New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week Friday, October 15, 2010:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Oct 15, 2010
* NYNY1010.15

- Birds Mentioned:

Common Eider
Cattle Egret
American Golden-Plover
AMERICAN AVOCET
MARBLED GODWIT
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Glaucous Gull
Black-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Phoebe
Western Kingbird
(not reported this week)
Common Raven
Gray-cheeked Thrush
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW
NELSON'S SPARROW
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
LAPLAND LONGSPUR
BLUE GROSBEAK
DICKCISSEL
Bobolink
Rusty Blackbird
Purple Finch
Pine Siskin


If followed by (+) please submit documentation of your report electronically and use the NYSARC online submission form found at http://www.nybirds.org/NYSARC/goodreport.htm

You can also send reports and digital image files via email to nysarc1 AT nybirds.org .

If electronic submission is not possible, hardcopy reports and photos or sketches are welcome. Hardcopy documentation should be mailed to:

Jeanne Skelly - Secretary
NYS Avian Records Committee (NYSARC)
420 Chili-Scottsville Rd.
Churchville, NY 14428

~ Transcript ~

Hotline: New York City Area Rare Bird Alert
Weekly Recording: (212) 979-3070

To report sightings call:
Tom Burke (212) 372-1483
Tony Lauro (631) 734-4126

Compilers: Tom Burke, Tony Lauro
Coverage: New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
Transcriber: Karen Fung

[~BEGIN RBA TAPE~]

Greetings. This is the New York Rare Bird Alert for Friday, October 15th, at 10:00pm. The highlights of today's tape are AMERICAN AVOCET, MARBLED GODWIT, BLUE GROSBEAK, CLAY-COLORED SPARROW, NELSON'S SPARROW, PINE SISKINS, and LAPLAND LONGSPURS.

Modest flights last weekend and into the early part of this week continued to provide some good variety, especially along the coast, and the appearance of some PINE SISKINS starting last Sunday from Riis Park to Robert Moses State Park and even out in Montauk indicate that we should see at least one winter finch this winter.

At Jones Beach West End, the recent emphasis seems to have been on shorebirds, with a Monday visit by an AMERICAN AVOCET on the island off the Coast Guard Station, preceded by a MARBLED GODWIT joining the flock of American Oystercatchers there on Sunday. Shorebirds in the swale between the West End 2 pavilion and the ocean on Saturday featured one LEAST SANDPIPER, six WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS, and seven PECTORAL SANDPIPERS. A CLAY-COLORED SPARROW was at the West End turnaround on Monday, followed by a LAPLAND LONGSPUR at West End parking lot 2 on Wednesday.

Another LAPLAND LONGSPUR was seen Sunday along the edge of Gravesend Bay, south of the Verrazano Bridge in Brooklyn.

There was no sign of last Friday's WESTERN KINGBIRD at Riis Park on Saturday, but there was a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT there on Sunday, and adjacent Fort Tilden also contributed some nice finds, featuring a BLUE GROSBEAK and an inland form of NELSON'S SPARROW just west of the Community Garden, plus a BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO on Saturday, while Sunday added a CATTLE EGRET. This species was also noted at Floyd Bennett Field on Sunday.

On Wednesday a nice count of 110 EASTERN PHOEBES were tallied along the Jones strip to Robert Moses State Park, with 12 PINE SISKINS also noted. And a BLUE GROSBEAK was found at Moses Park, parking field 5.

Other interesting city area birds have been a GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH in Bryant Park, Manhattan, last Saturday, and in Central Park Wednesday a COMMON RAVEN well overhead, and a visit by two AMERICAN PIPITS, the latter a species now much more regular along the outer beaches. Another COMMON RAVEN was spotted at Sands Point Preserve on the North Shore of Nassau County.

Out East at Montauk Point Saturday produced 30 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS and a couple of LINCOLN'S SPARROWS, plus a RUSTY BLACKBIRD, while Sunday found 13 COMMON EIDER and some scoters offshore, plus such seasonal migrants as AMERICAN PIPIT, PURPLE FINCH and BOBOLINK. Roosevelt Third House County Park in Montauk yielded a DICKCISSEL.

On the North Fork an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER was found in a Cutchogue field last Saturday, and we understand that the GLAUCOUS GULL was still around the Orient Point Ferry Terminal recently.

In Westchester an AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER appeared last Sunday at Marshlands Conservancy, where some NELSON'S SPARROWS are also present.

To phone in reports on Long Island, call Tony Lauro at (631) 734-4126, or weekdays call Tom Burke at (212) 372-1483. This service is sponsored by the Linnaean Society of New York and the National Audubon Society. Thank you for calling.

[~END TAPE~]

~ End Transcript ~