New York County -in N.Y. City- including Manhattan, Governors, Randalls, and Roosevelt islands and the adjacent waters and skies above - through Sunday, April 6th -
The very-obliging Virginia Rail at Bryant Park was slightly-distracting some observers away from a variety of other species that were also present by Sunday in that fairly-small midtown Manhattan park, which included at least 5 species of sparrows - Swamp, Chipping, Red Fox, Song, and the ever-regular and numerous White-throated Sparrows - then also a few Slate-colored Dark-eyed Juncos adding to the sparrow-tribe tally at Bryant. The Gray Catbirds were again present there and these are still the same which overwintered and so-often do just-that successfully there, as well as that species in other Manhattan small parks and greenspaces through many past winters. Many watchers of Sundays Rail at Bryant Park thank firstly Y.Yuan for an early report, that caused an auto-alert for others to be aware, and then multiple further sightings thru all of Sunday straight to dusk-hour - the rail was ultimately viewed by many-hundreds of people even if not all are binocular-clad or camera-toting birders, as some passersby were sure curious what all the excitement was in the flowerbeds of part of Bryant Park. It is an interesting site for such very-shy and typically-difficult species as rails, which is an indicator of many, many other rails having migrated thru in recent days, as also can be deduced from arrivals in various breeding-places out of the area of Bryant Park! Hopefully this rail will manage to find a safe path out to where it should be going soon. Of course the same may be noted for the ongoing American Woodcocks that were still in Bryant Park to Sunday, with many observers. A report for Randalls Island of Spotted Sandpiper is in-line with some other sightings in the region, and for the very-impressive showings of many shorebird species in NY state and the region in these first days of the month, and also from the start of spring. For N.Y. County, even getting to 4 shorebird species on 1 day in early April is doing well here. In the same report also is the first Black-and-white Warbler of the year for that island, and as-expected a male, for early-arriving birds in the warbler tribe. One note on thrush sightings this week to Sunday, all of the brownish migrant thrushes that are around now are Hermit Thrushes, with no other Catharus-genus having arrived or expected-to get here, just yet. American Robins are of course abundant lately. On Roosevelt Island just-east of Manhattan, a long-long-long lingering Wild Turkey has remained in the same general area, and there have been some spring migrants showing as well on that island this past week. Purple Finches have been moving thru and small numbers can linger, this species should be both watched and listened for by human ear - not-just by Merlin-app since a human ear plus human intelligence will still work and with experience, can work well. The nice Common Loon flight, or area fly-out, of Saturday, April 5 was a part-prelude to a good overall arrival here of a multitude of species, relatively few new for this year in the county -but several are- while many species just-recently having first arrived were supplemented by further individuals of their species, and also a number of the already-regular early migrants have had a bolstered additional presence, some of those after the initial passages of numbers of those earliest-arriving migrant species. A nice sighting for any part of this county, and the more so from Riverside Park in the Upper-West part of that parks linear extent, Surf Scoter was seen and photographed - D.J. Ringer - on Sunday, from near W. 100th St. at the river, an uncommon-at-best waterfowl sighting in this county in any season. A few Long-tailed Ducks are showing at times this past week, including one which was seen by the Dyckman St. pier of northern Manhattan at the western terminus of that street later in the day Sunday. Seven Bonapartes Gulls were along the Hudson River off Manhattan for at least a few hours of Sunday, with sightings from at least 3 locations along the river - all well south of the G.Washington bridge, and one sighting off lower-central Manhattan, at the river. The earliest sightings on Sunday of a flock of Bonapartes were for at least 15 individuals - this gull species has been showing in good numbers in some areas of N.Y. City including very high numbers on some days in western-most Long Island Sound off the east end of Bronx County of N.Y. City. Others have been seen in many more areas in the local area in and around this city. We also can be watchful of the slight chance of a rarer small gull moving with the Bonapartes flocks, a few of which have been found in the Black-headed Gulls of recent occurrences. There are rarer gulls also slightly possible for the area. Snowy as well as Great Egrets came thru with some seen moving across Central Park, especially over the n. End of that park as is typical of egrets from spring thru summer here, more than in the southern-half of the same park, although some sightings may be from any part of the county. Also showing are more Black-crowned Night-Herons in various areas, with some coming in to Central Park at dusk or later to feed, occasionally to be noticed in numbers in that park extremely early in the wee-hours of a spring or summer day. A very early start to a birding-day may also result in seeing one of the coyotes, which are ongoing in Manhattan and have been around from the winter to now. Eastern Meadowlark was again seen at Governors Island on Sunday, as was Wilsons Snipe, American Woodcock, and Killdeer, that last species also potentially breeding in places on that isle, as some killdeer do in just a few other select parts of the county in most years. Many other species of migrants and some breeding species are showing in recent days on Governors Island, and this is a site very worthy of regular attention by birders, as it is one of the most-productive of all locations in the county, particularly with a potential for species new to the county - and thanks to many sharp-eyed birders who have continued to be watchful there. Of some birds seen on the island on Sunday, a small increase of Ruby-crowned Kinglets were notable there for early April and there were such species as Hooded Mergansers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Yellow-shafted Flickers, E. Phoebes, Tree Swallows, and other migrants showing in somewhat higher numbers for the week. Over ten Blue-headed Vireos were found in the county by Sunday -this is somewhat early for that good number of individuals on 1 day in the first week in April, in this county- with at least 5 of those vireos in Central Park in Manhattan, alone. Others were on Randalls and Governors Island, as well as in Riverside Park north-portion, and at St. Nicholas Park, a location I began to look-into for birds at various times about 15 years ago, with occasional interesting finds there - other birders have since been getting there from occasionally to near-regularly in some years. Green Herons also came along in -early- modest numbers with at least 4 in Central Park alone, from one end of that park to the other. Still-more Blue-gray Gnatcatchers -and none seen reliably being noted as -early- by actual observers of this species - have also showed by Sunday in multiple parts of Manhattan, on Governors Island, and at least in one odd-spot where not that many passerine migrants are usually seen by any birders, perhaps as few would think to be checking the West Harlem Piers park area ON the pier platform in the Hudson River, to observe some passerines stopping there, briefly. Along with the Gnatcatcher there on Sunday fog-hour, were several Golden-crowned Kinglets, some White-throated Sparrows, a Yellow-shafted Flicker, and a few E. Phoebes as well as a few flyover birds heading low and north, so a check of the adjacent, just-north Riverbank State Park was made, but with relatively little to show, although Palm Warbler was present as were a few very-common-now migrants such as Dark-eyed Junco. For American Warblers, we had a small uptick of diversity with at least one slight surprise, but not really given the other freshly-arrived neotropical migrants coming in, a couple of Yellow Warblers were the first of this year for this county, not expected for at least another week or more, and a typical peak-spring migration date being up to a month or so away. Also appearing, in addition to one at Randalls Island on Sunday - noted at top of this report - and perhaps not-quite the first in Central this year, a Black-and-white Warbler at the southeast corner of Central Park, not extra-early at all, but ahead of peak for this species which might be in 3 to 4 weeks from now, when far more females also will show. The male found late Sunday in Central was singing at times. Other warblers had an uptick again in their numbers, particularly for Louisiana Waterthrush, which was found in at least 5 different locations in Central Park, and which was also present in at least 2 more parts of the county on Sunday. Pine, Palm, and Myrtle-form of Yellow-rumped Warbler were all in higher numbers over the county-entire, than had been on the day-before, with some female Pine Warblers showing signs of their increase, along with ongoing males in high plumage. The 3 more-common of hirundines to this county were ongoing, with numbers of both Tree and N. Rough-winged Swallows in multiple locations including still at Central Park, and slight increases for Barn Swallows at that park and some other locations. The swifts - Chimney, that is - are starting to show in low numbers a little early in the region, mostly south of this county, and a few may turn up here on coming days if weather allows. Many observers have noted great numbers of Slate-colored Dark-eyed Juncos in migration, with some estimates that over-500 ! of that species were in Central Park alone on Sunday, and perhaps 2,000-plus in Manhattan, which is a higher-than-typical max at this season. This is not adding-in the many on the other three large islands of the county. Also showing in a much-more modest increase overall were Red Fox Sparrow, some of which were showing up in slightly odd-spots such as in tree wells of street trees early on Sunday, as the fog cleared. Good birding to all, Tom Fiore manhattan -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") 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