New York County -in N.Y. City- including Manhattan, Randalls, Governors, and Roosevelt Islands and the adjacent waters and skies above - into the first week of August -
A CERULEAN Warbler noted at Central Parks Ramble area, first found by M. Davis, and then seen by many more observers there, was an excellent find for the southbound-summer movement of warblers and so forth. From most observers, of those giving public reports, the bird was seen as a female, albeit with contrasting ideas as to the age, adult as some thought, or a first-year as many noted. Females of this species are not seen a lot by many urban-birders, and even the males are uncommon at best in spring, with more of the migrations coming thru to the west of N.Y. City, for this species. N.B., this Cerulean was not rediscovered the next day. Other warbler movements have included drop-ins of at least these -additional- 20 species into the county, many noted from Central Park already this month, while some commoner-now species were seen more-widely within the county - Ovenbird, Worm-eating Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Northern Waterthrush, Blue-winged Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, CAPE MAY Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Wilsons Warbler, and fairly-likely a few more additional species of warblers. See an added note on Cape May Warbler, a boreal-forest breeder, separately below. More than a dozen of the above-noted species were being seen in a number of locations, and the majority of all noted were more than singletons. In the Ramble area alone in Central Park, on Monday, up to 12 Warbler species were present, with some observers seeing many of these on the day, although for many, a focus was on newer migrant arrivals and of course in particular, trying to view the Cerulean Warbler. Some of the more common warblers moving lately included American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, and Northern Waterthrush, with various others showing some small increases too. A number of sightings of Cape May Warbler also came thru around N.Y. City and vicinity, in recent days, and this is rather early for such a movement of that species. As an adjunct to those reports of early southbound movement, and regarding other birds that could be moving in ways or timings that are out-of-sync with known patterns of past decades, the following could be relevant - from a nonprofit bird conservation org. based in Canada - https://www.birdscanada.org/birds-in-the-line-of-fire-how-boreal-birds-respond-to-forest-fires Slightly more evidence for shorebird movement came on Saturday, Aug. 3rd with Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs appearing in separate locations, the Lessers on the flats at Sherman Creek Park, nortthern Manhattan -northeast of the e. end of Dyckman Street-, and the Greaters seen from Randalls Island. On Sunday, 8-4, a flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers came by at Randalls Island, and there was a brief flyby of two American Oystercatchers. Nice numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers also showed at Inwood Hill Park on Sunday. Then on Monday, 8-5, at least half-a-dozen Semipalmated Plovers, and about the same numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers, came to the flats at Inwood Hill Park, seen by multiple observers. There continued to be some Spotted and Least Sandpipers sticking around or passing thru, and some other unidentified -peep- types moving on, as well as the typical Killdeer in those areas that have them as breeders in the county. There have also been very-occasional larger shorebird species passing over the county at times in the past week, sometimes at elevation or too great a distance for any definite IDs to have been noted. The reports from Governors Island have not included a lot of shorebirds, but Spotted and Least Sandpipers, and the usual Killdeer have been seen. Overall in the county, there are again some Cuckoos, notably Black-billed Cuckoos, and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers on the move, and a modest number of Empidonax-genus flycatchers, including Yellow-bellied and Acadian, also some of the Willow-Alder types, and other Empidonax that at times, went even less-identified. A few migrant thrushes were seen, mostly Veery among those noted, while the Wood Thrushes in some locations are likely still mostly or all the locally-breeding families of the latter species. A few Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and modest numbers of other migrants have been seen, again this past weekend and to this week. Hummingbirds continued to be noted, with all reported as Ruby-throateds. A hen Wild Turkey was persisting at Roosevelt Island, where that bird has been much of the past several months. We look forward to more genuine reports of birds seen from Governors Island in the coming weeks. Many other birds have of course been seen around N.Y. County in the past week. Thanks to many quiet, courteous, keen observers and photographers out and about, finding many great birds this month. Good birding to all, Tom Fiore manhattan -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
