Sunday, 14 October, 2012 A Wood Sandpiper in Rhode Island was seen by multitudes of birders again, with fairly frequent updates on the MassBirds list-serve, as well as Rhode Island's and other states' birding list-serves and in other birding venues. At least a half-dozen Cave Swallows were reported Sunday in the vicinity of Rochester NY, per the GeneseeBirds list etc. - - - - - - - Central Park, Manhattan, N.Y. City
>From others' accounts, a very good drop-in of migrants took place Friday >night-Saturday. Sunday featured good numbers & diversity as well, and a >circuit around the park's north end was quite productive of species expected >this time of the year, with some highlights: Orange-crowned Warbler (north woods, near Blockhouse) "red" Fox Sparrow (Great Hill, my first of the season in NY) Baltimore Oriole (bright adult male, Great Hill, SW side / in Sharp garden area) Purple Finches continue; I did not come up with siskins this visit; modest no's. of American Goldfinch. Overall, Myrtle [Yellow-rumped] Warblers were abundant, in almost all bits of habitat, and squadrons of White-throated Sparrows were about, in what seemed to me slightly re-invigorated number; also in greater number, that is in my opinion a fresh recent batch of arrivals, were Gray Catbirds, and certainly, as others reported from Sat., a good arrival of Hermit Thrush, which as is typical signals the diminution of the other thrushes in the genus Catharus - I found just a few Swainson's and a single Gray-cheeked, although those & other species may well continue on for a while... and in that category was a single Northern Waterthrush (not in a watery habitat which sometimes is suggestive of a just-arrived bird of that sort - that is, another neotropical-winterer that's been getting south while the going is still good; Central has had this species even in December, very rarely, but I'd bet that won't be seen this season if some long-range weather forecasts are reasonably accurate...) Also noted, not for the first time this fall, were an increase in Tufted Titmouse and also a small number of Black-capped Chickadees, a rather irruptive species which has, over the past century or more recently, past 2 decades, varied from almost-unheard-of one year, to superabundant in other years, in Central Park and elsewhere in parts of NYC - but generally not rare, in any sense beyond a year or two's fluctuation. Yet another species seen today in greater numbers than in many recent years was American Crow, over 100 moving through the park, and naturally - causing mayhem with any Red-tailed Hawk they encountered which some certainly did. The oriole noted above was not the only; rather it seemed modestly notable for being in brilliant adult male plumage, while all others encountered were drabber; some, perhaps even most of these may have been moving along as diurnal migrants, as there was a modest movement of other icterids (birds in the 'new world' blackbird family) with a couple of Rusty Backbirds also dropping in to the park. In more than a few areas, birds were having a feast on hatches of small flying insects that were numerous, and I had at least one migrant, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, land on my shoulder as a brief perching-spot before it rejoined one of the feeding flocks. - - - - - - - On Saturday, 13 Oct., along with a very nice raptor and Turkey Vulture migration, there were quite a nice variety of smaller birds feeding near or passing by the Hook Mt.summit hawk-watch site just north of Nyack, Rockland Co. on the west side of the Hudson river - most of those smaller birds were fairly standard for any mid-Oct. season, but two stood out: Red Crossbill (also heard calling - one individual passed within a few feet of the summit in mid-afternoon). Evening Grosbeak (also heard calling - seeming to be just one, in the morning, possibly a straggler from a group before my a.m. arrival.) Most of the other birds, by numbers, were Myrtle [Yellow-rumped] Warblers, feeding in trees all about and especially, flying over in many directions, but far more headed southwesterly than elsewhere). A few Chimney Swifts also went over- and 1 hummingbird, which could be presumed a Ruby-throated, as - even with the multiple Selasphorus [genus] hummingbirds lately documented in the greater region, the season for Ruby-throated is not quite done... and while any hummer seen now or through the year and up until mid-April should be checked, there can and have been Ruby-throateds (rarely) in the winter... (as we do get further into the colder half of the year, the actual odds increasingly favor a non-Ruby-throated 'vagrant', with Rufous Hummingbird the most-often documented of any other hummingbird species, by far, in the northeast). In the raptor department, a huge surprise for the site, and to some extent in the weather conditions at Hook and locally on Sat., were the appearance of no less than 4 Golden Eagles, one more than the highest number on a day previously seen there - which I (on at leasrt one of two such dates) and others also were present for on late October watches. I recall that on the previous observation, as with this most recent, the weather featured milder, southwesterly breezes, but came after a good cold snap had recently taken place. Also seen were 2 Bald Eagles, the total of 6 eagles no longer being remarkable at all, but the total of 4 at this particular site, any weather day, is - and good "golden" days may well still be ahead. (at the site best-known in NY - Franklin Mt. hawkwatch - the first Golden of the season there was recorded,in the singular however.... many more can be anticipated at that site in coming days and weeks). The rest of the raptor show at Hook was more standard, if good fun for raptor-lovers, as a typical mid-Oct. mix of species moved by. I was also impressed with the kettles of Turkey Vulture, many circling up in thermals and then streaming SW in higher-up migration, nicely indicating the decision to "get south". With warm sun, a few butterflies, dragonflies, and even a snake rounded out the critters seen. (On a less-happy note, on returning from Hook and walking at sunset near the Columbia-Presbyterian Med. Center complex at W. 165-168 Sts., I found on the sidewalk, and sadly expired, a Brown Creeper, a Myrtle Warbler, and a N. [Yellow-shafted] Flicker. With fairly high pedestrian traffic there, my assumption was that the birds died not long before, although it's just possible they expired sometime that morning - & there are very large expanses of glass, including a walkway in the area; it's possible that they hit any of the many glass surfaces and did not survive. Had I seen this before sunset I might have searched the area a bit more, but with failing daylight, along with a longish day out, i did not - & did not notice any other migrant birds in the vicinity, including any still alive. it's not especially easy being a bird, most particularly a migrant, in the big city, and while great strides have been made, this is still an issue, lights & glass & bad building design can take a toll.) 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/ --
