Thanks, Peter - I had not realized there were records for those kinds of numbers or frequency all the way into New York County waters in that period; I’d understood them as more so in Kings County/Brooklyn waters, & of course elsewhere in the wider region, referring in particular to Bonaparte’s Gull, rather than the rarer two species of gull you also referenced. If only this were so cuurently! I wonder then, when the last of sightings of Bonaparte’s Gull in New York County waters were which included even -for example- 100+ individuals, much less thousands on one day. Thank you for the historical information!
Tom Fiore manhattan - - - - - > On Oct 13, 2020, at 11:19 AM, Peter W. Post <pwp...@nyc.rr.com> wrote: > > Tom: > > Bonaparte’s Gull were historically common to abundant in New York County. > Into the 1960’s they occurred as spring and fall migrants and winter visitors > in New York Harbor and along the Hudson River. Up to 5,000+ birds could be > seen on a single day as far north as the George Washington Bridge. Mixed in > among them was an occasional Black-headed or Little Gull. It was during that > time period that Black-headed Gulls occurred in Central Park and Little Gulls > could regularly be seen in May from the Staten island Ferry (where they would > feed with Bonaparte’s Gulls in the Rip Tide off the south shore Governor’s > Island). > > Peter (Post) - - - - - - - >> On Oct 13, 2020, at 7:12 AM, Thomas Fiore <tom...@earthlink.net >> <mailto:tom...@earthlink.net>> wrote: >> >> Monday, “Indigenous Peoples’ Day”, Oct. 12th >> New York County (in N.Y. City) >> >> 3 Bonaparte’s Gulls were noted moving south down the Hudson river, in early >> afternoon (A. Farnsworth) - although a very ‘rare’ sighting for the county, >> this species is almost certainly annual of occurrence in the county, and the >> Hudson river possibly the best site to be on the watch for them on passage. >> (They are 'extremely rare' as stop-in-&-stay-a-while visitors to the county, >> in terms of the historic records but again, it’s worth keeping eyes open for >> this & other unexpected larids, and especially at these times of the year >> when much movement is occurring). -- 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/ --
