Wednesday, 4 May, 2011 - Central, Riverside, & Morningside Parks, Manhattan, N.Y. City
On a rather damp, overcast and increasingly chilly day, after a big "fall-out" as happened the day before, I spent a few hours early in Central's north end, then later on a few more hours starting there and moving into Morningside & Riverside Parks, and ending up again in Central... it was a lot less hectic for migrants than the frenzy of Tuesday, yet in Central Park's north end early on, there were a good number of birds about. I was able to come up with 16 species of warblers in 2 hours of the early morning (5:45 - 7:45) which on a weather day as this was isn't so bad - the more rare and/or uncommon species went missing, although I did find a young (1st spring) male Summer Tanager which was calling quite a bit, in the woods just east of the Great Hill's e. edge (not far south of the Blockhouse) - in contrast to the several male Scarlet Tanagers that were singing (rather than just calling). The farthest north sections of the woods were quite active with the most common migrants, while a bit farther south seemed to contain a better mix of species. In Morningside Park, pickings were thinner, or seemed so, but the weather was already starting to look less productive with the temperature falling even by about 7. I quickly "ran" thru and heard or saw a very modest variety of the most common migrant species, then a rather abbreviated visit to Riverside Park's farthest north fringes - including the area of woods above & past the tennis courts, to about 122 St., which held modest numbers of birds, but most noticeably at least several singing Scarlet Tanagers. Farther south in Riverside it seemed quieter. Then it began raining rather steadily with an increasing NW wind and temp's. back into the 50's. I didn't fare too much differently later on in the day, with the focus again on Central Park, going from north to south, but at least there were birds in a lot of places, and a bit of activity throughout, to the end of the day. It's pretty hard to compare this day with the one before, with perhaps only one-tenth the number of birders out & about, and the weather as it was. Even so, it seemed likely that a great many birds moved on Tuesday night & yet, the day was still quite good under any circumstances, for fair numbers of migrants. It seems that the few who searched came up empty on re- finding the most rare new migrants of Tuesday - such as Kentucky Warbler or Yellow-throated Warbler as seen on Tuesday... & in a really brief look about for the varied thrush, I had no luck on that mega, which could have moved on with the huge wave, although it surprised once or twice already in staying on thru earlier & modestly strong migration nights here. A Red-headed Woodpecker was still present in the same area it's been in, south of the southeast part of Sheep Meadow, just a bit west. I know that a few folks were on the Great Hill specifically seeking Kentucky with no luck; I had tried those same sections a short while before and also later on in the day, also to no avail. (That particular bird could re-surface, as the species has sometimes stayed on in Central for many days, and occasionally began to become more vocal after a number of days of silence.) - - - - - - Some interesting "elsewhere" bird reports of note include a current report of Black-bellied Whistling Duck[s] in Massachusetts, and ongoing reports of a male Garganey in southwest Ohio (with no one yet chiming in on the bird being other than wild). There was a Purple Gallinule in the Washington DC area, in addition to one found a few days earlier on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie, in Pennsylvania - still being seen there Wed. A female Ruff (also called a "reeve") was found in a restricted section of a national wildlife refuge in Stratford, Connecticut. A number of Brown Pelican sightings have surfaced far north of their typical range - a few in the Canadian Maritimes amongst these. A lot of terns (of several expected species) were moving today, as evidenced by many reports, from a lot of eastern North America. Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
