New York City Rare Bird Alert

Sorry for the lack of postings this past week. I was out of town.

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, July 8, 2011:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Jul. 8, 2011
* NYNY1107.08

- Birds mentioned

ARCTIC TERN+
SANDWICH TERN+
HOODED CROW+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cory's Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
BROWN PELICAN
Willet (subspecies "Western Willet")
Lesser Yellowlegs
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Bonaparte's Gull
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL
Least Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Black Tern
Roseate Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Parasitic Jaeger
Common Raven

- Transcript

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 nysarc3 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

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

To report sightings call:
Tom Burke (212) 372-1483 (weekdays, during the day)
Tony Lauro at (631) 734-4126 (Long Island)

Compiler: Tom Burke, Tony Lauro
Coverage: New York City, Long Island, Westchester County

Transcriber: Ben Cacace

BEGIN TAPE

Greetings. This is the New York Rare Bird Alert for Friday, July 8th 2011 at 7pm. The highlights of today's tape are a HOODED CROW update, BROWN PELICAN, ARCTIC TERN, SANDWICH TERN, some pelagic birds and an impressive number of LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS.

The HOODED CROW reestablished its routine in time for last weekend and was still moving around Crooke's Point in Great Kills Park on Staten Island as of today. To look for the crow enter Great Kills Park from Hylan Boulevard, follow Buffalo Street to the end of the pavement, park in the lot on the left and walk on the gravel road to Crooke's Point. At the end of this road is a permit required parking lot for fisherman and the crow has been around this lot and adjoining woods or feeding along the nearby beach often near the jetty at the tip of Crooke's Point. Also on Thursday and today the bird was also seen along Hylan Boulevard visiting a diner parking lot near Heinz Avenue a different but probably not as predictable venue. Eleven or more BONAPARTE'S GULLS also remain along the beach at Crooke's Point.

A good variety of unusual birds have been found recently at Cupsogue County Park in West Hampton Dunes. Last Sunday an immature ARCTIC TERN visited the flats north of the parking lot briefly joining a collection of terns that during the day featured 3 ROYAL TERNS, ROSEATE TERN, 2 BLACK TERNS, plus some FORSTER'S TERNS, COMMON TERNS, LEAST TERNS as well as a few BLACK SKIMMERS.

Joining the summering non-breeding shorebirds on the flats were some southbound migrants including numbers of SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, 5 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, a few LEAST SANDPIPERS, 2 "Western" WILLETS and an apparent non-breeding WESTERN SANDPIPER.

A seawatch from the Cupsogue boardwalk Sunday produced over 80 CORY'S SHEARWATERS and a few WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS plus a distant Jaeger that was presumed to be PARASITIC JAEGER. The surprise at Cupsogue though was a brief appearance of a BROWN PELICAN on the bar in Moriches Inlet just west of the flats on Tuesday.

Up to 5 COMMON RAVENS were also still recently around the water tower in nearby Hampton Bays that is just south of the railroad station.

At Mecox last Sunday a SANDWICH TERN was seen a couple of times on the flats where the ocean inlet is periodically cut open.

Last Saturday at Nickerson Beach, located off Lido Boulevard just west of Point Lookout, birders noticing a number of LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS among the gathering of over 100 gulls on the beach between the 2 tern breeding colonies methodically counted the Lessers by age classification and came up with an impressive 43 birds, 38 in 1st or 2nd year plumage and 5 subadult to almost full adult. Other moderate numbers of LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS have also recently been scattered along the Long Island coast indicating an unprecedented number are present locally raising questions as to what has brought about this phenomenon.

Also of note at Nickerson last Saturday 2 GULL-BILLED TERNS feeding in the dunes around the westernmost of the 2 tern colonies were actually swooping down and stealing fish from incoming COMMON TERNS. Two GULL-BILLED TERNS were also on the bar at Jones Beach West End today.

A seawatch off Robert Moses State Park this morning produced 30 plus CORY'S SHEARWATERS, WILSON'S STORM-PETREL and ROYAL TERN.

Around 18 WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS were noted off Fort Tilden Sunday.

A COMMON RAVEN was spotted at Wildwood State Park in Wading River on Tuesday.

The 1st of a summer series of whale watching trips from Montauk sponsored by Cresli aboard one of the Viking ships recently noted among the birds 1 SOOTY SHEARWATER, 10 CORY'S SHEARWATERS, 400 GREAT SHEARWATERS and 40 WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS.

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 transcript