Saturday, 18 September 2010 - A fair selection of migrants noted in the N.Y. City parks in Manhattan & Brooklyn, with modest numbers & variety in general. At some hawk-watch sites in New England upwards of 3,000 Broad-winged Hawks were observed on the day and this obviously signals a significant push underway each day as of now, as weather permits. Look up! - - -
Friday, 17 Sept. - A reasonably good movement of raptors was noted with a few hawk-watch sites noting over 2,000 Broad-winged Hawks on the day, including at the Mount Peter site in Orange Co. where the observers reported "kettle after kettle" of Broad-winged Hawks after 5 p.m. - and these small buteo hawks moving to the sunset hour there, an exceptional sighting. - - - Thursday, 16 Sept. - Central Park, Manhatttan , N.Y. City - Philadelphia Vireo, and a fairly good variety of warblers and other songbird migrants were among sightings from others birding mainly in the Ramble. - & - Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y. City - A few areas were rich in warblers while some places were exceedingly quiet thru the morning. At least 20 warbler species were collectively found, a high percentage seen in the walk led by Tom Stephenson for the Brooklyn Bird Club a.m. weekday series, ably assisted with Rob Bate's help and over 22 additional eager and attentive observers. Some highlights included a close Philadelphia Vireo & a very cooperative adult male Bay-breasted Warbler at Lookout Hill where a good migrant flurry took place in mid- a.m. - also of interest were the good numbers of warblers and some other migrants at the lake's southern shore trees in mid-p.m. as seen by 2 of us continuing on after that walk disbanded. A modest raptor movement was seen in the a.m. by many of the group as well. A tremendous storm around 5 p.m. was apparently a bit kinder to Prospect than to areas just slightly farther north & east in NYC and western Nassau County, even though Prospect and some Brooklyn neighborhoods suffered a number of tree losses - in Queens, some majestic ancient (for NYC) trees were lost and the damage was very substantial with sadly one death from a falling tree. Additional note on the water level at Jamaica Bay's East Pond as of Friday evening, 9 /17: it was fairly high, and high waterproof boots would be best for any thorough walk at that location. Northern Wheatears are staging and moving in far northern N. American localities and on strong N., N-E, & N-W winds these could be looked for, at typical coastal areas in coming weeks. Good luck, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- 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/ --
