Thursday, 15 October, 2015 - mostly sun, w./n-w. wind, a cool start, milder later.
Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City - Perhaps not as diverse or numbers-heavy as some even-more-coastal sites, the park at the center of Manhattan island nonetheless had a tremendous movement of birds, which was evident all morning long, & included at least some passerine movement still visible in the after- noon hour[s], with of course Yellow-rumped Warbler in a lead role in the numbers dept. but also a very good array of expected Sparrow species, with no really rare ones (to my knowledge) but a lot of Chipping (multiple), Song (many), Swamp, White-throated (plenty), and a modest number of Savannah, Field, White-crowned, & a bunch of Lincoln's, plus some Dark-eyed Juncos, as well as E. Towhees. I tried a little, for any less-common sparrows, but came up empty on that, however with all this influx a few of the less-regular spp. may of course be around. The warbler show also included plenty of Palms, of mostly the "eastern" type, but 1 or more western also noted, and these: Cape May (minimum of 4 different individuals around the greater Pinetum area, at one point mid-day, 4 were all in one large elm near the n. side of the circle), N. Parulas, Nashvilles, Black-throated Greens, Black- throated Blues, Prairie (at least several), Pine (multiple males, a few females), American Redstart (multiple), Blackpoll (multiple), Black-and-white (multiple), Yellow (at least several), Magnolia (more than several), Ovenbirds, Common Yellowthroats, a few Wilson's - & a whole lot of flyovers that sounded & looked like mainly more Yellow- rumped & some Palms, as is typical of this time of year, in ongoing diurnal movement; there also were a few in flight that may have been other species of warbler... (as in usual eastern-breeding spp. that went un-id. Very good chance there were some others; an Orange- crowned Warbler was noted from the Great Hill the day before, by I believe, Gabriel Willow - & that species is of course very possible from now into late fall, if sought out. So that's about 17 warbler spp. on the day, plus the uncommon Or-cr. from a day ago. A Yellow- billed Cuckoo was in the n. end as of Wed. (10/14) as well, seen at the Great Hill in the morning. Other birds noted included Pied-billed Grebe (res.), Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Turkey Vulture (many, later in day), Snow Goose (fly-overs), Canada Goose, Wood Duck, Gadwall (many), American Black Duck, Mallard, Northern Shoveler (many), Ruddy Duck (100+), Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, American Coot, Laughing Gull (bit late for here), Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Rock Pigeon, Chimney Swift (thinning out, 15+ seen going south), Hummingbird (presumed Ruby-throated! - 3 going south), Mourning Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (many, esp. in several pine grove areas), Downy, Hairy, & Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Yellow-shafted Flickers, Eastern Wood-Pewee (few, getting late), Eastern Phoebe (fair no's.), Blue-headed Vireo, Warbling Vireo (bit late), Red-eyed Vireo (not many), Blue Jay (loads), American Crow, Common Raven (really amazing that this is by now almost a casually-reported sight in Manhattan), Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Red-breasted Nuthatch (1), White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Carolina Wren (1), House Wren, Winter Wren (few), Golden-crowned Kinglet (few), Ruby- crowned Kinglet (many), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Swainson's Thrush (at least 2), Hermit Thrush (many, but still not the big arrival), Wood Thrush (1), American Robin (abundant), Gray Catbird, N. Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Scarlet Tanager (a few), N. Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak (few), Indigo Bunting, Red- winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird (2, Pinetum area, later in day), Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole (few), Purple Finch (a few fly-bys, a.m.), House Finch, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow... good mid-October 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/ --
