New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, Randall’s, and Governors 
Island[s] -

Saturday, Sept. 25th -

“oh, the sapsuckers you’ll see” (from lesser-known Dr. Suess)…  

There have been plenty of great birds around the county in recent days, despite 
a slight slowing later last week in some of the active-migration. Some birds 
were lingering on, in particular, the Dickcissel, and at least one Blue 
Grosbak, each seen (& photographed) again at Fort Jay area on Governors Island 
- which has also been enjoying a good overall diversity of migrants & lingering 
species in addition to those 2 rarer ones. At least 1 Lesser Yellowlegs was 
continuing to show at the ‘maintenance area puddle-pond’ there to Sat. 9/25, & 
that island was site of just one of at least several recent Monk Parakeet 
sightings, as well as having a nice selection of migrant warblers and many 
other birds. A rather late Veery was photographed on that island as well on 
9/25 - as well as slightly late-ish Bobolink there, with up to 7 (B. Cacace) of 
the latter seen Saturday; a good area to check there being around Fort Jay, 
although also possible elsewhere there on Gov. Island at times.

Also seen on Thursday, 9/23 (as was the above-noted one), a Monk Parakeet was 
found in the vicinity of DeWitt Clinton Park and then also Riverside Park 
South, in the West 50’s part of Manhattan; the species ought to be listened-for 
wherever one is at least around Manhattan; the most-recent report appears to be 
(again, with other reports from there in the past few months) from Central 
Park’s north end on 9/25. We also have had multiple sightings at the northern 
end of Manhattan in recent weeks and months.

A most-impressive 6 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, along with somewhat more 
Black-crowned Night-Herons, were found at Randall’s Island on Saturday 9/25; 
that location seems to be the hot-spot for the latter species in recent years; 
that is where at least one of that latter species has overwintered, as well, 
which is still quite unusual in NYS.  Snowy Egret was seen at least to 9/23 on 
Randall’s Island; that species not usually as late to linger in the county as 
are Great Egret, but neither are now-regular as they are thru the summer months.

Philadelphia Vireos have continued to be found by careful observers, some 
photographed as well, to 9/25; several have been in Central Park, but there 
were sightings elsewhere as well. Blue-headed Vireos have incresaed just a bit 
as of Saturday.  A most-recent Yellow-throated Vireo sighting came from The 
Battery in lower Manhattan on 9/25 (C. Williams). 

Some Gray-cheeked (&/or Gray-cheeked type!) Thrushes have been noted in the 
past week or so, with slightly more from Saturday, 9/25. Swainson’s and at 
least a few Hermit as well as Wood Thrush[es] also have been seen.  A 
White-crowned Sparrow was among at least a few of that species to have 
just-arrived in the county, and concurrent with arrivals of the species in the 
region, all just slightly-early. Other sparrows are trickling in but this 
continues to be a good time to be on the watch for all rarer or less-common 
sparrow species, some of which have been showing around the wider region.

A minimum of 22 Warbler species were still to be seen in the county as of 
Saturday, 9/25, and all of those species also were seen in Central Park that 
day, by many observers altogether. A lot of warbler diversity and many other 
migrants continue to be found in some smaller parks and greenspaces of lower 
Manhattan, as well as on the two outlying islands (Randall’s and Goverors) of 
the county.  Saturday 9/25 experienced possibly the highest number of Blackpoll 
Warbler this season in N.Y. County, & there also were still some Bay-breasted 
Warblers about.

A majority of the most-recent sightings of Cuckoos (to Sat., 9/25, including in 
Central Park in multiple areas) are now of Yellow-billed Cuckoo, which is 
somewhat the expected pattern of occurence for our two migrant species. 

We continue to have Ruby-throated Hummingbirds both lingering around flowered 
areas, and on passage, although numbers of the species have dropped off a bit 
lately. Keep an eye out for any hummingbird that does not quite “fit” as a 
Ruby-throated, as western or even-rarer ‘vagrant’ species are increasingly 
possible as October and later months loom closer.

There were still Scarlet Tanagers, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and a variety of 
other neo-tropical wintering migrant species around N.Y. County to Sat., 9/25. 
At the same time, we are finding at least modest / small numbers of 
Red-breasted Nuthatches, Purple Finches, & a slight up-tick of Golden-crowned 
Kinglet, to go along with more-regular Ruby-crowned Kinglets, in recent days 
including at multiple locations (for all of these species) in the county on 
Sat., 9/25.

Much more could be noted; perhaps in a future report. Thanks to the many 
observers out & about in so many locations!

good birding to all,

Tom Fiore
manhattan






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