New York County (in N.Y. City) including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, and Governors Island Friday, Aug. 26th, thru Wed., Aug. 31st -
A good diversity of species, including in particular (and as fairly-expected now) those many migrant American warblers - at least 25 species in this reports’ period, for the county, and overall nearly 140 species of birds occurring in the county in the same period, a lot of course migrant species, as well as some of the year-round resident birds. Some migrants have shown on the ‘other two’ larger islands of the county, Randall’s and Governors, but with the most coverage every day, Manhattan’s many parks larger & smaller were showing off the most species for the period. Some smaller and very-small patches of habitat on Manhattan were also producing interesting sightings, in particular in a fair number of the less-visited parks of the island, north, south, east, west, all-around-the-town. ‘The' highlight for many starting from at least last Sunday was the brightly-marked LARK Sparrow in Central Park. Not a highlight, and probably even-more-severe in some places around New York state, perhaps particularly on portions of Long Island, the ongoing drought this summer, while helped to dissipate in some periods of rain, is still ongoing, and is more than just moderate for some areas, varying a bit from one locality to another. In some areas of N.Y. City, there will have been a bit of municipal & parks-workers watering trees, lawns, plants of the flowering kind, etc. - however even in the city (which receives a lot of its water-supply from Catskills-region major reservoirs) there is obvious drought, and a lack of good feeding for some many migrant and resident birds in many locations. In what can be a tough, potentially-stressful time of the year for a lot of birds, this season is a bit more so with the drought factored in. There are some plants with fruits that, where available, have been popular feeding places when the fruits are ripe; the competition is also there with other typical urban-wildlife (gray squirrels and a number of other mammal species, some of which can be after the seeds within fruity foods, as well as the liquids in many fruits) - all normal but a bit more exaggerated due to drought. The season’s-first Pied-billed Grebe was on the Central Park reservoir on Friday, 8/26. That Friday featured another fairly strong push of birds, however very many of those migrants sailed right by in the night from late on 8/25 to the ‘wee’ hours of 8/26. There was also a modest-or-more departure of some of the migrants which had stopped in from prior days. Even with rather fewer landed birds on the islands of the county, diversity was still fairly good for the dates, with the weekend in particular bringing more, and another set of departures as well as arrivals - and also, as is frequently seen in the southbound-season here, a good many lingering migrants over some days. Amongst waterfowl, a few Wood Ducks have continued to grace Central Park. - - - Sat., 8/27 - Philadelphia (annual, but usually uncommon in fall and in the past, even less-commonly found in spring in this county) was one of the 5 Vireo species noted, the others also including White-eyed, and somewhat more-expected Yellow-throated, and modestly-increased numbers of Red-eyed and some (more) Warbling Vireos. This was actually likely the 2nd ‘Philly’ Vireo of this southbound season, but an earlier one was not so well-photographed. Among the shorebirds in the county were still Solitary Sandpipers, in the typically very modest numbers here. - - - Sun., 8/28 - Slower starting but then reports, and many migrants, came along as was so of many other days even with a lot of migrants that 'got away', south-by-southwest, rather than stopping long or even dropping-in. A highlight, previously noted, was the *Lark Sparrow* seen by many, many dozens of observers on into the evening hours at its location in the north end of Central Park, this a bird in adult plumage and especially conducive at times to having porttraits made. Some shorebirds were seen in a few locations, including Least & Semipalmated Sandpipers. At least 21 species of warblers were still around for Sunday, even with total numbers of individuals not being as high as in some days of the week preceding. Still seeming the most-numerous were American Redstart, but not as abundant as had been just some days previous. - - - Mon., 8/29 - The Lark Sparrow was continuing at Central Park’s north end. There were a fair number and also fairly-good diversity of many other migrant species around. Again with quite a few of lingering stop-overs, birds which stayed on in particular areas for some days or even a week; this was applicable to such less-common specis as Olive-sided Flycatcher, for example, and also to a good many more-often-noted migrants. - - - - Tues., 8/30 - And for a 3rd day in a row, Lark Sparrow continued on at the compost ‘heaps’ of the n.-e. quadrant of Central Park (south of the Meer), with again many observers all through the day into the early-evening. - - - Wed., 8/31 - A change in the weather (both locally and broadly for the northeastern sector of N. America) ushered in on increased west and then n.-w. winds and lowering humidity. That Lark Sparrow remained in place, even as some of the other migrants in Central Park had departed. At least the 4th day in a row for the rather-rare sparrow in that park, which had many hundreds of observers by that 4th day of ‘residency’ at the compost-heaps area of the park - a near-traditional spot for sparrows of various kinds. A number of observers have been in from other counties to view this sometimes-obliging recent sparrow ‘rarity’. A few Solitary Sandpipers in several locations around the county, in addition to the more-regular Spotted Sandpipers. Red-breasted Nuthatches continue to be seen in a number of locations around the county, and no exception to that for Central Park, where double-digit numbers (that is, more than 9) were again recorded, from one end of that park to the other. Red-breasteds have also been noted from smaller parks as well, including, this week, from more than one very small park in lower Manhattan. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were passing in fair numbers on Wed., with also a modest number at a variety of flowered areas in multiple locations - all noted well-enough were seen to be that species, but other hummingbird species are very much in the realm of possibility here in the northeast, and including in N.Y. County, which has documented multiple species in that bird-family. This may have been the heaviest (best) movement of Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the season so far. There also have been some Common Nighthawk flights, ongoing but so far not in any great numbers for the county. On occasion, some have been seen on very early watch, but more so in evenings, and so far, rarely before about 5-6 pm, and often later. A nice flight of C. Nighthawks are beinf watched for from Prospect Park in Kings County (Brooklyn), N.Y. City, with some good results as the season continues - the ridges of Brooklyn being the western-most extension of the ridges running along Long Island, NY. (Only the higher ground of Richmond County - Staten Island, N.Y City) is farther west and south in all of the state of New York.) Overall for the transitional weather-day, a fair amount of departure-flight had occurred in the night on Tuesday, and a bit more happened on Wed. in diurnal movement, some of it not too high up or far, but also a good part of it very high indeed on the increasing and shifting winds of the day. Chimney Swifts have been moving-on for some time and have continued to, this past week. There also has been some ongoing flight of Icteridae, with Red-winged Blackbird the most-prominent, sometimes quite high-up. Baltimore Orioles have now displaced Orchard in south-by-southwest flight, as Orchard is likely to be uncommon and even rare, as September moved in and along. There’ve also been some Bobolinks (also often high-up) and ongoing Brown-headed Cowbirds in diurnal flights. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron has contnued as a semi-regular at Randall’s Island; that location has been inundated with human activities lately as well and the sightings from there have been fewer; this will be rectified as September moves along. Some good migration had passed thru as seen from Governors Island however it had not been a veritable hot-spot excepting the long and hot stays in watching from the lookouts around the island, esp. on the higher “Hills” area. As is expected around this time, some of the Common Terns have been departing from their summer breeding / feeding areas in N.Y. Harbor and specifically, fewer were being seen on Governors Island at the old unused piers there. This also corresponds with far-fewer sightings lately of this tern species from the estuary-rivers on west and east sides of Manhattan island. While many tern species have been moving for a while already this month is still a good time to be on-watch for unusual possibilities among terns. The chance of any tropical-type storms moving by in this month, or farther along into calndar-autumn is also when of course a number of more-pelagic species may be considered. In this report’s period we have had rather strong diurnal departure flights (and mostly, passage) of E. Kingbird, as well as ongoing swallow movements dominated by Barn Swallows (for this county). And among warblers, the American Redstart took top numerical honors as a lot were departing and passing through. It was still not-uncommon yet, into the last day of the month of August. A somewhat-subtle shift in which warblers were on the move was also occurring, with fewer of some species that had recently been modestly-numerous (and a few that had been common, such as N. Waterthrush), and a slight uptick of such species as Wilson’s Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler (of which some were occuring in pocket-parks and even in street-trees this past week, albeit not at all ‘everywhere’ as with redstarts, and also a bit of increase for Black-throated Blue Warblers, to name only 3 of a number of lightly-increased species. More are to be expected, esp. of the latter two species. Also certainly in-the-winds - on the move - have been some fairly-strong numbers of Double-crested Cormorants, and gulls of the expected species, with Laughing Gull ongoing as fly-overs and also not that uncommon at times on the Central Park reservoir, and more-regular out in the N.Y. harbor and the outlying islands as well as the estuary-rivers all around Manhattan island; the return of the Ring-billed Gulls has also been ongoing all thru August. We have had small signs of movement beyond-locally of the egret species that are regular in the county - Snowy and Great Egrets, but these are still going on the daily east-west & vice-versa flights as seen all summerlong in reaching feeding areas and roosting areas from New Jersey’s meadowlands to various sites in western-most Long Island Sound, East River and etc. and passages across the center-north of Manhattan island - with the northern sector of Central Park a location from which many of these are viewed, although there also is such activity in all sectors of the county at times. And there continue to be smallish, but rather interesting movements (south-by-southwest) of American Goldfinch, which although in quite-modest numbers are interesting for such movements here, still in the month of August. We shall see if that is any portent of “things to come” as with the long-time-already movements by high numbers of Red-breasted Nuthatches in the region, & for N.Y. County. It should be ‘obvious’ that this is also raptor-migration-time, and few if any raptors are moving in fair numbers now than [Western] Ospreys (see taxonomic updates on the osprey of the world on that designation), and also the still-increadsing Bald Eagles. We also regionally are in the beginnings of the Broad-winged Hawk migrations, which will peak before the month of September is over. Common Raven sightings have continued in N.Y. County, with some reports from all sectors of the county. A good many sightings are from Central Park in Manahttan and the adjacent areas, esp. the upper west side portion of that park and its’ nearby neighborhood. And as-ever, in the northern areas of the county, but also from the southern-most, at Governors Island. Many, many more birds could be mentioned, but far more will be passing this month, as well. Thanks to the many patient and quiet observers and reporters of all wildlife around the region. I am adding a link to a hybrid-warbler form for which there is a lot of ongoing interest; this form was seen very recently in Central Park, N.Y, City - this Macaulay Library archived photo is from Richmond County (Staten Island), in N.Y. City and shows a bird which as I have reported on recently, is no longer the major rarity it once had been - https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/479830521 (thanks to J. Richards - a golden-winged X blue-winged warbler hybrid, at Clove Lakes Park on both Aug. 30th and 31st; showing some of the characters of both of the species for this hybrid-form.) - - - - Just ‘modest' numbers of Monarch butterflies have been noted in this report’s period; more would be expected to begin some of their typical fall migrations towards central Mexico this month. peaceful birding to all, Tom Fiore manhattan, and also elsewhere-birding. -- 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/ --
