N.Y. County, including Manhattan, Randall’s Island (& a note re: Governors Island at bottom):
The female Western Tanager continues at Carl Schurz Park (Manhattan) on Sunday, 2/21 - again showing at the feeder array, just south of E. 86th St. & just inside the park off East End Ave.; a little patience sometimes required. Other birds also visit the same area regularly. An Iceland Gull has been continuing off Randall’s Island, seen again near the n.w. shore on Sat., 2/20 and this may be an individual that sometimes sits on the Manhattan island side of the E. River, and perhaps also is one of the Iceland Gulls (in several stages/conditions of plumage) that have been seen at the Central Park reservoir this winter. There has been some great Bald Eagle movement very locally around the county, sometimes with multiple birds in view at once, in recent days including on Sunday, 2/21. In Central Park on Sunday, 2/21 the following species were found, including a few fly-overs: Canada Goose Mute Swan (1 lingering) Wood Duck (wintering) Mallard Northern Shoveler Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Red-breasted Merganser (1 female continuing) Common Loon (reservoir - continuing for some days) Great Blue Heron (wintering) Turkey Vulture Bald Eagle Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Coot American Woodcock (poss. one individual lingering) Ring-billed Gull [American] Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull ['feral'] Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon [ongoing owl species] Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker (seem scarce now) Blue Jay Common Raven (fairly regular this winter, and even more so taking in all of Manhattan island) American Crow (multiple) Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch (scarce now) White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper (several) Carolina Wren Winter Wren (wintering) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (wintering in Central - also continuing in some other areas in the county) Hermit Thrush (several, wintering) American Robin Gray Catbird (scarce; more are wintering as they often do in some smaller parks & greenspaces) Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher (several, wintering) European Starling House Sparrow Eastern Towhee (several, wintering) Slate-colored Junco American Tree Sparrow (lingering, and recently in fair numbers in some other areas of N.Y. County) Chipping Sparrow (at least 2 wintering) [Red] Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird (long-lingering) Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird House Finch American Goldfinch A Red-shouldered Hawk was seen in low flight over Central Park on Sat., 2/20 (J. Wooten). That species is also continuing to be seen in n. Manhattan including on Sunday at Inwood Hill Park. Some species elsewhere in the county also include: [Atlantic] Brant, Gadwall, American Black Duck, Greater Scaup, Common Goldeneye, Ruddy Duck (East River) Red-throated Loon, Great Cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Merlin, Belted Kingfisher, Fish Crow, Field Sparrow, & likely at least a few more spp. - some of these from Randall’s Island. …. Thanks to Ben Cacace for clearing up a mix-up by me of observer name on a 2/11 N.Y. County observation of Cackling Goose, as that eBird checklist w/photos did clearly indicate, C. Weiner made both, and not another of the surveyers of Governors Island, which is part of N.Y. County. (A. Barry has at least a 12-year history as a volunteer at Governors Island, and also continues to do some bird surveys for the island.) As for visiting that island in the colder months, best to contact the NYC Audubon office and inquire as to being a volunteer. The island is typically closed in any case with colder months, & is expected to re-open for general public access (by ferry) in the spring. NYC Audubon maintains Nolan House (#17) as a visitor center, and info. on that also is best found thru them online. good birding to all, 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/ --
