Riverside Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City
A belated report came in, thanks to (in part) Laura Jacobs, Robert O. Paxton, & (forwarding this news) Karen Fung (all of Manhattan), that on Sunday, 16 December in the northern area of Riverside Park, and while a number of participants there conducted that section of the Lower Hudson Christmas Bird Count (CBC), a male Evening Grosbeak was found & enjoyed by all
(Again, the Manhattan bird-count is a part of the 2-state Lower Hudson circle, taking in portions of adjacent New Jersey just west across the Hudson river, from Manhattan.) All of Manhattan, & some adjacent islands that are in the same county: New York Co., are also included in the count’s circle. This is now the 4th reliable report of Evening Grosbeak seen in Manhattan this season, with only the first report being of more than a single bird (two birds, in that first-reported sighting, from Central Park). Subsequent (2) sightings, also photo-documented, have been in Central Park, each of singles, 1 in female plumage, then a male, as was this latest.
Additional birds that were good for the north-Riverside count sector were Red-breasted Merganser (3, Hudson river), & Red-breasted Nuthatch (2), & there was a highest-ever count for Tufted Titmouse there, as well as a very good count of White-throated Sparrow with 317 in that count-section alone, both of the latter fitting with local trends for those species this season. Although
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Good birding & happy winter solstice,
Tom Fiore
A belated report came in, thanks to (in part) Laura Jacobs, Robert O. Paxton, & (forwarding this news) Karen Fung (all of Manhattan), that on Sunday, 16 December in the northern area of Riverside Park, and while a number of participants there conducted that section of the Lower Hudson Christmas Bird Count (CBC), a male Evening Grosbeak was found & enjoyed by all
present. This was near W. 120th Street, east of a tennis court and where a section of woods is thickly-vegetated and has a partly very steep-sided slope. The Grosbeak was also sought on subsequent days, but not seen again. It is very likely a unique sighting for the entire count circle, although some sectors may yet report their CBC sightings.
(Again, the Manhattan bird-count is a part of the 2-state Lower Hudson circle, taking in portions of adjacent New Jersey just west across the Hudson river, from Manhattan.) All of Manhattan, & some adjacent islands that are in the same county: New York Co., are also included in the count’s circle. This is now the 4th reliable report of Evening Grosbeak seen in Manhattan this season, with only the first report being of more than a single bird (two birds, in that first-reported sighting, from Central Park). Subsequent (2) sightings, also photo-documented, have been in Central Park, each of singles, 1 in female plumage, then a male, as was this latest.
Additional birds that were good for the north-Riverside count sector were Red-breasted Merganser (3, Hudson river), & Red-breasted Nuthatch (2), & there was a highest-ever count for Tufted Titmouse there, as well as a very good count of White-throated Sparrow with 317 in that count-section alone, both of the latter fitting with local trends for those species this season. Although
R.-br. Merganser, & Red-breasted Nuthatch may be occasional from, & in, Riverdside Park, these 2 species were new to that count-sector (at least in the area counted, the “north” portion of the park). Good numbers of Blue Jay were also noted by the Riverside-N. group & at least 1 Peregrine was also found, despite the wet count day. Congrat’s to that team, and all who took part in all areas, on a wet & rather windy day, for excellent work.
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One of many interesting sightings from just across the Hudson, as part of the Lower Hudson CBC, on Sunday 12/16 was of a Glaucous Gull, reported as a probable 2nd-cycle for age & plumage, this on the New Jersey side of the river. Also of interest if not hugely surprising given the general movements of the species so far this season, at least one Evening Grosbeak was noted from a C.B.C. in Bergen County, N.J. (rather near to northern Manhattan, across to the west of the Hudson river and the sighting a bit ‘inland’) on Sat., 12/15/‘18 - this as part of the Fyke CBC (all of which is in New Jersey).
Good birding & happy winter solstice,
Tom Fiore
manhattan
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