Saturday 14 April, 2012 - Riverside Park, Inwood Hill Park, Central Park: Manhattan, N.Y. City
The day began (at first light) with a very strong flow of 'new' migrants, including some apparent onward morning flight of various passerines as seen from the northern end of Central Park, and still at least somewhat evident a 1/2-hour after sunrise. Many more Yellow- rumped [Myrtle] Warblers were moving than in any previous day this spring, and accompanying them were a more modest number of additional warbler species with Palm Warbler an easy second in their overall numbers. A very good sparrow flight also took place with Chipping Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow predominant, also including a strong contingent of Dark-eyed Junco. Continuing in good numbers were Ruby-crowned Kinglets, aided by fresh reinforcements. Now, what a lot of birders also will be interested in are some of the "new" arrivals and the uncommon spp. amongst those: there were at least (to my knowledge) 3 YELLOW-THROATED Warblers in Manhattan today - the first, previously reported here & elsewhere, was noted from the n. end of Riverside Park and was found by Tom Perlman - with whom I birded for a bit in Central Park's north end along with other birders. That bird (the Riverside Pk. Yellow-throated) was seen, after Tom & others spread the word, by no fewer than 40+ birders in the mid-day period and was pretty cooperative for many who showed up then. It did not seem to be vocal but stayed in one pin oak tree, along with multiple nearby Yellow-rumped, Palm, and some Pine Warblers, and other high-up migrants. The location was just very slightly north (a few yards) of the paved park path within Riverside Park to the north of the north entry to the small sanctuary area, and the path that leads from 120 Street / Riverside Drive down into the park and (below) to the tennis courts & small brick building housing the tennis "house" & restrooms. This also happens to be just north & up-slope of the "drip" in Riverside, which is on and is starting to be active now (a few warblers & other migrants visiting it this day). Another Yellow-throated Warbler was in far northern Manhattan in Inwood Park, near the "Clove" path, or the central wooded path which leads from the lagoon area up to the highest ground - this bird was singing and was very high in the oak trees, well-known to any regulars of that park as an extremely high canopy & thus potentially a very tough bird - however there is a path that allows a bit of a view out into canopy from just above the "clove" and with the warbler singing on & off it was possible to re-find it, if only sporadically, in the hours between 3 & 5 p.m. - there were a variety of other warbler spp. and other expected migrants in Inwood Park as well in the afternoon & it seemed likely that the morning hours there may have been quite productive. I did not see any other birders at that hour, however, but there are a small group of devoted Inwood Hill area birders. Also, a number of birders were able to see a Yellow-throated Warbler in Central Park's Ramble area, at the NW portion of that area, known as the "Upper Lobe" of the lake, not far in from the W. 77 Street park entrance - I have not heard anyone remark that it was singing or whether it had been seen at all in the morning hours. A good many other warbler species were also seen in the Ramble or nearby, and for Central Park there appear to have been at least ten warbler species noted with almost a more unexpected species, Worm-eating Warbler, just a bit earlier than expected in this month, at the Ramble's Azalea Pond area, & still being seen as late as 7 p.m., along with that Yellow- throated... Incidentally, the one (of the latter) that was around the "upper lobe" was also in the company of a Wilson's Snipe in the cove below, that being at least the 4th individual snipe in the borough this year - and in the 4th location. (Thanks to, among others, Karen Fung of Manhattan for quickly posting the Riverside Park Yellow- throated Warbler so that many others could see it, as did happen, and to Pat Pollock for a rapid report for the snipe sighting in Central Park.) At Riverside Park, as many as 6 warbler species were tallied - & in the city as a whole, in all 5 boroughs, it seems a dozen warbler species may have been found on the day, according to all reports thus far. The other warbler spp. of which I am aware from today in Manhattan are: N. Parula (several), Black-and-white (several) Pine, Palm, Yellow- rumped [Myrtle], Louisiana Waterthrush (including at Riverside Park's "drip"), and ( 2 reasonable reports of ) Northern Waterthrush, and Black-throated Green Warbler (each from Central Park in the morning & afternoon). I could mention that a few other warbler & additional migrant birds were also reported, but are very early and might be sought in the next few days for additional confirmations. Of today's sightings, Worm-eating Warbler is perhaps ten days ahead of a more expected "early" date in our area and is among the longer-distance migrants to have come in. Many of the species seen today are of the shorter-distance migrants, that is from only the southern U.S. wintering populations, although some are also migrants from a bit farther south. I suspect there were a couple, or at least one, additional warbler species seen in Manhattan today, with at least a few somewhat likely in the midst of a good general push of migrants in mid-April as was today's. There are some reports for Yellow Warbler in NYC this day, which I did not hear of nor see myself, but is rather likely. Other species reasonably possible now would include Hooded Warbler and Ovenbird, among warblers soon to be seen. (I also don't know if anyone continues to seek & find any chat in the city, which could still be hanging in where the species was being seen.) The overall migration did not appear as "dense" (as high in overall numbers at any given point in time or space) as that which took place April 4 (night of April 3 into the 4th) of this spring (from a Manhattan perspective, anyhow) but was a good one with a lot of fresh influx of some species already present or that had been passing through lately. Notable again were many of the sparrow tribe, Chipping Sparrow in particular in a good showing right about "on schedule", and now out-numbering junco, although still not by all that much. I did manage to scare up a single "red" Fox Sparrow & there may have been a few of them still about, while the White-throated Sparrow numbers were again reinvigorated with a freshly-arrived batch, in the thousands but, I thought, less numerous than the 4 April push, which was surprisingly rapid-moving. These are generally a species that, in addition to the many that overwinter in Manhattan and doubteless other urban NY greenspaces, are often at least modestly lingering in a springtime push of fresh migrants. In any case they will typically be around in numbers up until just about the date of the first of the good (usually in or close to May) pushes of true neotropical-wintering spp. with numbers of the more common "may" migrants arrivals. After that they typically diminish quickly in the city, even though a very few may summer (non-breeding though). Speaking of neotropicals, an early-ish Chimney Swift was going by Inwood Hill Park in the afternoon however this is not the first sighting of the year in Manhattan, as a few others had been seen recently, as single flyovers from what I'd heard about. On days with multiple Chimney Swifts starting to appear in April one may also notice a corresponding movement of other neotropical migrants. For the most part the day's migrations seemed to be made of rather typical arrivals and with numbers neither especially low nor high. A few species seemed lacking even if seen by some, such as Blue-gray Gnatcatcher which ought to be found in much higher no's any day now... and likely will be. Many of today's arrivals of Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warblers were in bright plumage, and that can signal additional migration soon to follow. There was not a tremendous amount of song in the city parks, as the arrivals seemed to be quite intent on feeding, but in some cases the singing was evident and I heard at least a bit of a dawn chorus, in the first hour or less after first light. I'll post a full list on Sunday that may include today's sightings or just Sunday's if there are any new additions which seems quite possible, as will be over much of the next 6+ weeks in our city parks. Thanks to all those who reported sightings and mentioned some by word-of-mouth. Good birding - hoping for a little rain as it is needed here... 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/ --
