Date: 11/10/25 6:41 am From: Tom Fiore <tomfi2...> Subject: [nysbirds-l] N.Y. County, NYC - 11/9 - Brown Pelicans, Grasshopper Sparrow, etc.
New York County -in N.Y. City- including Manhattan, Governors Island, Randalls Island, and Roosevelt Island, and the adjacent waters and skies above -
Sunday, November 9th -
A distant, in-flight trio of Brown Pelicans were seen from the outer-edges of the county at Governors Island - and scoping-out to the skies and waters of other counties such as Kings -i.e., Brooklyn- and perhaps of a bit of New Jerseys sky-water space, early on Sunday by a few intrepid watchers. A species that has been showing around other nearby waters mostly to the south and east of N.Y. County, recently, thus this sighting was not a shocker, although a quite-rare find for observers in this county. These birds were not thought to be lingering and may have moved west to south in their flight across a part of the N.Y. harbor areas. There were other birds seen -on- Governors Island, of course and amongst those were E. Meadowlark, and a good many Cedar Waxwings, many perhaps just passing thru. A very good number of American Pipits were again noted for Governors, into nice double-digit numbers. Other Am. Pipits also have been found in the county.
Up at Central Park on Sunday, a Grasshopper Sparrow was found - C. Baker - and then also observed and photographed by many thru the day, with some re-finding taking place within the same general area, on the southern edges of the mid-part of the N. Meadow sector of the parks northern-half, this area a bit north of a transverse-road crossing at 96th Street. A variety of other birds were lingering in Central Park, with many watchers and photographers out-and-about up until some showers later in the day. The Grasshopper Sparrow was still in place to the very end of the day, and shifted around in the large N. Meadow area as the day went along and may yet be in that area, but could also have relocated- for the day-following. While Sundays grasshopper-bird was observed by scores and scores of birders and photographers, that number of observers, photographer, oglers, etc. was totally dwarfed by the uncountable numbers of humans who were tuning-in online with the recent more-nocturnally-active birds of which several have had their activities watched by folks all around the globe thanks to socialmedia posting and so forth. One of a number this fall, an E. Bluebird -also photographed- was among many, many other species noted from Central Park for Sunday, and a few warbler species were still lurking in some locations, just as a modest number of warblers were still lingering in places around the county.
The less-common warblers seen in Manhattan on Sunday included late Black-and-white Warbler at Stuyvesanttown in the islands little-lower-east-area, a late and photographed N. Yellow Warbler at Central Park, lingering in same area by The Pond in he parks s-e quadrant and, should that bird stay and survive there to next month, a then-candidate for a look-and-photo ahead of the CBC season, and in more-general warblers of late-autumn, at least 2 lingering Orange-crowned Warblers with one seen in the n. end of Central Park again.
More Orange-crowneds may well be lingering and luring in a variety of locations in the county, even after the next nights frosty patch of night-temperature. Lingering Ovenbirds as well as Common Yellowthroats are a bit more expected for N.Y. County, particularly in some Manhattan locations, even into winter months, and so a few of each were still being reported but the full numbers of those latter species may still be higher than realized, and each species has recently turned up in many Manhattan sites in-total this month. One of the Sunday Ovenbirds was photographed at the Hallett Sanctuary area in Central Park.
For Central Park alone, there have been a dozen species of native sparrows in the past week, with the latest addition of Grasshopper. White-crowned Sparrow was still being found in at least a few locations in Manhattan as well as elsewhere in the county to Sunday. There have also been reports of American Tree Sparrow but not all such have been fully-confirmed, and that latter species may still show in a potentially-higher influx in the coming weeks in this county, the most-likely sites being in less-birded sites, for example -not- at Central Park most-typically.
Waterfowl for Sunday in this county was somewhat as for prior days, with nice numbers of Hooded Mergansers, Buffleheads, and in Central Park, also still Green-winged Teals, plus Wood Ducks in the multiple - the latter also showing in some other county-locations lately - and other ongoing dockage such as Ruddy and American Black Ducks, and Gadwall, and the other typical species, including a good many Brant at various county-locations -not for Central Park- all Brants presumed of the Atlantic-form. Double-crested Cormorants were still moving along through Sunday.
Some Common and Red-throated Loons are ongoing but there have not been great numbers seen on most days yet this fall. In gulls but is still the same 4 most-regular of this countys species, which include Laughing Gull in modest to fair numbers in some locations, and the other really-numerous gull species, Ring-billed, American Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls.
A few Tree Swallow sightings in some locations for the past week and including through Sunday moving by Manhattan, which is not that unusual by this part of the fall, but will be less-expected as this month continues, just for this county. Any swallow -or martin!- seen from now thru the early-spring might if-possible be photographed or video-recorded, including with phone, so as to to potentially help in getting a positive ID. There can be swallow-vagrants that occur in the east that superficially or strongly resemble Tree Swallow. We are clearly and fully in the period of the year when a broad variety of odd, vagrant or off-course birds may appear and have been.
Sightings from Roosevelt and Randalls Islands had various expected sparrow species in fair numbers for some, and other species typical of the season, including a bit of increase in waterfowl. Colder weather, particularly farther-inland, and north of this county and city, may bring in some seasonal-species and possibly more in numbers of some expected arrivals, as the week goes along.
Good birding to all, thanks to all observers and photographers for plenty of sightings, alerts in non-x birding apps, and for vast numbers of eBird reports and visual and-or aiuditory media placed in the Macaulay Library, as well as old-fashioned word-of-mouth notices and in-the-field sharing.
Tom Fiore
manhattan
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