Labor Day, 6 Sept., 2010 I would point out that in the NYC area there have been some bird reports suggesting relatively little migration in the past several days (while there are also simultaneous reports from NYC locations indicating fairly good migrant passage & stop-over). In fact, my understanding is that there has been tremendous southward migration lately and that a great deal of that has been nocturnal and of such duration that many birds have sailed past the NYC region to points south. This is supported at least somewhat by voluminous various reports from sites in southern New Jersey, Pennsylavania, Delaware, and elsewhere in the region just south of New York (and from personal bird-related messages from others in the field). Interesting, at least to me, are the numbers of Black-capped Chickadees migrating in some areas (including smallish numbers moving through at Central Park, NYC) & of course, the ongoing movements of Red-breasted Nuthatches, rather widely reported and observed recently.
Plenty of nice migrants being seen in Prospect Park, Brooklyn over Sunday & likely again this Labor Day Monday including Yellow-breasted Chat, & much more, as reported by multiple observers out that way via Peter Dorosh's Brooklyn birding blog, & from a few personal messages as well. Also, as virtually anyone in the northeast who went out at all this past week saw, "Hurricane Earl" was a big disappointment in terms of storm-related fall-out or vagrant sightings, although at least one Sooty Tern was reported from Nova Scotia, as well as three Sandwich Terns at a single (other) location in that Canadian province, after "Earl"'s passage there. Also of note were a very recent photo of a "possible" 'Snowy' Plover from a still-different location on Nova Scotia. Many terns of more 'northern'-breeding flavors (than Sooty or Sandwich) were found off Nova Scotia, some quite special for that province or anywhere quite that far north (& east). One New Brunswick (Maritime province of eastern Canada) birder summed up Earl's passage there thusly: "not a bang but a whimper". On Newfoundland Canada, a couple of birders there summed up the search for "pearls from Earl": "no results.... oh well", although a Northern Shrike there on "Newfie" is a nice addition, at least to us deep-south New Yorkers. There are modest increases in jaeger sightings from such places as along the shores of the Great Lakes (both U.S. & Canada) and these are in normal migration mode now, so that a sighting in an area such as coastal Long Island, NY should not really be seen necessarily as having been storm- related, although a major storm could influence any migration, obviously. It is typical jaeger migation time, into the autumn. In central New Hampshire (near Concord), a Western Kingbird was sighted Sunday, 9/5 - but this is a regular/annual "vagrant" to the northeast from late Aug. thru the autumn and not really related to "Earl" the little hurricane that couldn't. (That W.K.B. was not reported as a storm-related sighting.) At least a few Connecticut Warblers have been reported with reasonable certainty (such as one that gave a bit of song & was seen in Pennsylvania) from varied locations east, west, north & south of NY state in the past few days. (I think hear one of them tip-toeing about Central Park this very morning... but from a tremendous distance -so I'll rely on others to verify any such possibility! The species does have large feet for a wood-warbler...) A nice sighting of four Caspian Terns on Staten Island here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SINaturaList/message/1807 (That is Staten Island / Richmond County, in New York City) The White-tailed Kite has lingered on in coastal Connecticut, via the CT Daily reports - at least into Sunday, 5 September. Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan & points n. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
