Regarding swallow and martin species, we saw a very early Purple Martin this afternoon at Montauk Point flying in the vicinity of the restaurant. We first saw it around 3:45 and again one hour later when we returned from a walk on the beach. It disappeared around 5 PM. Karlo and Alison MirthForest Hills, NY ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Tom Fiore <tom...@earthlink.net>To: "nysbirds-l@cornell.edu" <nysbirds-l@cornell.edu>Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2022, 05:32:37 PM EDTSubject: [nysbirds-l] N.Y. County, NYC - Saturday 3/19 - W. Tanagers, & migrants incl. multi. Great Egrets & Ospreys, Tree Swallows; & Warblers, etc. The CT-birding list has been hopping and this Sat., 3/19, a report came in (from T. Murray) of a Say’s Phoebe, from the “Sikorsky Airport” at Stratford, **Connecticut**; if fully confirmed, that could be another bird where one might wonder, a long-distance arrival? (What had happened to the Say’s Phoebe of Long Island NY… and how far had that bird moved, when it moved…?)
… … New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, and Governors Island, and waters around, + skies above... Saturday, March 19th - the last *full day* of winter - 2 Western Tanagers both continue on in Manhattan, each seen by (or before) about mid-day, respectively at Clinton Community Garden on W. 48th St. just east of Tenth Ave., and around the same hour, over at Carl Schurz Park on the far-east side, east of East End Ave. & (as often is there) just south of the main entrance of the park at E. 86th St., up a flight of steps to where a feeder array invites a variety of birds (or, as another way of stating that location, just west of the n.w. gate of the Catbird Playground in the same park) - the Carl Schurz Park bird seen by multiple obs. again. Great Egrets arrived in the multiple, with fly-overs & a couple of (brief?) touch-downs thru the mid-afternoon from a number of N.Y. County vantage-points (and with multiple observers at those points) which included fly-overs of at least 2 (probably more) across Central Park, as well as past Governors Island, past Randall’s Island, & past the south and north tips of Manhattan; perhaps some other sightings as well. Black-crowned Night-Heron also are back, including in Central Park, pretty much on-schedule. (We have no very recent sightings / reports of Yellow-crowned, but that may change, as actual spring comes on.) Tree Swallows were seen over the n. end of Central Park, with at least a few briefly looking around at the “Meer” area but seemingly moving on (north), while others were lingering (again) at Governors Island, & some also showing again at Randall’s Island. It’s worth keeping eyes-out for other swallow and martin species. Some mostly-modest flocks of blackbirds (icterids) have been on the move and they’ve included Red-winged Blackbirds & Common Grackles, with much smaller no’s. of Brown-headed Cowbird and at least a few Rusty Blackbirds also moving (and some lingering in some locations). Warblers of the day include (at least) 2 Orange-crowned Warblers that both wintered succesfully, one on Randall’s Island, and another at the Battery & adjacent park-land; Pine Warblers in several locations - including in Central Park, as well as Riverside Park (north of W. 106th Street), and ongoing-wintering thru [Myrtle] Yellow-rumped Warblers, although the latter posssibly being supplemented with some showing up more-recently; greatest no’s. of these still seem to be on Governors Island, but are present elsewhere, including in Central Park. There are also at least 2 ongoing Ovenbirds in Manhattan - & there just might be some other survivors of an up-down winter, among warblers that tried to get through this one, in the county. Duckage has still included some variety with Ring-necked Duck (drake, again on C.P. reservoir), Hooded Mergansers, Ruddy Ducks, N. Shovelers, Buffleheads and Wood Duck just some of the species continuing to be found in Central Park, and some others in the county’s area-waters, esp. Red-breasted Mergansers. Cormorants of two species also are ongoing, with relatively few Great (in just a couple of sites in the county), and many Double-crested in ongoing recent movement. Modest no’s. of Great Blue Herons have also been starting to move. Still few of Belted Kingfishers, and some (few) that had wintered had been moving around or onward. American Coots have turned up in a couple of sites, besides the “usual one” of Central Park. Purple Finch is a species to watch for; some have been showing, so far in modest no’s. in this county, but could possibly pick up more in coming weeks. There are plenty of lingering species still around, in Central Park that’s included Field & Chipping Sparrows (flock in the n. end of that park), along with [Red] Fox and Swamp Sparrows - and (many) Cedar Waxwings and both Kinglet species also ongoing in Central Park - as well as other county locations. Killdeer and American Woodcock were both still around, in select sites. Some Black Vultures again have been seen moving across Manhattan. At least a half-dozen Osprey came thru over the course of the day. Turkey Vultures and Bald Eagles (plus some other additional raptors), along with Common Ravens, are just some of the soaring species which are continung to be seen in the county. For Central Park alone, at least 65 species of birds were found on 3/19/’22. The first Blue-gray Gnatcatcher arrival (a bit early!) has been noted for *N.Y. City*, from 3/18. And there are slight indications that some other migrants ‘overshot’ a bit, into the northeast, in the last few days. ... Some of the more-active insect life showing in these bouts of sun -with more warmth by mid-morning- included bumblebees, some of those at the ever-increasing variety of garden-flowers blooming. (Honeybees have been increasingly seen as well, for some while.) Various trees now have ripe buds or are already in bloom. . . . n.b., the old owl of Bryant Park was at-last found & made note of, so that 5,000+ visitors (including non-birders) have been observing & photo-/video- ing /gaping-at it for a few days by now. And [some of] the woodcocks knew! (the species is Barred, as is obvious on the ten-thousand social-media & many eBird posts that have shown in just a few most-recent days; mentioned here only after these thousands of reports have been all thru the interweb.) good -and ethical- birding to all, and Happy & Healthy SPRING! 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/ -- -- 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/ --
