Thursday, Feb. 10th - mainly Manhattan (N.Y. City) and there, in Central Park:
The Slaty-backed Gull made a re-appearance (G. Chapin, with photos included in his report on eBird) on the Central Park reservoir - for how long on Thursday? The eagles may know… (observers arriving later in the day were able to locate Iceland Gull, also likely one of the continually appearing individuals there, yet the Slaty-backed seemed to have slipped away again… Also seen and with the Slaty-backed, had been a Lesser Black-backed Gull, perhaps also a reappearing individual. With at least 2 Bald Eagles coming to visit, along with the later-arriving additional birders, some of the gulls may have chosen different areas to head off to, and where amongst the many possible destinations for the Slaty-backed is still an unknown.) In any event, plenty of folks watched an Iceland Gull to late in the day at the reservoir. On Thursday, even those at the C.P. reservoir by very early after an ‘alert’ came thru on Slaty-b., the Lesser Black-backed could be & was seen by a few observers, but NOT the rarer gull. (and there is a chance the Lesser Bl.-backed seen later in the day was not the same individual as found (and photo’d. by one obs.) with the Slaty-backed all-too-briefly; multiples of both Iceland & Lesser Black-backed Gull have shown up on that reservoir in just the first third of this month). A lot of waterfowl from Central Park had been forced to move, at least some perhaps thanks to such frequent visitations by hungry raptors, but also due to still-high iced-over percentages of much of the water surfaces in Central. That has been especially noted of the Ruddy Ducks so many of which had been on the reservoir there in particular. At least some of the duckage has dispersed around the county’s waters to the rivers & estuaries around Manhattan & nearby, but of gulls, it’s also a bit of a mystery where the many that show at the C.P. reservoir also go when not in Manhattan. One site that could potentially host any sorts of gulls, ducks, etc. is Jerome Park reservoir, in the west Bronx (County of N.Y. City) and not even terribly far as the gull flies, from Central Park. There was at least an Iceland Gull found there (P. Horan) on Wed., 2/9. However it is one of many many potential sites for gulls to gather in the local areas. The (brief?) thaw we’re seeing is perhaps going to shake up where some of the local birds go as ice does melt off a bit… all to revert to more-standard February weather by Sunday onward. Ice seems likely to continue to flow along the Hudson, especially as seen north of the G. Washington bridge, & at some other locations where it may linger for a while yet. There were still a pair of N. Pintails on the Harlem River off Sherman Creek, a bit n. of the east end of Dyckman Street, and a Green-winged Teal was still hanging in at “the Pool” in Central Park. Multiple Wood Ducks continued in Central Park, these not all on one waterbody. Again, there is at least a possibility that the Slaty-backed Gull had been coming to visit somewhat well before first being noticed at all, and also *could* be making forays to the same destination at the reservoir in company with hordes of other gulls (at times) & not getting found-and-documented all of those times. It also may be that its’ forays into Central Park have been scarce and so far seem a bit unpredictable. One thing most who came out later in the day, anywhere including to Central Park could not complain of was the spring-like weather of the afternoon. There were hardly the crowds of birders as seen there on Feb. 2nd but some did make the trip from farther than just surrounding neighborhoods. And thanks as always to A. Baksh for putting word out (to this list) once he noticed the gull report. It seems that even those out to look for that species as soon as 60-90 minutes (or less?) past the appearance, were not able to find it, and same for others, myself included thru end of the day on Thursday… it’s also fair to state that no Slaty-backed was present on the C.P. reservoir as the day was beginning - one can at least hope any further appearances are for more than 60 minutes or so. Birders were also out & about in the rest of the county… more on the various many other county-birds at a later date, and hoping there is still some good-gull luck esp. for those who may have missed the Slaty-backed on other attempts or could not get there, so far. Trying to keep ahead of eagles is not exactly easy the more so when those birds are looking for meals. … Going slightly out of 'usual locations' and/but a site I’ve been in often over the years and know quite well, an Orange-crowned Warbler was nicely photo’d. (by E.I.) in the N.Y. Botanical Garden in the Bronx (County, in N.Y. City) on Tuesday, 2/8. It’s very possible some others of that species are hanging in at other locations, including in N.Y. County. 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/ --
