For those who keep an ‘eye’ to bird sightings across the U.S.A. (or beyond), it’s apparent that Red-breasted Nuthatches are turning up in parks, yards, etc. from Maine across to at least the front range hills of the Rocky Mtns.; many observers reporting in such ways as “first I’ve seen for months”, or for some, “first I’ve seen here in a few years”. And, just in the past week or so, more reports, but of what seem (so far) many-fewer individual birds, are filtering in for Purple Finch, also to some extent across the continent & in the latitudes of NY state.
- - - N.Y. County, including Manhattan, and Governers & Randall’s Islands - Saturday, 8/29 - Rain mainly bypassed Manhattan for much of the day. On Saturday, with far less morning rain (essentially none) pushing through Manhattan, a surprise were the small group of Purple Martins that came through along the Esat River, headed SSW, in a loose aggregation of at least 11, possibly more as some may have been ahead, before being noticed, while the only other hirundines were a few Barn Swallows, but quite a lot later around 9 a.m. & not many. A modest movement of southbound E. Kingbirds moving for all of the morning, with about 50+ up thru noon or so. A report of Yellow-breasted Chat at the compost area in Central Park’s northeast sector (A. Burke). Also a report of a single Purple Martin seen in flight in the noon hour, adding to the multiple reports of numbers of this species on the move in N.Y. City on the day. There was a modest increase of Chestnut-sided Warblers. Late in the day, Common Nighthawks were seen moving over from a few locations in Manhattan. A sighting of (any) Forster’s Terns on the Central Park reservoir is quite unusual although not completely unprecedented, and several were reported (M.B. Kooper) moving past that location, not lingering. There have also been Laughing Gulls coming in and some lingering for a while on many recent days at that reservoir; they are regular annual visitors - not at all unusual, though the least-common of the 4 absolutely-annual gull species at that location. It might also be noted that Forster’s Terns were seen & some photo’d in the wider region, on the move & at least a few also where not as expected, on the same day. Also, Common Terns have continued along the 2 river-estuaries flanking Manhattan, and Laughing Gull is still fairly regular in some areas. . . . . Sunday, 8/30 - A clearing-drier cold front with much lowered humidity, & some arrivals overnight from Sat. night, & also a bit of early a.m. flight, with a good deal of much-later diurnal movement as well. However, in some areas, esp. the ever-well-scoured Central Park, many of the same individual birds were being found as had been present for some days already. As the day progressed, a lot of the fresh activity was up high in the sky, which luckily also had enough cloud-cover to give some background for observing. Bald Eagles, and especially, Osprey ruled- as far as larger birds on the move. There’d been a modest movement of Tree Swallows, early, and also quite high. Only the Chimney Swifts, and very late, at least a few Common Nighthawks, made it a long-lasting diurnal flight, though. Yellow-crowned Night-Herons were again seen at Randall’s Island, where that species has been fairly consistently found this year, even in winter! The landbird / passerine movement early seemed low in volume, at least as of 5:45 a.m., quite low on the big weather-change. An 'adult-male-type' (plumaged) Hooded Warbler was found in Central Park’s n. end, with multiple observers. Various other warblers found on the day were mainly those seen, in similar numbers, to prior recent days. On Sunday, at least 22 American Warbler species were seen in Central Park alone, each of those by multiple observers: there was enough diversity of that group still lingering to keep things interesting on the migrant-passerine front. Again however, the only warbler species really in any significant numbers were American Redstarts, with up to six or 7 other warbler species in more-modest numbers, & most of the rest in far lower numbers. . . . . . . . Monday, 8/31 - The wind at least locally started to shift from a more NE/E. direction as Sunday night pushed in to Monday morning; the effect may have helped to concentrate migrants, which were moving very well from New England & most of NY state all through every state from there on to the Gulf of Mexico, in terms of the entirety of migration in the eastern U.S. overnight. Very worthwhile was some moon-watching in the wee hours early Mon. a.m., with smaller migrants passing at rates of up to 6 or more per minute, & sometimes more, near the Hudson river shore. Many birds were quite high, but at least some to make out a bit of their silhouettes, & even a few with audible flight calls. Certainly, many of these were warblers headed (eventually) to their wintering sites. Also, Veery were detected on the move, a normal time for their migration to get into gear, typically one of the earlier Catharus to totally clear out of breeding areas in late summer & almost entirely gone from the U.S. by November, many are far-south of TX much earlier. The uptick in Veery sightings in Manhattan was not all that great, but still evident even in just 24 hrs. later, & was nearly-exclusive to an increase of that one migrant thrush species (among all thrushes, that is). A very slight increase also in Scarlet Tanager, with a few reports from areas where they’d be less typical, smaller parks or greenspaces. Of warblers, there were again more of American Redstart than any other species, while very slight increases were seen for a few species, notably N. Parula & also a very small increase (again) of Canada Warbler & perhaps just a few others. At the same time, some species seemed to have diminished just slightly, such as Black-and-White Warbler. A small increase of Red-eyed Vireo came in, while other vireo spp. are also increasingly possible in migration, & a small number of Yellow-throated Vireos are being found amongst these. A report by G.Willow from Governors Island suggested some of the above trends on the day (or prior night’s) migration, & with such additions of singles of Lesser Yellowlegs, & B.-b. Cuckoo, among a good mix of species. It’s unfortunate that visits there cannot (to my knowledge) be made there starting at first-light, or for pre-dawn hours, as the site has what would seem so much additional potential on the migration periods each season, in addition to the variety of birds that may breed there. A short visit to Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan revealed not a lot (for me, at least) - one Swainson’s Thrush, and singles of American Redstart & Northern Waterthrush, plus a few Common Yellowthroats and Ovenbirds, as well as multiple (but not many) Gray Catbirds. One bird of moderately more interest was an Empidonax [genus] being very shy in the north-of-lawn flowerbeds area, & spooked a bit by a lot of noon-time folks around; the best looks suggested a “Traill’s” type, i.e. Willow/Alder Flycatcher, but no photos were obtained, nor did it emit sound in my roughly 30-minutes-total visit. There of course may have been more of various migrants lurking in any of the corners & flowerbed rows. Of the ongoing sightings of Red-breasted Nuthatches, in New York and far, far, beyond, some observers in the southern U.S. have been starting to comment on finding them in areas where they usually don’t. Also some are turning up on more southerly coastal barrier-beach locations. Monday, I saw/heard a few in Manhattan but was not attempting to look for more than those I encountered by chance. Also seen Monday were rather more Cedar Waxwings than I’ve been finding, topped by a single flock of over 50 moving through tree-tops in Central Park’s n. end, after noon. A few Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were also moving thru, but more seemed to be on Sunday, not so surprisingly with the far-stronger winds from the NW. Warblers (only) seen in 3 days, Sat.-Sun.-Mon., 8/29-31 (25 species): Blue-winged Warbler Tennessee Warbler Nashville Warbler Northern Parula (a very slight increase) Yellow Warbler (v. slight fresh increase) Chestnut-sided Warbler (increased a bit) Magnolia Warbler (v. slight increase) Cape May Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Blackburnian Warbler Pine Warbler Prairie Warbler Bay-breasted Warbler Blackpoll Warbler Black-and-white Warbler (plentiful on 8/29, less-so by 8/31) American Redstart (most numerous) Worm-eating Warbler (multiple locations) Ovenbird (very slight increase) Northern Waterthrush Mourning Warbler Common Yellowthroat (v. slight increase) Hooded Warbler Wilson's Warbler Canada Warbler (v. slight fresh increase) Other migrants to be noted further in next migration-report. Some Monarch butterflies were seen on the move recently. - - - - - "This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.” - Teddy Roosevelt (26th president of the U.S.A.) "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." - Frederick Douglass (1818-1895; U.S. statesman, orater, writer) good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
