Friday, 24 July, 2015 - Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City
Migration was a little more apparent in this urban green-space over the last several days with the shift in winds out of the northwest. Warblers, as can be expected from now thru Aug. (much of our "fall" warbler migration is well ahead of Labor Day) are at the forefront of the diversity seen in this park, and at least a dozen species of them have already turned up; these have included Worm-eating, Blue-winged, Blackburnian, Canada, Prairie, Black-and-white, Chestnut-sided, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, and numbers of Yellow (for over 10 days now), along with both Northern (last few days, in modest no's.) and Louisiana (a few earlier in the month, more recently several in various sites) Waterthrushes. Half of these species were just "singles" as far as I'm aware, and redstart numbers were, so far, quite minimal.
A Worm-eating Warbler was at Strawberry Fields on July 18, and there were some of the other species as of then; this Wed. & Thurs. however seemed the best push so far; it's possible as many as 10 warbler spp. were recorded in total for Wed., and of course it's still a bit early in the season, and more will be evident going into August.
Interesting have been a modest push of nuthatches, with a few Red- breasted & more White-breasted in the past week - would be more interesting to learn if these or other "forest/interior" species may be showing up at coastal locations. Swallows, aside from those that bred in the park, have passed thru on some days, with Northern Rough- winged as well as Barn, Bank, & a few Tree being noted.
Also noted in the past 10 days: Osprey (1 seen sitting in the reservoir, at the slightly submerged dike, on 7/23; some others as flyovers on other days), Wood Duck (several on the lake & occ. elsewhere), Spotted Sandpiper (not too many, & may be a bit hard to see at the reservoir, with water level high and the dike not exposed), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (a few males have turned up, & there may have been more on some days), Orchard Oriole (a very scarce breeder in Central, although not at all rare as such in NYC - an adult male on the Great Hill, 7/23), & Bobolinks, esp. in numbers on 2 early mornings, seen from the Great Hill - and as too-typical for that species in Central, not likely lingering at all, merely flying on thru.
This (Friday) morning, I and a number of other birders were out & seeking migrants, a few finding some, but for me & the others I was with at times, a quiet morning; it seemed that some of the birds of the preceding days moved on. Some of these migrants, & other spp. are turning up elsewhere around the city as well in the past few days or so.
It's been good to see some of the less-common or scarce breeding species in Central have a few successes; Wood Thrush, Brown Thrasher, Chipping Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, and some others.
Thanks to the birders who offered their recent sightings & 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/ --
