Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City (On Sunday, Sept. 9th, an American Bittern was seen by at least 3 observers at Turtle Pond late in the day. Always an uncommon sighting in Central, it's not been reported for Monday.)
Monday, 10 September, 2012 - A fairly strong migration on the north winds from early on, and increasing in speed later in the day, allowing many smaller birds to continue south as they moved through Sunday night into early Monday, while an excellent raptor movement set up and went on all afternoon, with at least a few of the several hundred or more Broad-winged Hawks to be seen coming in to spend Mon. night in the park, as seen by at least 5 of us late in the day. There were, at an absolute minimum, well over 350 Broad-winged Hawks noted in the afternoon hours through & beyond 5 p.m., & of north end observers, Nadir Souirgi is thanked for starting a watch effort, then continued by Tom Perlman & Brenda Inskeep, & for a shorter time with T.F., and continuing later with B.I. & N.S. - the hawks varying from very high (bins needed) to very low in singles as a modest batch of stragglers in single file came along after 5 pm. Also noted were at least 2 Bald Eagles, a fair number of Ospreys and Sharp-shinned Hawks, and especially later on, a modest American Kestrel flight. The morning's flight included some that may have dispersed through the park as well as likely some that continued onward, with just modest numbers & variety of passerines for the date & in contrast to the apparent strength of the mainly nocturnal flight of Sun. night. At least 17 warbler species were apparently seen in total although that number may actually have been a bit higher; with no "annual rarities" reported (such as Conn. Warbler) for the day. At least one "western" Palm Warbler was present in the n. end, perhaps not the first seen this season in Central. Various other birds included Yellow-bellied & other Emopidonax flycatchers, E. Wood-Pewees, Great Crested Flycatchers, Eastern Kingbirds, cuckoos (all Yellow-billed?), the now "expected" flurry of Red-breasted Nuthatches, along with a variety of vireos (at least one White-eyed), thrushes (especially Swainson's Thrush, along with some gray-cheeked types, Veery, & Wood Thrush, Scarlet Tanagers, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, plus a bit of sparrow movement (not much), & some Purple Finch movement in the a.m., as well as a report of Rusty Blackbird from the Ramble area. Perhaps one of the most numerous visible migrants of all were Chimney Swifts, of which there were many hundreds if not more on the move (250+ were seen at one time around first light in the north end). Some Ruby-crowned Kinglets were singing a little, not that there were all that many seen today. Good birding to all, 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/[email protected]/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/ --
