Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City (Sunday) & Monday - (3rd) & 4th of December, 2017
To add some details for a report already given, on Sunday in Central Park (besides the Empidonax flycatcher originally found by Linda LaBella, to whom hundreds of NY & other state’s birders are thankful to for that find, and present to at least Monday 12/4 there in the park’s Ramble areas as previously), the park also had at least ten species of warblers on the Sunday (12/3), a very notable diversity, for that late in a year here - these warblers included: the Magnolia Warbler which I had first found, photo’d, & originally reported to this list, as now seen by dozens of other birders & which is the least-regular of all of these late-moving warbler species that’ve been definitively seen, documented, & noted in recent days in Central Park (with a few other species also being quite unexpected so late in the season); & these other warblers, some of them having lingered for perhaps many weeks while some may have pushed through just on the day or past few days, as late migratory movement continues: Orange-crowned Warbler - to Monday, 4th, this last at the Meer again, beingh seen at various times & several days from a number of points on the west, east, & south sides of the Meer & adjacent trees and also a few times at the island in the Meer (& again assuming just one of this species there, although hardly unthinkable there are or were more than one); Nashville Warbler - at least to Sunday, 3rd when a minimum of 5 individuals appear to have pushed in, although at least 2 were present since late November, as some of us had seen & reported, at the SE part of the park; on Sunday additional Nashvilles were spread across a mile-long strip of the east side of the park, from what I could find & am not aware of any from farther north in the park - however the northern parts of Central have been nearly vacated or little-visited by birders on the days when a much-watched, &/or sought, Empidonax has been present in the Ramble area (which is a distance of roughly one mile+, from much of the better bird habitat in the north sections of the park); N.B. - there has been a not-too-untypical late push of Nashville thru the NYC area & vicinity in the last few days or so; Northern Parula - at least to Sunday 3rd, & with a minimum of 3 individuals found, all in the southern portion of the park below 72nd St., & with one or possibly 2 of this species also present a few days or more prior as well; N.B. - this species would normally be seen as quite late in a year at this point, & yet as with the Nashvilles seen just lately in the area [and which are far more standard as low-density very late-moving stragglers or, whatever is really going on with that & certain other insectivore spp.; the possibility of non-eastern origins for some of these ought be seen as a possibility], there were at least several, or more than several N. Parula being found in this region in recent days, thus a pattern & not a “unique” Central Park phenom. by any means - just as the flycatcher known as Hammond’s was/is not a unique phenomenon in the East this season (one is being seen regularly in Massachusetts concurrent with the celeb. C.P. individual, for just one easily-verified example), there have been a LOT of other warblers moving across the east in the past week[s], some of them a bit uncommonly-late, at least by 20th-century standard & records (while also, for many, not being out-of-ordinary possibility, either in terms of total records for the region, rather than some Central Park-specific record dates, & even then!); Pine Warbler - at least to Sunday, 3rd, a fairly bright individual showing well right by Turtle Pond, but ignored or un-watched anyhow by throngs running after Empidonax hammondii - this not an unusual date at all for the species, but in most years is actually more uncommon IN Central Park than other warblers noted here now - this “feels” like may have been, as with some of the other individual warblers, getting pushed to a coastal, or more southern location on a small wave of freshly-arrived late migrants over this past weekend; American Redstart - lingering into al least Sunday, 3rd; this individual had been present at the Loch & vicinity for some day, & was still for Sunday - much “ignored” by the folks all gathered in the areas where E. hammondii was, & that was not the n. parts of Central… N.B. - this is a fairly late date for the species but in more-recent years, this species has begun to turn up even on some CBC’s & in December sightings a bit more generally, even while hardly ‘expected’ so late in the region; Ovenbird - to Monday, 4th, and this species has become almost “expected” in very low density in Manhattan, in December, & sometimes into a new year; the individual I found in Central on Monday was at the CP Zoo, but needed no entry as it was near the outdoor cafe area, where one has been in recent days; it’s at least possible there are some others, or were, lingering in various areas of the park - and definitely in various other Manhattan locations (some reported, some likely not yet); Northern Waterthrush - at least to Sunday, 3rd. at The Pond; this individual which had lingered for weeks if not loinger at that location, may have finally moved on, but still just might be lurking about the shorelines of The Pond (SE part of park) where I have, over many days now, found it in virtually every stretch of that waterbody’s shoreline, at various times of various days; this is pretty late for either C.P. or the region for the species, but of course does not furnish anything like a late record for the state nor the region (see, overwintered N. Waterthrush for Long Island, NY as expounded on by S. Mitra in prior reporting!); Common Yellowthroat - to at least Sunday, 3rd; these have, as with Ovenbird, been among the most-regular of manhattan (NY County, that is) warbler species which can & do attempt to winter, sometimes like ovenbird in odd patches of urban habitat, indeed possibly much more so in such odd patches rather than larger parks as Central is; the Sunday individual was in the southern part of the park, but could easily be in any other section and there well might be a lingerer still of this species, almost certainly in some of the lower-Manhattan parks or green-spaces at this moment; Wilson's Warbler - through Monday, 4th, this is the most-watched warbler of Central Park of late, simply because it, perhaps associatively is regularly being seen in the general vicinity of the Empidonx hammondii, and birders are still aware of bright yellow (this individual Wilson’s appears to be an adult male) birds in the same view, or flitting through, their sugar-plum vision of dancing Empidonax (or sit-still-for-a-photo empie.) and there have even been some other native & wild birds in Central Park over the past days - one ongoing to Monday, 4th has been a female Boat-tailed Grackle, which was first reported & photo-documented by Anders Peltomaa, and on the day after Anders’ report with photos was again photo-documented by other observers in the park, then on subsequent days after that, seen by more & more observers, this Monday Boat-tailed sighting in mid-morning at Sheep Meadow’s SW corner, & amongst a very large Common Grackle flock (hundreds), & that sighting shared with two other observers including Peter Post. On Monday (12/4), I am aware of just 4 warbler species being seen, in Central & these included the lingering Magnolia I’d first found & reported on (photo’d each day seen), the now long-lingering male Wilson’s in the Ramble, the lingering Orange-crowned at the Meer, & an Ovenbird also lingering a bit, near the C.P. Zoo. There may easily have been some of the other noted warbler spp. or others, still about. One highlight for me on Monday was catching up with a number of fine observers from around the city, and the state, including Willie D’Anna who has so often given reports of all manner of birds to this list; also Carl Howard who is fighting the good fight on our environmental front, and as well Kathy Drake, also a world-birder & who offered me a lot of wonderful anecdotes on her birding expeditions of late. A last note, in any December day that’s not CBC scouting or participating, one sees an excited tweeting (of a certain Empidonax) from Central park by Christian Cooper, a.k.a. Mr. Blackburnian, one knows there is a bird of some note within the park. And so there is. Good luck to further seekers after the E. hammondii... Respectful & ethical birding to all which is always a very good way, 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/ --
