Date: 4/5/25 8:00 am From: Tom Fiore <tomfi2...> Subject: [nysbirds-l] N.Y. County, NYC - thru Friday, 4/4 - S.-t. KITE, and other 'more-expected' migrants
New York County -in N.Y. City- including Governors Island, Randalls Island, Roosevelt Island and Manhattan island and the SKIES-above as well as waters adjacent
thru Friday, April 4th -
After confirmed sightings in this county this past week of Northern Gannet and even more amazingly Razorbill, we were not quite expecting yet another rarity this quickly...
The Swallow-tailed Kite on Friday April 4th, that sailed thru and apparently beyond Governors Island, just south of Manhattan - that Swallow-tailed Kite was observed in mid-afternoon with M.B. Kooper quickly alerting others, one of our many very-active and very keen birders and a regular contributor to bird sightings of the region, and with J. Shum, another long-time keen watcher of this area, with other watchers coming over to try for the kite, although like many past sightings over the decades, a species that very-often simply sails on to parts-unknown - or to some other counties, or states in the region.
There were sightings of Swallow-tailed Kite from Sandy Hook, N.J. which is southeast of N.Y. City on New Jerseys northernmost Atlantic coastal headlands, from the same day but a lot earlier on, and from southern New Jersey there were sightings of Swallow-tailed Kite or kites at the start of April, documented and confirmed in eBird as is the sighting for Governors Island in N.Y. County. A special sight anywhere and obviously, a rare one for our region.
In somewhat more-expected but excellent finds as well for the county, a Vesper Sparrow was seen and photographed at Governors Island on 4-4, with J. Shum and J. Suzuki observing, and at Central Park in Manhattan, a slightly-early Blue-headed Vireo appeared among many other migrants that dropped in for Friday, that at the Ramble of Central Park and with multiple observers there on a decent day of further bird arrivals.
Wilsons Snipe was one of many more species that was seen nicely -again- by multiple watchers and photographers on Governors Island, and that last species has had a nice run of sightings in the county, also at Randalls Island -again- for a species not-always so commonly-seen in numbers on any given season or year here. Savannnah Sparrow and other sparrow species also were showing, as that and other sparrows have been turning up more regularly in a number of sites around the country.
For warbler-variety so far we again have had the 4 species seen daily this month, Louisiana Waterthrushes in both the Ramble area and in other sectors of Central Park, and scattered many Palm Warblers, multiple Pine Warblers, and some Myrtle-form Yellow-rumped Warblers on each day this month - in many locations of the county as well. An Orange-crowned Warbler was still present at Randalls Island into Friday, 4-4. Many other species were also again seen from and on Randalls Island, although no observers have come up with the quite-amazing Razorbill off that island since the 3-31 sighting as noted herein previously and in confirmed eBird listings as well as Macaulay Library archives.
Many species of spring are continuing to be found with some additional increases of certain species by Friday, which had a notable incursion of new migrants from overnight on Thursday into Friday, despite some overnight-Thursday weather, that rain and stormy weather may have brought down a number of migrants, and some of those are likely still in place, including in possibly-unexpected locations, with hardly all migrants putting down solely in the most heavily-birded areas such as Central Park as an example. An American Bittern was reported as a surprise migrant from Tompkins Square Park and this occurrence fits in nearly with many other sightings of that species from our larger region in recent days including on Friday including Bittern-finds in several other counties of N.Y. City on same day.
Such regular migrants as Barn Swallow slightly increased by Friday here, as did Brown Thrasher, and also several species of sparrows which are all expected to increase as they pass through in coming weeks. Also with a very slight uptick on Friday were Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in several locations on Manhattan island and at same time, some of the many Golden-crowned Kinglets and Brown Creepers of recent chose to move on towards breeding-areas for the spring. Many more sightings could be noted, and clearly there is a chance for any sort of unexpected species to turn up at any time as spring has sprung.
One note - for N.Y. County, any observations of possible or potential Boat-tailed Grackles would be best-documented by photos and-or videos perhaps with audio if a bird or birds are vocalizing, which will greatly help to add heft to any sighting-reports and also help in any reviewing for a species that is on the move lately and is at-best uncommon, mostly-rare in this county.
Thanks to all observers and photographers for many sightings and reports including those with some textual and also photo or audio documentation added -
Good birding to all,
Tom Fiore
manhattan
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