New York County -in N.Y, City- including Manhattan, Randall, Governors and Roosevelt Islands, and the adjacent waters and skies above Thru Sunday, October 27th -
A good late October migration flight took place for Saturday night into Sunday with fresh arrival and passage of many expected species. One species that may either be thought of as partially-migratory and also at least occasionally irruption and which has been coming through in recent days are multitudes of Black-capped Chickadees. In some years, when that species gets moving out of the north-country, some Boreal Chicakdees may also join in the southward movements and the latter species has occurred for example, even in Central Park in N.Y. City etc., in some of those chickadee-irruption years. So far the movement of Black-capped Chickadees has been fairly modest thru and to New York County’s 4 main islands that includes Manhattan, but flocks will be fun to watch. A further push of finches was highlighted with some fresh arrivals of small numbers of Pine Siskin, some not publicly reported but occurring with Purple Finch and American Goldfinch, the latter two species in greater numbers. Sunday was also also good for arrivals and passage of American Woodcock, with the few seen by multitudes of birders and photographers at Central Park that day eclipsed by the many that came thru overall in the county, an especially nice count of these tallied at Randalls Island on Sunday. American Pipit has been occurring in the county and has actually shown at each of the 4 main islands of New York County in recent days, some having been photographed. The species is an annual migrant here but can be somewhat overlooked, especially when barely touching down or not lingering long. Of migratory American warbler movements, there also was a late in season push of some of the species expected for about now, and with a scatter of further sightings of Orange-crowned Warblers in multiple locations, one of the individuals eventually seen by many at Inwood Hill Park in northern Manhattan. It certainly seems that many species of warbler had at last moved on within the past week, however the next blasts of cold weather might just shake up a few very late lingering neotropical-wintering species that had still not moved on towards their typical wintering destinations - in Caribbean isles, or in multiple countries of Central to South America. We sometimes forget that many of our breeding migrant birds are in other nations, and some on another continent with the prefix South, for up to more than half of their annual life cycles, as well as a fair amount of time on twice-yearly migrations. A slightly late Red-eyed Vireo photographed in Manhattan on Sunday along with still fairly expected Blue-headed Vireo came as eBirded sightings, and for such relatively late appearances - later in season, that is - a photo or clear video is often of great help along with some textual notes, for reviewers who must look over all such species that may be flagged for the date and not for inherent rarity of species. Obviously photos or clear videos are a help for any truly rare-in-region-species that are reported. Good note taking and making are also a great help, and a good habit for all observers! Well over 90 species of birds were observed for Sunday, 10-27 in New York County, including some flyovers such as various raptors, and both Black and Turkey Vultures, and other flyover passage migrants in the nice morning flights. Central Park alone easily found more than 65 species of wild native birds on the day, while all of Manhattan had significantly more seen collectively by hundreds of observers, many also photographing birds. Some birds of N.Y. County for October might be noted once we have passed the end of the month, in a light review. Thanks to many, many leaders and participants of the scores and scores of guided walks led for not-for-profit organizations such as the American Museum of Natural History, the NYC Bird Alliance, the Linnaean Society of New York, and a number of other non-profit organizations which work on behalf of sound science, education, conservation, and strong outreach to all who benefit from learning about and being in nature. Good birding to all, Tom Fiore manhattan -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
