Just apropos of signs-of-spring, some of the first of Sandhill Cranes to be seen showing at the *Platte River in Nebraska*, a renowned site for the species in North America, have started at least as of Sunday, 2/20. Many many more are sure to follow, as the vernal equinox comes closer.
. . . . New York County, including Manhattan, Randall’s Island, and Governors Island - Sunday, February 20th - (& hundreds of birders out in the county on a sun-soaked less-windy day) The 2 Western Tanagers were each seen on Sunday, 2/20 with the one at Carl Schurz Park again the more-observed, and photo’d. I tried for both, just missing a late-day appearance, perhaps rather brief, of the Carl Schurz Park tanager, but it was seen & gorgeously photo’d. by the feeders off East End Ave. south of E. 86th St. (G. Benson, T. Burke) in the morning, which is typically a better time to try for that bird at that site. On the attempt at the Clinton / Hell’s Kitchen tanager, at W. 48th St. & just east of Tenth Ave., I took some time & at around 2:30 pm, got only a fast but close look as the tanager appeared at the bird-bath, for less than 1 minute, on the e. side of the Clinton Community Garden; I easily may have missed this had I not been standing, just outside the fence on the sidewalk, gazing in at that very area, which had a few other birds showing as well, including Amer. Robin, N. Mockingbird and a Swamp Sparrow, in addition to a few more-usual city birds. The ‘West 48th Street.’ W. Tanager there then appeared to fly south into / over the courtyard area in the rear-interior where it’s very tough to see a lot, even if one were in the garden spaces. And I then went to Hell’s Kitchen Park for a bit (along Tenth Ave’s. e. side, W. 48th-47th Sts.) and watched the same courtyard area, looking from the park; that’s when I also realized that there are a number of other courtyard areas, with trees, plantings, and a number of roof-gardens, including one where the only views of any of the plantings (from street-level) are of a tall wooden fence but with some evergreens just-barely peeking above a part of the fence - and that is yet another possible place where said tanager may go at times, avoiding being seen from the street - unless one were observing literally ‘like a hawk’. Later on at Carl Schurz Park, I had one unexpected sighting near the Catbird Playground (s. of the feeder array of the most tanager sightings there), a Brown Thrasher, which was quite skulking in one of the long hedgerows. Also noted (again, as have a few others lately) there were Winter Wren as well as Carolina Wrens, and a fair little variety of other passerines, all of them wintering. Only by luck (& a bit of time) was the Clinton-area W. Tan. seen at least by me, and this west-side bird has been the more-difficult almost all along by comparison to the more widely-viewed Carl Schurz Park tanager, the latter however also at many hours not in view (on some days), - and generally, not that clear exactly where it bides its days or nights (which is ok, it may have a good roost to go to, less bothered by the somewhat regular R.-t. Hawks of the area). Two Mute Swans were seen (initially, just 1) at Randall’s Island, on Sunday, and Pied-billed Grebe also was ongoing there, along with a good assortment of other species, some long-staying. The 2 Snow Geese at Central Park came on to Turtle Pond just for a while, making much time -with the many hundreds of Canada Geese- at the adjacent Great Lawn on Sunday. Once again there were no real masses of gulls at the C.P. reservoir, although the numbers 'just swelled' to 100+ at at least one point in p.m. hours, with the usual-three spp. noted of (mainly) Ring-billed, (many) [American] Herring, and (fewer) Great Black-backed Gulls. A hen Green-winged Teal remained at ’the Pool” in the n.-w. sector of Central. And the largest group bird-walk (in the county) by far on Sunday was that with the Latino-OudoorsNYC non-profit org. which has also been coordinating events with the N.Y. City Audubon & other non-profits; the walk held was in the northern end of Central Park, and was attended by many (and was, & is open to all with the interest in outdoors and nature.) As at least slightly-suspected, at least one of the county’s Orange-crowned Warblers was still surviving / overwintering, at Randall’s Island, where seen previously last month (in same area), and nicely documented again on Sunday, 2/20 (with firstly D. Aronov & A. Cunningham, & later, others also observing) which also raises the question as to *possibly* some of the other very late warblers surfacing again, which might’ve been wintering in the county. The [Myrtle] Yellow-rumped Warblers were continuing in a couple of locations, including Randall’s & also out in the s. end “Hills” area of Governors Island, a windier place to be on Sunday. Other warbler spp., such as Ovenbird or C. Yellowthroat were sought by some Sunday-seekers, but remained elusive in some of the locations they’d been in earlier (in past weeks, & even recent days), although at least one ovenbird was ongoing in the lower-east area, in Manhattan. Some evidence for a little more movement (some poss. more-than-local) in the form of sparrows, particularly with [Red] Fox Sparrows which have been pushing thru parts of the city and are still showing as expected, in N.Y. County; in Central Park on Sunday there also were still Field & Chopping Sparrows, & the additions of American Tree Sparrow as well as lingering Swamp, Song, and (most common) White-throated Sparrows, along with Slate-colored Juncos. At least a few E. Towhees have lingered in a couple of locations in the county as well. At least one Pine Warbler was hanging in at Central Park - and not all that far from the Loeb Boathouse; it’s very possible another also continues, as was the case in the species showing only rather intermittently this winter up to this past week or so. Also moving in general have been waterfowl, but the evidence in N.Y. County has been slim, so far. And it’s been interesting to find at least more-visible Yellow-shafted Flickers as of Sunday, although perhaps partly due to so many observers out & about in general. At least 80 species of birds were seen in N.Y. County on Feb. 20th. 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/ --
