[nysbirds-l] Manhattan, NYC 4/14-15 incl. Varied Thrush
Thursday-Friday, 14-15 April, 2011 - Manhattan, N.Y. City The Central Park VARIED THRUSH looks to possibly hang in for a full 5 months - if it stays on into the last week of April... it's still present today (Friday) in the area on the north side of the East 79 St. transverse road and roughly opposite the SW corner area of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the building projects well into the park itself at that point) & in the trees & shrubs along & near the transverse - it's been frequenting this general area more in the past month, rather than the previously favored areas of the west side of the East Drive of the park. It also might be sought around Cedar Hill, on the south side of the transverse and east of the park's E. Drive as it has sometimes moved around that area. Indeed, later on Friday (after 1 p.m.), I found the Varied thrush again, but at Cedar Hill, ranging around quite a bit as various human activities intruded on its feeding, as first noticed in the above location. This thrush is hardly very vocaland I've almost always found it visually, rather than by calls. Central Park's first-year RED-HEADED WOODPECKER may be a bit easier to find, near & lately more often north of the 66 Street transverse road & in trees on the south side of Sheep Meadow or nearby - as it was Friday morning. It now has a good amount of red, making it a bit easier still to locate. It seems not to be particularly vocal. I find that standing well to the east and scanning 'bare-eyed' works for me in seeking this bird. The vantage point I choose is often a bit to the west of the SE corner of Sheep Meadow, looking mostly west or south, as the Red-headed may also go back to working trees on the south side of the transverse, just west of &/or adjacent the Carousel. Friday seemed a bit quieter still (than any previous day this week) but there were certainly lingering migrants from the nice push that took place earlier in the week, and likely some new birds also dropped in as a good deal of migration has occurred even when local weather didn't seem quite as likely to produce flight. The upper lobe of the lake & a bit into the western ramble area, such as north of the outlet of the Gill (stream) to the lake were somewhat active in afternoon and by standing at Bank Rock bay & a few other points just into the Ramble for a total of 45 minutes I was able to see a Louisiana Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Pine Warbler (male), a few Palm & Myrtle [Yellow-rumped] Warblers, plus E. Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglets a- plenty, a few Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers & assorted other species. A very narrow section of newly seeded grass north of Bow bridge held a Field plus 25+ Song Sparrows, but the prime spot for an afternoon sparrow-watch happened to be on a rock near the Mineral Springs pavillion (food court) north of sheep Meadow where someone had dumped out a hefty supply of what appeared to be mainly cracked corn, which initially was attracting Passer domesticus in numbers (House Sparrows) but from all directions came: Chipping (several0, Field (1), Savannah (1, until a Song chased it down to ground), Song (several), White- throated (3 or 4) and Slate-colored Junco (6+) - all these seemed quite willing to elbow up to the larger more aggressive House Sparrows; and only an unleashed small dog running right up the rock got the flock to disband. Another spot with multiple sparrow species was in the north end this a.m., a larger area newly-seeded & held several Savannah, Field, & many Chipping, Song, & white-throated Sparrows. This was on the SE part of the Great Hill. The north end was, in my experience, a little less active than had been although there were pockets with plenty of Hermit Thrushes, N. [Yellow-shafted] Flickers, and some other migrants. I saw 2 Golden-crowned Kinglets in the n. end, & also saw a total of (only) 3 "red" Fox Sparrows in all the park from C.P. South to 110 St. The reservoir held a couple of Laughing Gulls as well as modest numbers of the 3 more usual gull species (Ring-billed, Herring, Great Black-backed) and there are still well over 120 N. Shovelers there, along with some Buffleheads and Ruddy Ducks. On Thursday there was a single drake Wood Duck out in the middle in the mid-day period. The reservoir on Friday appeared to be devoid of any swallows, while at the Meer in the a.m., there were the 3 most regularly-seen species of Central - Barn (mainly) and N. Rough- winged & a couple of Tree Swallows, all very actively feeding over the entire Meer. At least 2 Green Herons were still present Friday. - - - - - - - On Thursday at Central Park, my impression was that more birds had departed than had arrived, with numbers of migrants such as flickers, kinglets, hermit thrush, warblers and sparrows all much lower in overall numbers than the previous few days. So it's not too
[nysbirds-l] Manhattan, NYC 4/14-15 incl. Varied Thrush
Thursday-Friday, 14-15 April, 2011 - Manhattan, N.Y. City The Central Park VARIED THRUSH looks to possibly hang in for a full 5 months - if it stays on into the last week of April... it's still present today (Friday) in the area on the north side of the East 79 St. transverse road and roughly opposite the SW corner area of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the building projects well into the park itself at that point) in the trees shrubs along near the transverse - it's been frequenting this general area more in the past month, rather than the previously favored areas of the west side of the East Drive of the park. It also might be sought around Cedar Hill, on the south side of the transverse and east of the park's E. Drive as it has sometimes moved around that area. Indeed, later on Friday (after 1 p.m.), I found the Varied thrush again, but at Cedar Hill, ranging around quite a bit as various human activities intruded on its feeding, as first noticed in the above location. This thrush is hardly very vocaland I've almost always found it visually, rather than by calls. Central Park's first-year RED-HEADED WOODPECKER may be a bit easier to find, near lately more often north of the 66 Street transverse road in trees on the south side of Sheep Meadow or nearby - as it was Friday morning. It now has a good amount of red, making it a bit easier still to locate. It seems not to be particularly vocal. I find that standing well to the east and scanning 'bare-eyed' works for me in seeking this bird. The vantage point I choose is often a bit to the west of the SE corner of Sheep Meadow, looking mostly west or south, as the Red-headed may also go back to working trees on the south side of the transverse, just west of /or adjacent the Carousel. Friday seemed a bit quieter still (than any previous day this week) but there were certainly lingering migrants from the nice push that took place earlier in the week, and likely some new birds also dropped in as a good deal of migration has occurred even when local weather didn't seem quite as likely to produce flight. The upper lobe of the lake a bit into the western ramble area, such as north of the outlet of the Gill (stream) to the lake were somewhat active in afternoon and by standing at Bank Rock bay a few other points just into the Ramble for a total of 45 minutes I was able to see a Louisiana Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Pine Warbler (male), a few Palm Myrtle [Yellow-rumped] Warblers, plus E. Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglets a- plenty, a few Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers assorted other species. A very narrow section of newly seeded grass north of Bow bridge held a Field plus 25+ Song Sparrows, but the prime spot for an afternoon sparrow-watch happened to be on a rock near the Mineral Springs pavillion (food court) north of sheep Meadow where someone had dumped out a hefty supply of what appeared to be mainly cracked corn, which initially was attracting Passer domesticus in numbers (House Sparrows) but from all directions came: Chipping (several0, Field (1), Savannah (1, until a Song chased it down to ground), Song (several), White- throated (3 or 4) and Slate-colored Junco (6+) - all these seemed quite willing to elbow up to the larger more aggressive House Sparrows; and only an unleashed small dog running right up the rock got the flock to disband. Another spot with multiple sparrow species was in the north end this a.m., a larger area newly-seeded held several Savannah, Field, many Chipping, Song, white-throated Sparrows. This was on the SE part of the Great Hill. The north end was, in my experience, a little less active than had been although there were pockets with plenty of Hermit Thrushes, N. [Yellow-shafted] Flickers, and some other migrants. I saw 2 Golden-crowned Kinglets in the n. end, also saw a total of (only) 3 red Fox Sparrows in all the park from C.P. South to 110 St. The reservoir held a couple of Laughing Gulls as well as modest numbers of the 3 more usual gull species (Ring-billed, Herring, Great Black-backed) and there are still well over 120 N. Shovelers there, along with some Buffleheads and Ruddy Ducks. On Thursday there was a single drake Wood Duck out in the middle in the mid-day period. The reservoir on Friday appeared to be devoid of any swallows, while at the Meer in the a.m., there were the 3 most regularly-seen species of Central - Barn (mainly) and N. Rough- winged a couple of Tree Swallows, all very actively feeding over the entire Meer. At least 2 Green Herons were still present Friday. - - - - - - - On Thursday at Central Park, my impression was that more birds had departed than had arrived, with numbers of migrants such as flickers, kinglets, hermit thrush, warblers and sparrows all much lower in overall numbers than the previous few days. So it's not too surprising to
