Wednesday, 12 August, 2009 Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City
A great deal of land-bird migration starts well before September. Although not a big push by any means, there were migrants, mostly warblers, scattered through the park including the north end, Ramble & vicinity, & at the south end near "the Pond". The most commonly- seen were unsurprisingly Yellow Warbler & American Redstart, but less- common species included a Hooded Warbler on the Great Hill & a Worm- eating Warbler on the slope just west of the Pond's w. arm. Other birds seen included Wood Duck, Osprey, Least Sandpiper, Laughing Gull (at reservoir), Great Crested Flycatcher, E. Wood-Pewee, E. Kingbird (several), Warbling & Red-eyed Vireos, Barn Swallow, [non-migrant] Carolina Wrens, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (several), Wood Thrush (breeder), Brown Thrasher (breeder), Cedar Waxwing (breeder), & these warblers (in addition to those noted): Blue-winged (3), Chestnut- sided, Blackburnian (N. woods), Prairie, Black-and-white (several), Ovenbird, N. Waterthrush (several), Common Yellowthroat, & Canada Warbler (5+) - in all, over 40 individual warblers including 12+ Yellow & 8+ Amer. Redstart - of at least 13 species, with no obvious flocks or hot-spots; perhaps slightly more in the n. end although I began there in the morning. The summer's first southbound land-birds passing thru Central went thru in early July & were in rather minimally-seen numbers - but significant numbers of warblers (in particular) do move south in that month, & many of them move in August.
Tom Fiore, Manhattan _________ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Temporary archive: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --