A Swallow-tailed Kite was reported from the Hamburg, NY hawk-watch site (south of Buffalo) by Jim Landau. An even rarer sight along the Great Lakes' south shore region than along the eastern outer coasts. This was on WED., 5/2.
http://www.hawkcount.org/day_summary.php?rsite=364&go=Go+to+site (see for May 2) http://www.birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/GENE.html#1336000432 (temp. archives) ____________________ Wednesday, 2 May, 2012 - Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City For Central Park alone there were more than 25 wood-warbler species seen by multiple observers on the day, and taking in all Manhattan parks it looks like at least 28 species of these warblers were likely found in this one day and there might even have been more. Other areas all around seemed to have great days with this migration being noted in reports from many directions and sorts of habitats. I was fascinated to read Joan Collins report from Massawepie Mire that so many Lincoln's Sparrows already reached that breeding home bog-land, with so few reported in the lower SE part of NY this spring. I also noticed that a number of places in NY added Golden-winged Warbler to their locality year-lists, with arrivals of them just today. In terms of overall numbers of birds, I am not sure if Central was at it's peak, but the numbers passing were the really sublime spectacle. Almost all of the species more-or-less expected in Central Park at the beginning of May showed up, a lot of them in rather high numbers, and there also were still some birds that would be more-expected in the latter half of April or before which were still common and continuing. Gray Catbirds continued the strong showing of their initial grand arrival for the year in these 2 days and nights of May. Selected from among the many sightings are at least these that were seen - (not even close to a complete list of all for Central today); merely some of the very many highlights; Blue-winged Teal, Solitary Sandpiper, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Ruby- throated Hummingbird, Least Flycatcher (vocal), Great Crested Flycatcher (many, Eastern Kingbird, 5 Vireo species: White-eyed, Blue- headed (still the most common of vireos), Yellow-throated Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Veery (in numbers now), Swainson's Thrush, at least 25 Warbler species and quite possibly more, Summer Tanager (one, ad. male), Scarlet Tanager (many), Lincoln's Sparrow (few), White-crowned Sparrow (few), Rose-breasted Grosbeak (many), Indigo Bunting, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole (almost common) - along with many, many additional species of migrants... Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --