Hi All, New York county proved to be good birding today! On our way back from a successful Virginia's Warbler chase, Malcolm Morris, Ken Chaya, Jeff Nulle, Karen Fung and I stopped at RANDALL'S ISLAND, where we were not disappointed. We started at backstop 42 on the NE side of the island, where we scanned the water as well as checked the ballfields and some weedy areas. 6 HORNED LARKS touched down on the ballfield, and out on the water we had some good NY co. birds, but the real highlights were a pair of adult BLACK-HEADED GULLS that flew over with a group of ring-billed's and a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, passing over the ballfields and flying north past the New York Post building. We also noted a LAUGHING GULL, making for a 6 gull day in NY co.! After the excitement here we headed over to the little Hell's Gate saltmarsh and walked along the trail by the East River. Highlights here included FIELD and FOX SPARROW. Full lists and details as well as photos are in the ebird checklists below:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12124737 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12124682 Once back in Manhattan, I headed to CENTRAL PARK, where highlights were the continuing RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD at the conservatory garden (viewed around 2:30 pm), 2 BARRED OWLS, and a few other later migrants. Here's the full list: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12127348 Good Birding, Jacob Drucker Amherst, MA -- 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/ --
