Had not seen a re-up. of the reports, so: the NEOTROPIC Cormorant of the Hudson River waterfront of Newburgh, Orange County, NY was CONTINUING through Wed., June 1st as seen by multiple others who again took loads of photos and now have confirmed reports up on eBird, etc. - this bird again spotted by B. Nott, and seen as well by multiple others into the 6/1 afternoon hours at the Global Oil Terminal and adjacent. Again with some nearby Double-crested Cormorants next to the ‘Neo.' for good comparsion opportunities.
Also ongoing - and being seen again thru June 1st, a *Black-bellied Whistling-Duck* at Miller Field, just a bit north of Great Kills/Gateway Nat’l.Rec.Area on Staten Island / Richmond County, NY (a lingering rarity), also again photo’d. / further eBird-confirmed. - - - - - New York County (in N.Y. City), including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, and Governors Island June 1st - and on some previous days in late-May - The first day of June ’22 brought much cooler weather back into the area, on a so-called back-door cool front, moving in from the east. The timing of that front however was slow-moving & permitted a lot of migrants to linger on, as well as some of course to move on (as so many have been in late May) and also at least modest no’s. to arrive, as some will even this far into the overall land-bird migrations so prevalent through much of spring and esp. in May. In Central Park (Manhattan), where I spent all too-much time lingering, Wednesday 6/1 still found at least 16 species of American Warblers and a very few spp. still in some numbers, the most again being American Redstart - which also have been showing in locations all across the county, with perhaps 30+ in Central Park alone (& that’s just my own tally, for places I visited from the walls of C.P.-South to North, & some of the areas in each other edge west & east, & parts of the longest stretch of non-paved pathway of the park, known as the bridle-path[s] & adjacent areas, plus bits of the Ramble (esp. the Lake-edge parts) and the n. woods, early-a.m. and again after the rains began. One of the busier-for-warblers incl. singing males, to my slight surprise was a small area known as “the Point” where I found up to 8 spp. of warbler in one hour’s stay, and even (in a 2nd pass much later) was able to hear or see all of same; some of these apparently lingerers from at least the day[s] prior. Admittedly a bit less-time was taken there, but the southern-most portion of the park yielded a little less diversity for my efforts there. However, that area, and esp. where there is any water, can have surprises right on to the start of summer. In (rather-rough, and personally-disambiguated, descending order of numerical occurence in the first day of June) are these warbler sightings: American Redstart, Blackpoll Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Waterthrush, Magnolia Warbler, Canada Warbler, Ovenbird, Black-and-white Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Mourning Warbler (at least 2 vocalizing -and observed- males, and at least 2 females), Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, and Tennessee Warbler. (This last seen, not heard, and I would suspect that a number of the non-singing, & tree-top loving females or quieter individuals of this last species moved thru in the good numbers that some were observed in, through much of the latter half of May and perhaps still a few females still getting through, into June’s first days. ALL of these were confirmed as visuals not by heard-only, and I do not rely on devices for ‘assistance’ in ID's nor in any way for bird-observations, beyond standard binoculars, scopes, and occ. use of digital photography.) [And: Bay-breasted Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Myrtle/Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Wilson's Warbler were all still present to *May 31st* in *Manhattan*. I suspect that at least a couple of these last 4 warbler-spp. *could* have also been present into June of this year for N.Y. County.] Also present for June 1st in Manhattan - obviously [‘feral’] Rock Pigeon, European or ‘Common” Starling, and House Sparrow, as well as American Goldfinch, House Finch, the many warbler species all noted above for this 1 day, Cedar Waxwing (good numbers around), Orchard Oriole (some now-nesting!), Baltimore Oriole (a very-numerous nester of this county), Red-winged Blackbird (some nesting), Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, INDIGO Bunting (which has attempted nesting many times on Manhattan, over the many decades), N. Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak (a very *rare-nesting* species of the county in some years), Swamp Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow (rather late!), White-throated Sparrow (some are likely to summer and DO NOT NEST in the county, despite regular sightings of small no’s. that summer-through), Song Sparrow (multiple nests now), Chipping Sparrow (nests in the county), Eastern Towhee (should NEVER be disturbed at all; this could be placed on the endangered-species list in future years, as the form that we usually see is not doing well at all in much of its’ known range), Scarlet Tanager (which has nested multiple times in N.Y. City in the modern era), Brown Thrasher (so discrete in their annual nest-sites), N. Mockingbird, Gray Catbird, American Robin (the emblematic nesting songbird of this city, pretty-much and some can be heard on nights & days from many many city-locations in spring-summer; first fledgelings are out; some 2nd-nests are ongoing), Wood Thrush (comments as to disturbances re: towhee!), Swainson’s Thrush (few left but not too-rare in early June here), Gray-cheeked-type thrush spp. (few left, I did not try to discern the species but suspect nominate Gray-cheeked *& perhaps some Newfoundland-nesting Gray-cheeked* too), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (nesting poss., not conf. by me), Carolina Wren, House Wren, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Black-capped Chickadee, Tree Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Common Raven, Fish Crow, American Crow, Red-eyed Vireo (able to nest annually), Warbling Vireo (nests in high no’s. every year here), Eastern Wood-Pewee (nests in low densities), Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Acadian Flycatcher (a poss. nester which has done so in N.Y. City), Willow/Alder Flycatcher (Willow Fly. does nest each year in N.Y. City and poss. each year in N.Y. County as well, while Alder Fly. NEVER nests here), Eastern Phoebe (this last nests in the county rather scantly and may not be succesful in some of the attempts), Great Crested Flycatcher (nests), Eastern Kingbird (fairly numerous nester all around the county, & can try multiple times in a season), other flycatcher species (some unid. Empidonax/sp./., seen poorly &/or not heard at all), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (this last lingering late into spring in many recent years, and a few may well summer-through in isolated instances in the county, including sometimes odd-spots around Manhattan, such as small green-spaces, pocket-parks, etc. - does NOT nest in this county!), Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Yellow-shafted Flicker (all of these latter 4 species nest, and have been this spring, in N.Y. County including in Manhattan), Belted Kingfisher (scarcer in summer, but at least occ. noted, and status-uncertain for what these are up to in this county in summer!), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (has been found nesting in the county, on scant occasions, but could well evade notice in many potential less-birded locations; there also may be some which linger and will not be breeding for a given summer), Chimney Swift (far-fewer now, however some are likely to linger and it’s *hoped* that some still may breed within the county…N.B., **many swift species around the globe** are of-concern for all parts of their cycles, winter-summer and migratory ranges; some are highly-threatened &/or endangered species), Common Nighthawk (one was noted at 1st-light, and others could be about into June in the county, the usual-couples-of-owls & both are nesting spp. here, though not-one that’s had 10,000+ observations, & e-entries this spring, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Black-billed Cuckoo (each cuckoo spp. photo’d, and more than a few of the *former* seen/heard for 6/1’22), Mourning Dove, Common Tern (seen *reliably by others from Manhattan’s s. shores* on 6/1; also can be seen at nest-site in the county, on-location off Governors Island), Laughing Gull (including at least 6 for Central Park’s reservoir, and many more over and on waters surrounding Manhattan or as fly-bys), Ring-billed Gull (not so easy or ‘common’ just now), [American] Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Killdeer (reliably seen in Manhattan this 6/1), Spotted Sandpiper (few), American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon (these 2 falcon species both nest annuually, the former very numerous in total all through Manhattan, and the latter also not-rare but somewhat less-prolifically, albeit very successfully), Red-tailed Hawk (all attempts to census true nest numbers and fledgelings are LOW for this county, and esp. for Manhattan, as the true no’s. are prolific indeed…), Cooper’s Hawk (status uncertain & undetermined now), Osprey (some are likely nesting in the COUNTY; whether on Manhattan itself however… maybe-not?), Wood Duck (drakes; incl. one lone-male again seen from n.e. corner of C.P. reservoir as rains began after-5pm), Gadwall (multiples, for the county and for Manhattan overall), American Black Duck (few, but some have lingered on the rivers), Mallard (plenty in many areas), [Atlantic] BRANT (very, very few, and not that expected for June, but typically at least a few may linger, and some poss. summer here, & around the county), Canada (or ‘golf-goose’) Goose (many, incl. very numerous *not-yet attacked-and-consumed* goslings well-defended however!), N.B. - 2 Vulture spp. have been seen on into the end of May in the county and from n. Manhattan in particular, and a few of both Black and Turkey Vultures could be regular even into June here), Green Heron (nesting now), Black-crowned Night-Heron (very-common visitant and lives up to its tribe’s name of “NIGHT”, for the regular nightly visitations), Snowy Egret (about daily fly-bys on the typical pathways in the Manhattan sky-ways), Great Egret (more frequent sighting than the previous, and also seen as fly-bys every day and some evenings), Great Blue Heron (irregular but not at all rare in June for the county, as fly-by or as a visitant), Double-crested Cormorant (fishing all over the county and also still being counted in modest no’s. as groups going past the island, the county, the region), with a few noted added for a couple of other spp. just below. These above are NOT to be considered all of the observed sightings from 6/1 for the county, & also are not entirely from just Central Park (!) - although a great many are from just that park; approx. 11 hrs. total field-time. - - A good fly-over sighting, one which definitely went past (over) Central Park, was of Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, for *May 31st*, but **also** a species which just-might be semi-regular on evening or othertime passages for those watching diligently, or just lucky to catch a night-heron and see that there can be other than the (far-more-common and thus more-regularly-noted) night-heron species, Black-crowned. The former is a potential nester but if not (for N.Y. County itself), it’s a regular of nearby sites and a passer-by which visits parts of the county regularly (even, likely each day in season, and as we have seen, can be found (albeit as a rarer sight) in winter as well on at least one favored area-site. As proven many times over, a good location from which to try is on Randall’s Island, however the sighting of a fly-by YCNH was from Manhattan’s west side very near to Central Park. There are also numbers of YCNH sightings over the years from the southern parts of Manhattan’s shores and some from Governors Island, and of course other county-locations at various intervals. - - A note for May 28th, a wader species was entered into eBird for that day, on Manhattan as a “semipalmated s.p.” - some photos re-analyzed 'appear to show' a Sanderling, a far-rarer species of ‘shorebird' (a.k.a. ‘wader’, to much of the planet’s bird-observers) for N.Y. County. Semipalm.SP are rather regular in the county and can be seen in both the north-and-then-south migration periods for peeps, whereas Sanderling is far-less recorded (that is, documented) for the county at any time, even though such a regular species of New York City’s outer beaches’ shores and some other sites at times, and in so many months of the year. - if accepted as this species, a good reminder that unusual birds may show at almost any time (for particular sites), and all birds can be worth documenting. There are also *some* birds (and groups of) that may go as a genus, or even as a family, and not get a species-delineation, something that the world’s most-experienced observers do on rather regular basis. Thus for a ‘wader', perhaps “Calidris sp.”, or “Pluvialis”, “Numenius”, even simply “Scolopacidae” (multi-wader spp., although without the plover-genera and also not-including that rare-in-America Vanellus) … and etc. **N.B., the sighting of this wader on Manhattan shore was also when a last-report for May of the Barn-x-Cliff (hybrid) Swallow was made, and also a sighting of Red-throated Loon on the Hudson, all that day: 5/28, early-morn. - - - Cool & somewhat cloudy, later damp, weather on Wednesday 6/1 inhibited some of the insect-activity observed in great proliferation for prior (HOT) days at the end of May here… Monarch butterflies were however again seen in Manhattan, & a lot more of various species from recent prior days for New York County. Rather stormy (-and some wild!-) weather came thru the region, esp. for the southern parts of the county and for some of southeast NY state, overnight from Wed.-Thurs. June 1st into 2nd. Good June birds (and other nature-observing) to all, 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/ --
