Sunday, 29 November, 2009 - Has anyone seen, or tried to see, the Staten Island NYC Rufous Hummingbird (lingered over 6 weeks) this weekend? "Negative" as well as positive reports have value, especially with any bird that may not stay on. - - - - - - A very late Black-throated Blue Warbler (male) was in Riverside Park, Manhattan (N.Y. City) this noon, seen near the inside perimeter wall (ie, facing the actual park, the w. side of the retaining wall) that abuts Riverside Drive, near about W. 108 Street within the park. It was foraging with a small band of Dark-eyed [Slate-colored] Juncos and there were also White-throated Sparrows in the vicinity (and elsewhere, as usual at this time of year thru April). This is not nearly the latest sighting I have of this species in Manhattan: a male was observed at Inwood Hill Park in northern Manhattan some years ago, as found by birding colleague Peter Shen during the Lower Hudson CBC, which puts that record at least 3 weeks later. I also have a late record (again of a male) at Van Cortland Park, Bronx NYC which was also present in December (different year). There are other examples, six of which are true winter occurrences mentioned in "Birds of New York State" (E. "Manny" Levine, editor, the species account authored by Joseph DiCostanzo) with all but one having been found in Suffolk Co., the most exceptional being one male found (quoting the account) "wintering inland mid-Nov. 1985 (to) 14 Feb. 1986 at a feeder in Endwell, Broome Co. The bird disappeared after a snowstorm on the latter date."
There have been some other late warblers in Manhattan very recently including an Ovenbird in Central Park last week (possibly still present), & a Common Yellowthroat (not as unusually) lingering in a part of the NYC Greenway along the Hudson River near W. 30th Street thru Sat. 11/28. It's actually likely that there some others lurking about the city, a few of which could potentially linger & survive into December... - - - - - - A MacGillivray's Warbler has lingered cooperatively in downtown Boston (Massachusetts) for many days - that species actually more "expected" (if that is the correct term for a very rare autumnal vagrant to the east) in our region now & even into the early winter season, rather than at other times of the year. - - - - - - A Phainopepla has remarkably lingered in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) area thru this month, still present there Sunday, 11/29. Their list has had regular updates: http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/ONTB.html & also quite remarkable was a report, with photo, of a Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch (a western/montane species which is very rare in the east) found earlier this month in far northern Ontario Canada, but not seen again. - - - - - - 3 Pink-footed Geese have (again) been seen in southern Maine: http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/MAIN.html#1259504202 - - - - - - Vermont's first state record of Eurasian Collared-Dove (assuming acceptance from their bird records committee) is of note & interest on its own, additionally to the western NY occurrences reported this month: http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0911&L=VTBIRD&T=0&F=&S=&P=77977 http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0911&L=VTBIRD&T=0&F=&S=&P=88401 http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/VTBD.html#1259185938 Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
