Perhaps in the “you never know on a boat” category in pelagic birding, a large group of hearty sea-goers on a day trip well off Long Island NY had a well-documented Y.-br. Chat come fly in and ‘investigate' their boat on Monday (8/30) as if to say, “I fly over sea too” - that sighting at least 80+ miles off the nearest land. (and other goodies for that group did include actual pelagic species!). Just to be clear, I was not among the lucky group in that pelagic. [n.b.- a good many Yellow-breasted Chats may try & stay for some winters in some (esp. coastal) parts of the U.S. north of Florida, the majority still make their way eventually at least into peninsular Florida and many go to southern Mexico & much of Central America for the winter.]
... A well-documented Anhinga has been seen by many on the n. side of Philadelphia Pennsylvania; a species to keep in mind & to have camera at the ready for, that sighting as of Tues., 8/31. Also worth keeping in mind the Curlew Sandiper nicely documented in coastal New Hampshire, still being seen to 8/31 there. . . . . Tuesday, 8/31 - Yes of course there were birds…. however, just to illustrate (in one small-bird example) what the *departure-flights* were like over Monday night into early Tuesday (30-31 August) - the number of American Redstarts counted in morning-flight by the observer at *Cape May, New Jersey’s* Higbee Beach dike (regularly conducted in ‘fall’ season, on most days) was very nearly 2,000, for Tues., 8/31. Yes, near two-thousand. Along with 17 other species of warblers in morning-flight there - but very much dominated by the species mentioned. There was strong migration out of the N.Y. City region (& well beyond), with some birds moving onward south of Virginia, into the Carolinas, just to note movement along the Atlantic coast region. Cape May also experienced a (not-surprising) very strong diurnal flight of E. Kingbird, as would be expected just about right then- also on 8/31. N.Y. County (within N.Y. City): so, for N.Y. County on 8/31, a bit of a slower day. However, by dusk-hour (and up to an hour before sunset-hour as well) there were at least some Common Nighthawks moving, with 14 seen from near the Hudson River - Riverbank S.P. - and at least a few also noted at Central Park. Some N. Shovelers & at least 2 G.-w. Teal were at the Central Park reservoir again, while of interest are a couple of (county) sightings of Palm Warbler, early for here; a few of those have been confirmed in a few locations well south of N.Y. City (such as in Cape May, N.J.) already & the species had also been reported from other parts of the N.Y. City region already, going with a trend of a bit of early movement of some boreal-breeders over this past month of August. A nice addition to the recent lists of migrants from Randall’s Island was Bobolink (on 8/31), where not quite as regularly-reported as some other locations, such as Governors Island, the latter perhaps having just slightly more in appropriate rough-grass habitat. A very good movement of Ruby-throated Hummingbird along the Hudson river for part of the day Tuesday; also seen were some Osprey, & Bald Eagle, but overall, the sky-watch was not especially busy. A very modest no. of Cedar Waxwings & some swallows, mostly Barn Swallow, also moved south. Dragonflies were also on the move in nice numbers. There were still up to 18 warbler species for N.Y. County on 8/31, however overall numbers of individuals had dropped off; the dominant species again, no surprises - American Redstart. And also showing in a number of locations were rather more Common Yellowthroats. As for shorebirds, while some were still around at locations where they have been, numbers appeared to have dropped off. Some of what was seen in N.Y. County ‘felt’ like stragglers, as so many birds passed over in the night - that being true of both Monday & Tuesday nights, Aug. 30 & 31, and heading into the start of Sept. - in particular, on 8/30-31 (night), migrants were clearing through to the Carolinas, and of course at least some well-beyond; on Tues. night (going into Sept. 1st), there was a blockage in part by the remnant rains of “Ida”, however vast numbers of birds were easily able to get south & follow the coast far to the south of N.Y. City. We'll see what if any unusual birds show in the wake of the remnants of “Ida”, although there also will be a fast-clearing n. wind likely to follow on the event in at least the greater NYC region by Thursday, so it is possible it will be some more-standard early Sept. migration to look out for. good birding to all, 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/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/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/ --
