There will be some more land-bird migration - it's happening this evening.
Sunday-Monday, 22-23 May, 2011 - Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City After a period during which weather had contributed to some excellent birding in Central Park, quite the opposite came about with departure and very little, if any, real influx there. Most of what birds were still around may well have been among those that lingered from previous days, and the very cool & very overcast conditions did not inspire birds, or many observers, to that much activity. For the dates, it's been extremely "slow" in terms of ongoing migration. Of course it's just a local phenomenon! Also this really applies to particular land bird movements, as overall many birds are continuing to move each day and night. On Sunday, there were still 2 species of tanager, with 1 Summer Tanager lingering at Strawberry Fields, and another seen elsewhere, plus Scarlets in at least a few locations (mainly females noted by me). The warbler variety was limited, and I struggled to find a dozen species, with only Blackpoll really getting just into double-digit numbers. At least one person noted a Mourning Warbler in the Ramble, which all too typically was not seen later by others. There was a single Bank Swallow feeding over the reservoir along with the regular Barn & N. Rough-winged Swallows there, & elsewhere. Monday, the 2 tanager species continued (Summer still around Strawberry Fields in very early a.m.), and it was again possible to struggle with warblers & other migrants to find perhaps (at best) about five per cent of what might more typically be expected for the date at this location (in terms of overall numbers of migrant birds, not in terms of diversity which remains fairly good)... oh.. that lone little Ruddy Duck was still on the C.P. reservoir. - - - Interstellar celebrity "Pale Male" and mate (Red-tailed Hawks) seem to have succeeded in hatching at least one chick in the long-standing Fifth Avenue building's nest, opposite the Conservatory Water. The excitement amongst many followers grows, anew. Sad news from a smaller and likely new-to-Central park nesting attempt: a pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers had built and were attending a nest in the Ramble, but recent storms (presumably) damaged the nest beyond preservation. The hope is the birds will try again with success on the next go. (Although this particular nesting failure may have had little or nothing to do with the location, Central Park is actually a very tough environment for many native songbirds to attempt breeding: an overabundance of human, canine & other animal activity, including abnormally large populations of squirrels, rats, raccoons and at least some feral cats in some areas, plus significant depredation from European Starlings and House Sparrows, all contribute to a very high rate of failure in breeding of a variety of native birds in all parts of Central Park... in some ways it is impressive what smaller native birds do manage.) In city parks with a lot more habitat and a lot less disturbance, even within just a few miles of Central, breeding species are half or more again as diverse as the total ever found in Central. It is a sort of irony that a site so well-known for observing migration and visiting birds is so relatively slim in relative diversity of breeding birds - it would be fascinating to see what species might breed were the entire park to be rid of most of it's introduced birds and to be kept off-limits to humans, dogs, and cats... - - - Speaking of hawks... the Braddock Bay (NY) watch-site passed the 100,000 birds mark as of Monday (even without vultures the season count is somewhere in the 80,000 raptors range thus far) counted for the spring season, with an impressive late showing of Broad-winged Hawks at over 10,000 on the day. (exact tallies should be up on the BirdHawk and hawkcount,org sites by Tuesday, 5/24.) - - - A Long-billed Curlew was reported by several observers in Maryland, late Monday - that bird then observed "flying off to the northwest". 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/ --
