Monday, 3 October, 2011 - Central & Riverside Parks, Manhattan, N.Y. City
Central Park, both in the Ramble and portions of the north end, appeared to contain far fewer birds and much less diversity overall than had been found in preceding days. In many areas it was a struggle to locate even a single warbler, of any species. A good indicator of the seasonal change (and last night's departures) were how many (in relative terms) of the recently-arrived migrants still in the park were White-throated Sparrows. In the Ramble area, a group led by Starr Saphir were able to come up with a Yellow-billed Cuckoo as well as a well-seen Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, plus a little over a half-dozen warbler species. I was joined by K. Wallstrom in the Ramble & had done Sunday birding with her as well, in Central. (A Connecticut Warbler was reported from the Ramble on Sunday, but looked for Monday by some without any success.) Other birders were also out & about and perhaps some have had a bit more luck in locating migrants - however it does seem that a large departure flight worked its wonders over Sunday night. One further small sign of the season's turns towards mid-fall are the small flock of Purple Finch that went past the norh end in early morning. - - - - - - - - At Riverside Park, there was a nice & bright Orange-crowned Warbler in the lush asters and other low vegetation just inside the perimeter wall of that park, near Riverside Drive and at about W. 109 Street - the area is a bit north of a park entrance and also north of a Parks Volunteer House building. The Orange-crowned was seen beautifully, and a modest number of other migrants were in the vicinity, including multiple White-throated Sparrows as well as some more-common warblers typical of October. - - - - - - - The fallouts of neotropical-wintering species, featuring many Yellow- billed Cuckoos and Blue Grosbeaks in particular, from northeast of NY are beginning to be summarized and it will be interesting to see how extensive the unusually wide phenomenon seems to be, or become in the northeast, including Canada's Maritimes. Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
