Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City Monday, Tues., Wed., & Thursday, 16-17-18-19 October, 2017
There have been a good many lingering birds, especially for warbler diversity, and in some other groups, at the same time as some fresh arivals & departures of large numbers of various migrants were taking place. A minimum of 20 Warbler species were still being found, park-wide, through this 4-day period ending Thursday. And a minimum of 16 of those Warbler species were still around on Thursday Oct. 19th, and were being noted by multiple observers. Blue-winged Warbler (1 thru at least Wed. Oct. 18, at The Pond, quite late; N.B. others of this species have turned up in the region this week.) Tennessee Warbler (thru at least Wed. Oct. 18, north end) Orange-crowned Warbler (multiple individuals, from at least 3 locations, to at least Wed./18th) Nashville Warbler (at least several, thru Thursday, Oct. 19th) Northern Parula (at least several to Thursday, Oct. 19th) Chestnut-sided Warbler (1, possibly 2 individuals in Ramble, to Wed., Oct. 18th) Magnolia Warbler (at least several thru Thursday, Oct. 19th) Cape May Warbler (multiple, in several locations thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) Black-throated Blue Warbler (multiple, in several locations thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warbler (multiple, thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) Black-throated Green Warbler (at least several thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) Pine Warbler (at least several thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) Palm Warbler (multiple individuals, multiple locations, every day) Blackpoll Warbler (at least 1 thru Thursday, Oct. 19th, north end) Black-and-white Warbler (at least several thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) American Redstart (at least several thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) Ovenbird (at least several thru Thurs., Oct. 19th) Northern Waterthrush (minimum of 2 individuals thru Thursday, Oct. 19th, at The Pond, & The Pool, many observers, esp. of an individual at the Pool, which is near W. 100-103rd Sts.; the Pond is a couple of miles away near the SE corner of the park.) Common Yellowthroat (multiple individuals, multiple locations, every day) Wilson's Warbler (at least 1 thru Wed., Oct. 18th, Pond area) With a good overnight arrival flight on Monday night into Tuesday morning, expectations ran high; this didn’t especially seem to pan out for too many uncommon species being seen, but one, at least, made furtive appearance on Tuesday (17th) at the rise north of the NE edges of the N. Meadow ballfields that contain a few fenced butterfly & pollinator plantings, known to birders as the “Grassy Knoll” - a VESPER Sparrow. This was still being seen as late as after 6 p.m. Tuesday, but seems not to have been re-found since? Otherwise on Tuesday, there was a very obvious increase in both species of Kinglets, and of a variety of other rather-expected migrants or winter-visitors: E. Phoebe, Winter Wren, Blue-headed Vireo, Catharus [genus] thrushes almost all of which now are Hermit (but a few Swainson’s, late-ish Gray-cheeked type, & Wood Thrush were still moving at least to even Wed./18th), Brown Thrasher, Gray Catbird, and sparrows-a-plenty, including (barely) the season’s apparent first [Red] Fox Sparrows (north woods, by Thurs./19th), & many of: Chipping, Song, & White-throated; lesser no’s. of Swamp, Field, Savannah, White-crowned (few of the latter), as well as Dark-eyed [Slate-colored] Junco and Eastern Towhee, plus a smattering of icterids including a couple of Baltimore Orioles in passage. A Yellow-billed Cuckoo on Wed./18th in the north end was a bit late, but not unprecedented for the region. Additionally, there was a fairly good show of Chimney Swifts moving on Tues., with some raptor & vulture activity. There were still at least small no’s. of Ch. Swifts passing on Thurs./19th, and also some Turkey Vultures (over a dozen) moving past on Thursday. Raptors passing thru so far this week have included Bald Eagle, Osprey (getting a bit late), N. Harrier, Sharp-shinned & Cooper’s Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawk (few), & American Kestrel & Merlin, as well as the local city resident Red-tailed Hawks & Peregrines being noted. Some additional migrants (a few running a bit late-ish), as well as some wintering-visiting-lingering species so far this week also included: Common Loon (fly-overs) Pied-billed Grebe (reservoir) Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Turkey Vulture Snow Goose (modest numbers passed thru in several skeins on Tues./17th) Canada Goose Brant (Tues. & also a smaller no. on Thurs., fly-overs seen moving SE) Wood Duck Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Northern Shoveler Ruddy Duck Osprey Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin Peregrine Falcon American Coot (reservoir) Laughing Gull (reservoir) Ring-billed Gull [American] Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull ['feral'] Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Wed./18th, north end) Chimney Swift (thru period, most seen were Tues./17th) Ruby-throated Hummingbird (1, Wed./18th, Conservatory Garden, not significantly late; seen well enough for ID) Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (many) Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker (north end) Yellow-shafted Flicker (many) Eastern Wood-Pewee (still being reported, thru at least Wed./18th, & getting rather late) Eastern Phoebe (many) Blue-headed Vireo (many just arriving Tues./17th, still around thru Thurs./19th) Red-eyed Vireo (few thru period, to Thurs./19th) Blue Jay (many including many in diurnal movements) Common Raven (a few sightings & hearings, to Wed./18th) American Crow Black-capped Chickadee (very scarce this fall so far) Tufted Titmouse (low no’s., so far this fall) White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren House Wren (1 to at least Tues./17th) Winter Wren (multiple) Golden-crowned Kinglet (good no’s. arriving on Tues./17th, still many present to Thurs./19th) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (an add’l. push arriving on Tues./17th, many present thru Thurs./19th) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (late-ish individual found Wed./18th at Hallett Sanctuary) Gray-cheeked Thrush (few) Swainson's Thrush (rather few) Hermit Thrush (almost all of the Catharus [genus] thrushes being found now are this species) Wood Thrush (very few) American Robin (abundant, also seen on diurnal movements now) Gray Catbird (modest fresh push Tues./17th, & ongoing lingerers) Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher (modest fresh push Tues./17th, & ongoing lingerers) European Starling Cedar Waxwing (fair-modest no’s., daily) Scarlet Tanager (a few still around to Wed./18th & rather late by now) Eastern Towhee Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Vesper Sparrow (1, Tues./17th, as noted above; “Grassy Knoll” area.) Savannah Sparrow [Red] Fox Sparrow (first noted Thurs./19th, but poss. arrived earlier? - N. woods) Song Sparrow Lincoln's Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Indigo Bunting (several on Tues./17th, & at least one still noted to Thurs./19th) Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Baltimore Oriole (several, Tues./17th) House Finch American Goldfinch (very scarce so far this fall here) House Sparrow Ongoing butterflies (at least to Thurs./19th) at the Conservatory Garden (in particular) at the park’s north end have included Common Buckeye, Sachem (a skipper species), Fiery Skipper, Painted Lady (in the many dozens), Monarch, as well as Cabbage White & Orange Sulphur. Dragonflies have included Common Green Darner, Glider [species, prob. Wandering Glider], & Autumn Meadowhawk. Flies, bees, wasps, & many other kinds of insects have continued to be found as well. The chrysanthemum show in the North Garden (a.k.a. the “French Garden”) at the park’s Conservatory Garden (near Fifth Ave. at E. 103-106 Streets) is in near-peak condition right now, and may or may not stay in the ground all too many days more, according to the whims of the garden-staff, not what condition the flowers are still in… And, the floral displays in that garden’s South garden (a.k.a. the “English garden”) may soon be diminished, by sometime in the coming week, again not necessarily because all the flowers will be in poor shape by then; the garden-staff make these decisions based around other criteria as well. Thanks to the ethically-minded birding leaders & guides with such non-profit organizations as the N.Y. City Audubon Society (NYCAS), the American Museum of Natural History (A.M.N.H.), the Linnaean Society of New York, the (newer non-profit group known as) NYCH2O, & others who practice gentle & respectful bird-guiding. 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/ --
