New York County (in N.Y. City), including Manhattan and Randall’s Island (Governors Island remains open to the public through the winter)
Tuesday, Jan. 11th & Wednesday, Jan. 12th - On Wednesday, quite in contrast, a surge of vastly milder air arrived through the day, and an at-least doubled a high temp. for the day from the prior day’s high. 2 Western Tanagers continue at their respective locations in Manhattan, one at Carl Schurz Park east of East End Ave. & visiting the feeder array (and that vicinity) which is near the west edge of the park and just west of the n.-w. gate to the Catbird Playground, or a bit south of (and up a set of stairs from) a main entrance off E. 86th St., &, over near Tenth Ave. and W. 47th - 48th Streets, a 2nd W. Tanager also continuing, appearing both within & near Hell’s Kitchen Park & on W. 47th St. at Tenth Ave., and also at Clinton Community Garden, as viewed from outside along the sidewalk on W. 48th, a bit east of Tenth Ave. - & further, this latter tanager also seen in several street trees & on building ledges and a few more buildings. Both tanagers seen again by multiple observers on Wednesday. A Glaucous Gull was also continuing to be seen from Randall’s Island, and the Snow Goose count there may have reached 3; also ongoing there were the adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and at least one juvenile; and with Black-crowned Night-Heron (juv.) & Great Blue Heron also seen again, and Belted Kingfisher as well. A good location in winter for a possibility of anything less-usual (or even, rare) to show - and, as a 2nd cold-snap along with a possible arriving storm-system show on or after this weekend, it may be worth re-checking any shore-side areas and all open water, as well as any gatherings of gulls, waterfowl, & etc. A few Common Goldeneye again were seen, as is most-usual off in the distance scanning from the n.-e. shore of Randall’s Island, and Red-breasted Mergansers are being seen there as well as multiple other locations on the rivers around Manhattan, as well as N.Y. harbor. A very few Red-throated Loons & (even more scant) Common Loons have been showing as well. An Orange-crowned Warbler made it past a cold-snap, seen near E. 20th St. at First Ave. - there may yet be some others of this species, & also some additional warblers besides the Myrtle / Yellow-rumped Warblers that also have continued in a few locations. (The wintering ovenbirds and common yellowthroats of Manhattan can *sometimes* be both hardy & feisty.) American Robins were in fairly good no’s. scattered through Manhattan on Wed., & more had certainly arrived in some prominent parks such as Central Park, with a minimum of 400 altogether there, esp. noted all around the Sheep Meadow & also on through the southern end of that park; some other parks again having no’s. of robins were Riverside Park, as well as at least one of the larger green-spaces of upper Harlem, the Trinity church yard next to Broadway and Amsterdam Ave’s. (south of W. 155 St.) There are still a very good no. of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers about, including a fair no. -perhaps more than most watchers realize- using street-trees, even if those are sometimes also adjacent to small parks, garden & yard spaces or other smaller green-spaces, as well as in the larger parks of Manhattan. There also continue to be Hermit Thrush in a good many locations, which is not all that unusual for this county in winter, but the no’s. again appear to be fairly good. [Red] Fox Sparrows and (smaller no’s.) of Swamp Sparrows continued, with far larger no’s. of wintering White-throated Sparrows and the typical modest no’s. of Song Sparrows. Some Turkey Vultures continue to move, and also small no’s. of Bald Eagle; Common Ravens have been seen with again, more of those latter at (or seen from) the n. parts of Manhattan. - - - With the very cold air in place on Tuesday, birders were nonetheless out and about, and some observations for the day included the lingering 2 Snow Geese, and also an American Woodcock at Randall’s Island; and earlier in the day, an at-least modest influx of American Robin, especially along parks facing the Hudson River, with more than 850 totaled from around Fort Tryon Park, south through Riverside Park. A Red-shouldered Hawk -possibly one that had been lingering- was again seen in Central Park as were the far more regular-recently Cooper’s (and Red-tailed!) Hawks of the county. good and healthy 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/ --