Tuesday, 20 October, 2015 - nice afternoon warmth, after 3 days of coolth. Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City
A fresh reinforcement of migrants had arrived en masse on Monday at the park's northern end, these newly-arrived, ravenous & hyperactive birds including Yellow-rumped Warblers & (esp.) White-throated Sparrow, Song Sparrows, & Chipping Sparrows (and these 4 species collectively well into the 4-digit range of abundance), plus a new infusion of Kinglets (esp. Ruby-crowned) & various other spp., with for example 20+ Palm Warblers (of both forms, but mainly "western") on the Great Hill alone - the north end of the park seemed to be the main area receiving this new influx Monday; I looked in other parts of the park, & there was much less evidence of the new arrivals. As an example of the dispersal, less than half of Monday's Palm W. numbers were noted by today/Tues., in a similar amount of time & locations. Over the last 5 days, Gray Catbird is among species that have become uncommon. Vireos also are hard to come by; Blue-headed Vireo today was singular, for me. Today/Tues., a lot of that arrival had dispersed, or moved on yet there was still nice activity in much of the north end. In addition to the lingering Vesper Sparrow on the same rock outcropping (this is in the extreme nw corner of the eastern half of the N. Meadow ball fields - a paved path that divides those ball fields in 2 sections is to the immediate west edge of specified rock outcropping, which is inside of the ball-field fencing... (this by way of noting there are other rock outcroppings that are just outside said fencing.) Other sparrow species still present on Tuesday included Lincoln's (photo'd), Swamp, Savannah, White-crowned (seemingly few now), Chipping (still very many), Song (many), Field (few), & White-throated (hyper-abundant thru the park), with Dark-eyed Juncos in no's., & very good no's. of Eastern Towhee, especially notable in the n. end woods areas. In the warbler tribe, a Cape May Warbler (first-year female) was found with serious effort, in the elms at the n. side of the Pinetum, there among the ongoing 50+++ Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting all through those elms & pine trees; also present around the Pinetum were Pine, Palm, Black-throated Blue, Nashville, & Magnolia Warblers as well as a single drab American Redstart; all of these warblers in rather drab plumages, and not that easy to pick out with such frenzied activity. Various other typical late Oct. migrants were also present at the Pinetum (& elsewhere) such as Winter Wren, Brown Creeper, Yellow- bellied Sapsucker, and the more common sparrows, juncos, & other spp. Indigo Bunting was lingering near the compost area, which is east of the E. Drive near roughly E. 104 St.; also present there were more Palm Warblers, a Pine Warbler, both Kinglet spp. & a variety of usual Sparrows, mainly White-throated, Song, Chipping, & Swamp. On Monday as well as Sunday, a Marsh Wren (as well as House Wren & Winter Wrens) appeared in the n. end; seen Mon. along the s. edges of the Meer; also a much larger arrival of Hermit Thrush came in Monday, most easily noted in the far nw corner of the park, but apparent throughout, with several hundred or more park-wide (a motley few of these even showing out fully in open lawns at times). Thru Monday, at least a dozen warbler species could be found, but some of those species were represented by just 1 or a few individuals; it's quite possible that no. of spp. could still be turned up - with an effort. There was a mini-hot-spot by the Meer on Monday morning which included 3 Nashville Warblers in one view; by far the majority of not just warblers, but perhaps almost all the passerine species on the move were Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warblers, which took in a flight still active into the late morning. There were also a few Purple Finch moving through Monday a.m. & fairly good numbers of icterids, including Red-winged Blackbirds, & (mostly) Common Grackles, as well as a couple of Baltimore Orioles. Blue Jays have been moving steadily, & there are a very slim number of Black-capped Chickadees that came in with these latest southbound bird swarms. I detected single Wood Thrush Monday among the many Hermit, and am aware that Swainson's was also among thrushes noted in the last 3 days, in Central Park. thanks, to "n. enders" & many others for latest word on some of the special birds in the north end. good 'last-third' of October's 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/ --
