For two lower Manhattan locations WTSPs were spotted yesterday and today. At St. Paul's Chapel Cemetery yesterday a White-throated was seen with short fine dry grasses in it's bill at the north side of the cemetery near the entrance on Vesey St. It flew into the trees where I lost it. This was during a break from work so I couldn't stay long to track the bird or see if there are still multiples here. On the 11th I had at least 5 WTSPs at St. Paul's Chapel.
Today at Trinity Church Cemetery on the north side of the church three WTSPs were seen. One has a tan supercilium (TS) and there are two with white supercilia (WS). It was easy to separate the two WS birds since one has broken/bent feathers on its breast. The other WS had a clean breast with no damaged feathers. Both WS birds were seen close to each other in time. I mention this since breeding White-throated Sparrows in the city are rare. According to Birds of North America online nest-building commences during the 3rd and 4th week of May. Under the topic 'Negative Assortive Mating' it states '[a]bout 96% of breeding pairs (total of 5 samples, n = 709 pairs) are either WS males mated with TS females or TS males mated with WS females.' It's good to see that both TS and WS birds were seen at Trinity Church. -- Ben Cacace Manhattan, NYC Wiki for NYS eBird Hotspots <http://ebirding-nys.wikispaces.com/Birding+in+New+York> Facebook Discussion for NYS eBird Hotspots <https://www.facebook.com/groups/NYeBirdHotspots/> -- 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/ --
