Tuesday, 6 September, 2016 - Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City A CONNECTICUT WARBLER has been found this morning by Jordan Spindel, foraging amongst low shrubby plants a bit below the Pilgrim statue which is prominent on the north side of the entrance drive (park road) if coming in from the East 72 Street park entrance, at Fifth Ave. - and in the mid-morning hours, up to 40+ other birders arrived & many were able to at least glimpse the CT Warbler (a young bird, most likely, photos can be checked a bit later, & there may be a link to a blog post with nice photos at some point today) - some of us obtaining good, confirming views, and a few getting some photos as well -
the bird in question is both skulking & yet also very active, even jumping up into surrounding smaller trees (mainly the cherry trees) in the area just down-slope / north of the Pilgrim statue - we saw the bird many times for very brief glimpses, but a few times it also came up to branches, & also did the more-typical walking about in thick but not impossibly-dense vegetation & gave occasional views to the patient or simply lucky observers - patience is always needed with this species, of course. The bird was moving between several patches of low vegetation just above a fenced lawn area, and a bit east as well as north (downhill) of the statue referenced, which is visible from the path north of the entry drive to the park (if for example one were to come into the park at the NW corner of East 72nd & Fifth Avenue) - the statue being found before one reaches the main park road which is more north-&-south running - this is obvious enough if one is on-site. It can also be mentioned that a few Common Yellowthroats are in the same patches, as well as a few other spp. of warblers and these should be eliminated by the lack of an obvious bold & complete eye-ring or the semblance of a gray hood all around the head (darkest on top on this CT) & the undertail covert length which is so relatively long on the CT Warbler, as well as the actual CT having all-yellow underparts (the throat has a diffuse pale area, but that is normal for a first- summer CT) - I was not aware of any chip-notes being given, but that is something to listen carefully for and if not "pushed" too much (don't walk right into the vegetation patches!) this bird may be able to provide some views; there are not masses of dense vegetation in every direction here, so if it sticks there, it is likely to continue to be found in the few patches where it has good cover, and seemed to be feeding in the a.m. Just incidentally there are many other nice migrants around & as one example among many is a Cape May warbler at the Pinetum. The Linnaean Society of New York's Tuesday morning bird-walk, & the American Museum of Natural History's bird-walks were enjoying many migrants today, & some of these participants came to try with the CT warbler as well. Thanks to Jordan Spindel for the find, & to him & many others for getting the word out. good luck & quiet responsible 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/ --
