Friday, 8 April, 2016 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City o.k. , it's a trick statement, but true - the 8th warbler of the year has appeared in Central Park. Why a "trick"? Because the first 4 spp. were all seen there in the month of January! Those were very late-lingering individuals, & included an Orange-crowned, a Wilson's, & a Black-and-white. We now have 5 species of warbler seen so far in the March-and-onward season with Yellow-rumped, & the new one for today being the eighth, in addition to the ongoing Louie W.-thrush, Palm, & Pine Warblers.
A Northern Parula seen singing showed at the n.w. corner of Hallett sanctuary late in the a.m., while slightly on the early-date side, it's not an early date record for the park or region, although much more expected later in April & onward. This warbler, singing just a bit, was trending north as I kept tracking it so that it was last seen & heard a bit west of the downtown skating rink, & well may have been on the move with some juncos & chipping sparrows, all of them possibly headed to the Mall area, or maybe the eastern edges of Sheep Meadow, in trees (the Mall is a good place to seek many early migrants but can be tough to bird, with very tall old trees, and some distractions at times such as noisy touristy happenings & more; it may be one of the most under-birded but productive areas in all of Central Park on good migration waves, but again is not the easiest area to observe... Interestingly, this new migrant appeared in the south end of Central, and I had seen that that section of the park appeared to gain the most in numbers of freshly-arrived migrants from Wed. night/Thurs. morning. It would not surprise me if this as well as some other birds came in on Wed. night, to be discovered just today. There are quite regularly times during migration within Central and elsewhere locally, when one small area gets a batch of fresh arrivals, & another area is left relatively bereft of the same; this is seen less in most of the heaviest times of migration, but in some instances it still is noticed. Local arrival, & also departure, is rather more complex than may be thought.) The park's one lingering first-of-year Louisiana Waterthrush has been a bit tricky to spot, but so far at least a dozen birders have been able to find it, over these past 4 days, at The Pond & Hallett Sanctuary. It doesn't seem to be singing much, but would you, if outside in all of this week's weather? ? ? Only a few other waterthrushes seem to have been yet reported in the city, while at least dozens of reports are from multiple states & many areas north of N.Y.C. in the past week or more. Of course the Louisiana is always much less-common in the city parks than is the N. Waterthrush, which eventually becomes among the dozen or so of most-regular & numerous warblers here, esp. for observers who look for & count as the peak flights come through on migration. That species is not here yet, however, at least not in Central Pk. Otherwise, a few Swallow observations include 3 species (the most regular 3) at the Meer - Barn, Tree, & Northern Rough-winged, with the latter the most numerous, but more than 1 of each of the others also. Down at the Pond & Hallett Sanctuary, a total of 28 spp. of birds were seen in just those confines, which included 2 Great Egrets (one very obvious & the other much more shy), Black-crowned Night-Heron, N.R.-w. Swallow (1), Winter Wren, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Y.-s. Flickers, E. Phoebe, Pine Warbler, Ruby-cr. Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Brown Thrasher, 4 sparrow species including (red) Fox, and multiple Swamp, as well as lingering Am. Coot, & many common &/or resident spp. there. The 3 swallow species at the Meer were noted at about 1:30 p.m. & afterwards, & were somewhat favoring the n.e. portions of the water, & most readily seen from east of the Dana Discovery Center, but also visible from all of the Meer shore, with close observation. (N.R.-w. Swallows were also seen today over the Reservoir, Lake, & Turtle Pond, in earlier hours.) A very few Pine & Palm Warblers were in a few areas I visited today; a breeding-plumaged Rusty Blackbird is still at the Ramble and moving about a little day-to-day & hour-by-hour; it could well be in any mucky-wet spot all around that area from Upper Lobe to Gill to stream or edges of lake on any part of Ramble or it's outskirts. It is shy when approached too closely or loudly. A couple of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers still in the Ramble & also s. & n. ends, as well as a few of each spp. of Kinglet here & there. By far overall, in numbers of migrant species are sparrows, & a Savannah Sparrow was with other migrants in the n. end, atop the Great Hill. Multiple (but still modest) no's. of Chipping in many small flocks or singletons, plus Song, Field (a couple at least) & certainly all over, White-throated, with many singing & in high plumage as well; and there are Swamp Sparrows much more thinly about, in areas appropriate to their habits; Dark-eyed Juncos & E. Towhees are also around in fair numbers, still mostly males of the towhee, so far. There also were again as many as 50+ Hermit Thrush in the park today, with some out in open lawn areas once the skies were so threatening-looking & rather few people about in some sections, esp. at the n. end; of course a majority were in wooded areas, with a good many in small patches in the s. end of the park, & a hint on where "small patches" can even be - near the park perimeter walls, which are often well-planted, & can at times be "bird- y" - and yet rather under-birded, compared with say the (rightly) famous Ramble. CP Reservoir-watch has not produced any uncommon gull or other species in my observation but that is a great place to check for all manner of possible species, as the month goes along... The north end of the park seemed to me a bit light on most migrant species this mid-day, but the Meer & its swallows suggest that there's plenty of potential, & would be wrong to totally overlook. There was hardly any location that appeared as a "hot" spot, but Hallett Sanctuary & the Pond have been good, if needing some patience and close watching, as the observations are partly from a distance across the waters of the pond. It is also a very touristed area, but can be quiet & peaceful esp. away from the stone-arch bridge & vicinity. ....................... Late Thursday (4/7), Jeff Kimball & I spotted a Barn Swallow swooping low around Turtle Pond. Even later in the day, Mike Freeman & I spotted a bright male Pine Warbler on the ground at the SE part of the Pinetum, very near a path. (Many other birders have been additionally finding most of the species noted in this report but I am as always reporting my sightings - & will add a note if a bird was mentioned, & seen by others but not by me, in any report.) good 'this-is-April-but-then-why-is-snow-falling-in-NYC' 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/ --
