Tuesday, 28 March, 2017 - There was a good migrant-movement on Monday night, cut just somewhat in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday by a fairly potent rain-making weather system which crossed the metro NYC region well before daylight began. Evidence of (a bit of) that migration at Central Park (Manhattan, N.Y. City) were in the form of many more American Robins - the best, largest, single-view flock I encountered in the morning was on the NE portion of the North Meadow fields, with my count stopping at 330 of those worm-hungry birds in a single view & somewhat more off to one side or another near there.
Other species arriving, not immediately evident but present in number, were Chipping Sparrows, some dozen or more in half that many locations; some Swamp Sparrows were in the brightest plumage I’ve yet seen any in this spring, but not so many, whereas Song Sparrows were easily the most numerous (yes, more than White-throated, if one cared to keep looking for them) with many, many hundreds in the park today… Fox Sparrows were in a good many areas & like a lot of the songbirds, were getting well-tuned, some singing from quite-high perches; I found it not possible to walk thru the Ramble without constantly hearing one or more with a.m. drizzles still ongoing; an eastern towhee here & there, not of certainty the beginnings of their increase, rather a group of few that had overwintered successfully, now perhaps moving about more than in winter; Eastern Phoebes were as numerous this day as on any prior, some sites having a half-dozen within a very short walk or even at times all in a long view. On the other hand, Pine Warbler was not easy to come by, but I managed two, one bright, another drab, in different parts of the park. A Chipping Sparrow or two were also present at least by Monday, but their arrival was more general, if limited by Tuesday. The reservoir offered a bit less diversity again today, & fewer of many ducks, an exception being Bufflleads which were numerous. A pair of Hooded Mergansers were back in the reservoir later on in the day, as well. A long-lingering Pintail maintained a presence on the Pond, where one of 2 Great Blue Herons was noticed; the 2nd was at Turtle Pond but seemed not to stay there all morning. Brown Creepers & Golden-crowned Kinglets were joined by a few new Yellow-shafted Flicker arrivals, scattered widely still, not in the numbers they may show in just a week or two. i did not detect any swallows today, & it’s possible Monday’s solo N. Rough-winged Swallow had moved on, from the Meer. Noticed as well these past several days are some Magnolia trees showing more than a few flowers opening just a bit warily, and Virginia Bluebells also in colorful near-open bud in some areas. Even some cherry trees are now indicating tinges & shades of pink in their buds. An adult Black-crowned Night-Heron again at the Meer observed a lot of this with what seemed the wary eye of one who knows snow & cold may not be all in our past, and that spring is still a fickle friend in this earliest stage. Despite that, in the first 3 hours of daylight, and especially the first two, a near-cacophony of bird song could be heard in a number of the more-wooded areas of the park. It seems possible there could be a bit more fresh arrival of spring migrants by Friday, if winds permit & storm systems are not too pervasive. - - - - - "Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking.” - Wangari Muta Mathaii (1940-2011; activist, author, planter of trees, member of Parliament in Kenya, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the first environmentalist in the world and first African woman to receive that honor) Good birding, Tom Fiore manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
