appeared in a number of locations as of at least 4/21, including a small number in Manhattan, where they are scarce & rather threatened nesters in select sites. -- A Black-whiskered Vireo was found & photographed at Martha’s Vineyard off Massachusetts on Sunday 4/21, see: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55238360 <https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55238360> If accepted by their state records committee, this will be a first state record for Mass., discovered & photographed by Ken Magnuson. This is a species (with 2 forms) most regular in the Caribbean Greater Antilles, and (1 form) is a Florida & Bahamas islands breeder as well. [N.B., a first record north of southern Virginia (and 6th north of Florida and the gulf coast) was established for this vireo species at Rhode Island’s Sakonnet Point, by Evan Lipton, precisely 11 months before this latest sighting on Martha’s Vineyard: the Rhode Island record is for May 21, 2018)]. This ultra-rarity for so far north may just underscore the recent movements of so many other migrants of both typical & less-typical species to “overshoot” and end up farther north than expected, &/or on dates ahead of when expected. Scarlet Tanagers were reported (& confirmed in eBird reports) from at least several New England locations, from 4/19-21. The checklists of birds seen at just a few locations in Massachusetts, as of 4/21, are remarkable, in part for how many were well-documented & seen by multiple observers; they include at least a total of 17 species of N. American-breeding warblers, including Prothonotary, Hooded, Worm-eating, Magnolia, and most-remarkably for the date Bay-breasted Warbler[s], plus another dozen species of warbler some of which would be expected by the date, but many from 7 to 14+ days earlier than more-typically (first-seen) in Massachusetts. That state also has reports of E. Kingbirds, more Blue Grosbeaks, Indigo Buntings, Summer and Scarlet Tanager[s], Summer Tanagers turned up northward & downeast in New England at least to mid-coastal Maine on Sunday, 4/21. As did Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Indigo Buntings. At least one Blue Grosbeak was photographed Sun. 4/21 in Windsor County, Vermont - see: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55205034 <https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55205034> >From April 17-20th, New Brunswick in the Canadian Maritimes saw Rose-breasted >& Blue Grosbeak as well as Indigo Bunting appear. Blue Grosbeak, and also >Worm-eating Warbler were seen & photographed on 4/18 at Clark’s Harbor in Nova >Scotia, in the Canadian Maritimes - these passerines both observed feeding in >the wrack-line on arthropods in seaweeds; see: >https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55117262 ><https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55117262> There’ve been a number of other migrant species showing up rather earlier than typical/expected “first arrival date" ranges, as well as the few species which are out-of-range, some notably so such as Black-whiskered Vireo anywhere north of Florida or the Bahamas. White-faced Ibis have been reported along with far more Glossy Ibis in locations up the New England coast, to 4/21. There may be some that turned up farther north by now, but it’s seemed that Yellow-billed Cuckoos were spared the ignonimies of having to come north along with other neotropical-wintering migrants that did so in recent days above the latitude of Virginia (and that is where a smattering of Y.-b. Cuckoo reports came as of Sat., 4/20 in coastal VA.) - but they may yet be discovered in NY or at some other sites along the coast or inland to our north or east soon. Indeed, it looks like there is at least a single report of Y.-b. Cuckoo for Westchester County, N.Y. on Sunday April 21st. So there it is - more may be uncovered soon. Rhode Island had 2 Summer Tanagers, 2 Blue Grosbeaks and at least 3 Indigo Buntings all in one location (Trustom Pond N.W.R.) on 4/21. Other Blue Grosbeaks in the widely-dispersed event of overshooting neotropical-wintering migrants included one photographed at the SW corner of the Bronx (county) in N.Y. City on 4/21, not a lot more than a long stone’s throw from the edge of New York County, or, from the north tip of Manhattan island at Inwood. New Jersey continued to host a Black-headed Grosbeak (at Morristown, N.J.) as well as the Swainson’s Warbler in Cape May County, N.J. and some of many arrivals in that state included a reported European form of Whimbrel - the rare-in-North America nominate taxon [Numenius phaeopus phaeopus], & various rarities such as White Ibis (Cape May Co., New Jersey) on 4/21, & many other spp. some of which are at least slightly “early”. [N.B, there are some authors who would split the Whimbrel taxons into at least 2 species, if not more: it’s ‘complicated’…] On the subject of rarities near NY state, a California Gull has been seen in New Haven County Connecticut for several days from its discovery by Nick Bonomo (w/ Julian Hough also on-scene on the day) on April 18, to at least Sunday, 4/21. An adult bird in alternate plumage, it has been seen by multiple observers & well-photographed. Connecticut has also seen Yellow-throated Warbler in recent days, and an early arrival of Indigo Bunting. And getting back into NY state, the Broad-winged Hawk derby was likely won for Sunday 4/21 by the Derby Hill hawk-watch at Mexico, New York, where 15, 353 migrant raptors & vultures were tallied on the day, all but about 500 of those being Broad-wingeds. The bulk of others were Turkey Vultures, but also seen were Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk, and 2 each of the 3 falcon species, plus 5 additional raptor spp. - over 8,000 of the Broad-wingeds passed in the 1-2 p.m. hour, and at low elevation. See http://hawkcount.org <http://hawkcount.org/> for more hawk-watch results daily. good birding, Tom Fiore manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
