Sept. 25 - 30, 2014 -
Manhattan, N.Y. City
In the past 6+ days, there have been modest flights of finches that
have included more than a few Pine Siskins, sometimes seeming to be in
company with American Goldfinches, & just as often not. There also
have been small numbers of Purple Finch, which had also been on the
move in prior weeks, and are somewhat more of an annual thing
downstate even if subject to large fluctuation year to year.
The finch flights have been noted mainly in the first hour or two of
daylight, and from parks including but not limited to Central,
Riverside, Fort Tryon, & Inwood Hill parks. Some have also been
noted at points in the Bronx. Pine Siskins also have been noticed in
the past week or so in many other states, with some in the east
getting south of NY, perhaps well south although I have not looked for
all of those reports. From the modest-seeming flights thru Manhattan,
it's been hard to see big differences from the days with a lot of
obvious migratory movement (nocturnal & diurnal) & did not seem to be
so many more finches mixed in with the heavier flights - but I suspect
that on those days, more, possibly many more were actually moving;
that notion is somewhat borne out thru looking at a variety of
reports, for ex. checking daily sightings at 50+ hawkwatch sites in
the east, which are fairly consistently kept & have observers often
keen on anything flying by (birds, bugs, planes, superheroes,
whatever), and typically put in long hours & in some places also
beginning at or before sunrise, which can indicate the movements of
many birds along ridges and other features at some elevation, in
addition to coastal passage-ways.
Also continuing to be noted are very modest (so far) numbers of Red-
breasted Nuthatch, and Blue Jays have been increasing - Blue Jay is a
fairly common and regular autumn migrant at just about this time of
year in most if not all fall seasons, downstate. One difference could
be in how many are being seen; it will be interesting to see if they
gather in any great numbers somewhere south, or move around as fall
goes along, and as food sources dwindle or are perhaps concentrated in
just some areas.
Seen at least since Friday 9/26 have been a few White-crowned
Sparrows, including in a few locations in Central Park, & other parks,
these joining the modest but increasing number & variety of sparrows
found by those seeking them out. Indigo Buntings also continue with
many in 1st-fall plumage variation, occasionally leading to
flirtations with some other ID's in some instances. Warbler diversity
has been a bit lower with numbers of most spp. dropping off, yet it
was still possible to turn up about 20 species as of today. There
have been a notably high number of reports of CT Warbler in the larger
region, some nicely photographed, in states from east, west, & south
of NY. It's still quite possible a few 'new' ones will pass through in
the coming week or two.
Good October 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/[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/
--
