Saturday, 26 September - Manhattan, N.Y. City Hearty congratulations to several of the very latest of finders of Connecticut Warbler for Manhattan (N.Y. County, in N.Y. City) - with two individual birds (at least) for the morning being found in 2 very widely-separated locations (and as with some of multiple recent others, not in Central Park) - firstly to 2 loyal birders of Inwood Hill Park in northern Manhattan, N. O’Reilly, & N. Souirgi, for the Connecticut they found by the ‘overlook’ at Inwood, high-ground-in-the high ground of that park; and equally, to A. Burke who’s one of a few who check places such as, for Sat. morn.’ - DeWitt Clinton Park (!) on the far west side, immediately east of the West Side Highway (and the Hudson river just beyond) & bordered by W. 52nd & W. 54th Sts. - this latter Connecticut enjoyed by multiple other happy observers later, as it strutted about in the sparse habitat available for such a typically-skulking shrubbery-loving species! And indeed, already placing a bit of an exclamation point on the more-than-a-few of that warbler species in N.Y. County alone, these sightings are sort of off-the-charts (for recent fall seasons, anyhow) … and regionally, this has been so as well. (There’s also been at least an additional Connecticut, the 3rd such of the day for Manhattan island, in the park that’s most-covered by birders of any in N.Y. County - that’d be Central; that 3rd-bird walking about, fairly aloof inside the low fencing of the inner-circle of the A.Ross Pinetum, western sector, which is n.-w. of the Great Lawn. And poss. about the 5th or 6th or more for that park/that species of this month!) And/but, seriously, to get a warbler-checklist going for -DeWitt Clinton Park!- on the far-west of Manhattan, that is on-the-lookout bird-finding.
Also of note, at Inwood Hill Park, a pair of American Pipits were also added to the season’s checklist for the county, and figured as well with a number of recent/regional sightings of that species, which is not at all commonly-detected in N.Y. County. P.S., it seems the American Bittern found (& photo’d.) at Inwood Hill Park on Friday, 9/25, by D. Karlson was not re-discovered the following day, although the species could yet show again in the area. Thanks also to J. Wooten, finding (at least) the 4th White-crowned Sparrow for N.Y. County, this latest also in Central Park on 9/26. And thanks also to all of the many birders who collectively noted up to 24 species of warblers in N.Y. County on the same day, 9/26 - with up to 22 of those species seen in Central Park alone, all throughout. Some of the many warbler species running a little 'late-in-season', but none (so far) at all unpredecedently so. A Prairie Warbler was among warblers found in Riverside Park (northern area) by 3 friends, K. Fung, U. Mitra, B. Raik; and a Canada Warbler was a slightly late bird found in Battery Park by T. Olson; these 2 (separate) sightings on 9/26. With all of this ‘warbler-frenzy’, the first Pied-billed Grebe of the fall in the Central Park reservoir had received a bit less attention. Those out reasonably early noted yet another strong movement of Blue Jays, generally working SSW. There was some additional flight in early morning, but less than other days earlier this week. Counts of Y.-b. Sapsucker were as they had been for weekdays this past week, which were already up from the week prior. … Incidentally, large flocks of Blue Jay have been noted west at least into the central Plains states, and a lot of this is fairly-standard movement, but it will be interesting to see if these (diurnal) jay migrations get even stronger over coming weeks. - - - - - Going back to discussion of the recent Queens County, N.Y. City Yellow-headed Blackbird (a male in bright plumage), in my notes in last brief post on that subject, I ‘put' tertials where retrices belonged, that is, on that bird in question, it in fact had retrices (tail feathers), as well as some wing feathers that appeared (to me & at least some other observers who first pointed this out to me, with help of photos by several other birders) to have been neatly (& intentionally?) cut, and thus a mystery, as that species is, in addition to the illegality of a person doing so, not a usual object of the cage-bird trade, at least as far as known in the U.S. - the various photos of that bird in flight, in particular, illustrate the odd situation for that individual, which was able to fly - but, from where, when, etc.? And yet also, as already pointed out to this list’s readers, that species has a well-known tendency to vagrancy to the eastern U.S. & beyond, & this current month is not at all out-of-the historical record of many such ‘vagrant’ wanderings to this far east & also well beyond NY state. - - - - - "This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.” - Teddy Roosevelt (26th president of the U.S.A.) "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." - Frederick Douglass (1818-1895; U.S. statesman, orator, writer) good birding to all, & thanks to many for their observations & good ethics out in the field, Tom Fiore, manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
