New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, November 12, 2010:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Nov 12, 2010
* NYNY1011.12

- Birds Mentioned:

COMMON GROUND-DOVE+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cackling Goose
Eurasian Wigeon
Common Eider
Harlequin Duck
Northern Gannet
Cattle Egret
Northern Goshawk
Marbled Godwit
Purple Sandpiper
BLACK-HEADED GULL
Iceland Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Royal Tern
Parasitic Jaeger
Northern Saw-whet Owl
WESTERN KINGBIRD
NORTHERN SHRIKE
BOREAL CHICKADEE
Eastern Bluebird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Vesper Sparrow
LARK SPARROW
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch


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, November 12th, at 9:00pm. The highlights of today's tape are COMMON GROUND-DOVE, BOREAL CHICKADEE, WESTERN KINGBIRD, BLACK-HEADED GULL, NORTHERN SHRIKE, WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL, LARK SPARROW, and more.

The COMMON GROUND-DOVE, found at Captree State Park on October 31st, continued through last weekend to the relief of many regional birders and was still present there today. The ground-dove has frequented many of the short-grassed areas around the park, but also does retreat into brush areas in the dunes north of the south parking lot. Recent favored areas have included the grass just before and around the entrance booth to the park, and along the roadway to the south parking lot. Also look along the north edge of the south parking lot. Patience can be required.

A WESTERN KINGBIRD in the same general area last weekend was seen early Saturday and Sunday in the dunes just east of the road to the south parking lot, but was apparently quite elusive thereafter, but was also noted in the same area today. Another WESTERN KINGBIRD was spotted flying by the Fire Island Hawk Watch Sunday morning. Impressive weekend land bird flights as observed from the Moses hawk platform were much heavier and more sustained than those at Jones Beach West End, providing a clue as to the migration dynamic along the outer beach. These featured hundreds of PINE SISKINS and AMERICAN GOLDFINCH both days, and today's flight produced over 750 siskins at Moses.

On Saturday a VESPER SPARROW was found on the northeast side of the Cedar Beach overlook parking lot, and farther west along Ocean Parkway a LARK SPARROW provided great views for many birders at Zach's Bay in the Jones Beach State Park. The LARK SPARROW, first in the picnic area on the north side of Ocean Parkway, by Sunday had relocated to the south side of the road, frequenting the grassy area on the north edge of the employees' parking lot that is adjacent to the western end of parking field 6. It has continued at this site through today.

Other Jones Beach West End highlights were numerous. A NORTHERN SHRIKE around the Roosevelt Nature Center has been wandering a little farther afield from its favored area east of the boardwalk, including into the dunes about midway to the West End 2 parking lot, but it was still in the area through Wednesday.

A MARBLED GODWIT and one or two ROYAL TERNS continue to use the bar off the West End Coast Guard Station, and NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL is starting to show up in that area.

An adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was seen in the field 6 parking lot on Saturday, and a late Saturday afternoon ocean watch off field 6 produced eight jaeger sightings, all identified as PARASITIC JAEGER for the closer birds, which included one dark morph, with the more distant birds also appearing to be PARASITIC. Also noted were an immature ICELAND GULL coming in off the ocean, and four ROYAL TERNS. The hundreds of NORTHERN GANNETS feeding off field 6 and farther east Sunday morning were quite impressive.

Today at West End, two immature HARLEQUIN DUCKS appeared in the marina off the Coast Guard Station, and an immature NORTHERN GOSHAWK was seen.

Certainly a surprise in Brooklyn was the brief appearance of a BOREAL CHICKADEE in Coney Island on Tuesday, seen and heard in the morning around 36th Street and Surf Avenue. The chickadee quickly disappeared and has not been relocated, but it is reflective of a movement up north of other Boreal Chickadees outside their normal range, generally moving with flocks of Black-capped Chickadees. Also in New York City, an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER was found in Prospect Park, Brooklyn today, with 13 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS also in Green-Wood Cemetery. An ICELAND GULL was reported over Riverside Park on Tuesday.

Moving east on Long Island, a CACKLING GOOSE was spotted with Canadas at Sunken Meadow State Park on Sunday, while a male WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL visiting a feeder Wednesday in Laurel on the North Fork was certainly surprising. A EURASIAN WIGEON was on Patchogue Lake, north of Lake Street, on Saturday. A BLACK-HEADED GULL continued to visit the flats at Mecox through last weekend, with a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL also there Saturday, this one of five on the South Fork that day. 200 COMMON EIDER and five PURPLE SANDPIPERS were around Shinnecock Inlet Tuesday.

Some CATTLE EGRETS out east featured five still at the Mecox Dairy Farm off Mecox Road Saturday, two along Indian Neck Road in Peconic on the North Fork recently, and two along Sunrise Highway east of Exit 61 on Wednesday, while today four were also seen at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

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 ~