Thursday, 19 May, 2011 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City -
A male Boat-tailed Grackle again turned up in the park's north end, back by the Meer, where it had first been found in early-mid April. It was rather vocal and did some "displaying" - but to what end? (No female or second male has been reported yet.) There are of course Common Grackles around, as always. Anyhow, this Boat-tailed was apparently seen quite early, and I came upon it around 8-8:15 a.m., but later attempts to see it were unsuccessful, including my tries for it again late in the day. Other birds that went "missing" today (not seen at all, to my knowledge) were the American Bittern (of Wednesday, at the Lake). A Summer Tanager was reported again, same location as the last sightings, at Strawberry Fields. The early, thick fog put a literal damper on some of the activity and song that would otherwise be so typical of a mid-May morning... still, some migrants and certainly nesting species were 'belting out' songs. In my wanderings in early morning and afternoon, it definitely seems that some of the same birds (& here I do mean the same individuals) have stuck around through the damp week and in some cases are in almost the same areas they'd been in all week. The overall number of migrants seems, to me, to have diminished a bit, however. I also saw slightly more females of some species today, but that might be just chance. - - - - - Riverside Park's northern parts (north of W. 106 St., to about W. 120 St.) had some migrants, and the "drip" was receiving warblers thru 5 p.m., to my surprise - I counted 8 species going in and bathing there in less than 1/2 an hour... they certainly had any number of other puddly places they might have got their wings wet. I'm guessing that all these were birds that simply went in to an area where they knew it was "safe" and had recently been going. I also saw a modest number of warblers & a few other migrant species in the trees of the "sanctuary" above the "drip" and just to the north & south; no very uncommon species, but a few more Blackpolls than I'd counted previously in Riverside, up to a dozen. - - - - - While the coastal parts may have been in a bit of a "holding pattern" for land-bird migrants, some of those have made their way inland & north towards their breeding destinations, with even Blackpoll and Mourning Warblers being seen in the multiple up in parts of Canada & elsewhere in the north country. It seems the European Hobby was not seen in Mass. (or any other eastern U.S. location) today - from what was reported. 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/ --
