New York County -in N.Y. City- including Manhattan, Randalls, Governors and ?Roosevelt Islands, and adjacent waters and skies above - Into the 2nd week of August -
The highlights of county storm-watch birding, for Friday, Aug. 9th with the passage of remnants of storm Debby, were in particular provided by a quartet of keen watchers who set up near the northern end of Manhattan, at the Dyckman St. pier off the western terminus of Dyckman Street, and jutting slightly into the Hudson River - the first four birders also joined at later times the same day by at least 4 additional keen observers, and for the original group of four, had a bounty of 11 species of identified shorebirds pass by, some or at least one perhaps new to the county, unless ancient-historical records exist for that one - these shorebird species included 28, that is twenty-eight Stilt Sandpipers, Black-bellied Plover, no-less than three Whimbrel, Pectoral Sandpiper, 5 Sanderlings, 47 Lesser Yellowlegs and one Greater Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone, Least Sandpiper and a small number of Semipalmated Sandpipers, as well as a few Semipalmated Plovers. Also a highlight for the county was a single Purple Martin winging down the river, first picked up by I. Bell. There were additional fly-by shorebirds on the 9th, some getting away quickly as peep sp. or perhaps other types. Many of the above-noted birds were photographed and overall, this was a hugely-successful watch for the county, with possibly among the highest species-diversity in Charadriiformes seen on one day in the county - a county which is overall, quite depauperate in general-diversity for some groups of birds, shorebirds - or, waders as termed in much of the rest of the world - and also for some other sea-going and crossing and loving types of birds. The sea is nowhere very-far from any parts of N.Y. City, but N.Y. County has no actual sea-coast, simply many waterside sites that are from the New York harbor, and along both the lower Hudson river and the estuaries around and east of Manhattan island and some of the other smaller isles of the county. Additional watching was done on Sat., Aug. 10th, with sightings including 2 Caspian Terns for a larger contingent of still-storm-watching-hoping observers, the grand terns seen by E. Leonardi and then by all others present, again at the Dyckman St. pier along the Hudson River in northern Manhattan. These last may not have been directly-related to storm-effects, as that and some other terns are on the move generally, storm or no-storm, in the region for this time of year. A Glossy Ibis was a nice find for the county as a bird-in-place, not just a fly-by, and which stayed from its first sighting by T. Zahner at Randalls Island on Aug. 7th, into the following day there, with more observers to see. A few Forsters Terns have appeared with multiple locations providing sightings, in addition to those seen in stormy conditions - as with Caspian and others, some of these terns simply on the move locally and regionally, storm or not. Solitary Sandpiper was another of many sightings from Randalls Island, on Aug. 9th, and that species was also noted at Governors Island for Aug. 10th. Some of the common shorebird species of this county were also continuing to be seen, including Killdeer and Spotted Sandpipers. Both species of Cuckoo, Yellow-billed and Black-billed, were seen at least to Aug. 10th, at Central Park in Manhattan, and also elsewhere in the county, by multiple observers. More of a variety of other land-birds continued to be seen as well, with some of the more-common species of warblers still around in fair to good numbers, and such migrants as Scarlet Tanager, and some of the migrant flycatcher species, and others being seen a bit more regularly. Some good further passage of birds is anticipated in the coming days, part of regular southbound-migration, so some further reports are likely in less than one week. Thanks greatly to the many industrious observers and photographers out and about, finding so many great birds in the county. Good birding to all, Tom Fiore manhatttan -- (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/ --
