My friend Doug has set up a couple of text alert systems for reporting and being notified of local bird sightings. Here's the description from his website for Long Island Rare Birds:
Instead of a phone chain that occasionally breaks down, and takes considerable time to transmit information, text alerts use simultaneous delivery of text messages. If a birder finds a rare bird on Long Island, they can send a text message from a cell phone to LIRBA, and that message is distributed to all LIRBA subscribers immediately (you will receive a text message on your phone). Furthermore, there is currently** no cost for the service beyond standard text messaging rates (the price you already pay for text messages from your cellular provider). Unless birders magically start finding uber-rarities at a higher than normal pace, LIRBA will likely be used sporadically and so won’t clog up your cell phone’s inbox.
He has also set up alerts for Brooklyn and Queens:
Birds reportable to BKBird should simply include any wild bird species that is unusual in either Brooklyn or Queens. The purpose of BKBird is to alert birders so that anyone interested in seeing a rare bird can obtain the information in a timely fashion. Since it is unlikely that most observers have a list of Brooklyn and Queens bird records memorized (although there will eventually be one on this site), good judgment is requested.
To learn more about "Brooklyn and Queens Rare Birds",
click here.
To learn more about "Long Island Rare Bird Alert",
click here.
Songbirds have begun their Spring courtships and many males can now be heard singing. Cardinals, Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, overwintering Fox Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows, as well as, our resident House Finches, are some of the early amorous avian species practicing their sweet-sounding repertoires. Male Mourning Doves can be heard summonsing females to a nest site with their haunting "coo-OO-oo" call. Some are already sitting on eggs. 
I've already posted about Flowering Quince, snowdrops, Winter Aconite and hellebore, now there are even more blooms brightening the landscape. Spring crocuses, the flower most people associate with the start of the vernal equinox, are emerging all over our city parks and gardens. Daffodils are also beginning to emerge, although I haven't seen any flowers as of yet. Notice the full pollen baskets on this busy Honey Bee.
Witch hazel is another one of my favorite early flowering shrubs. I love the look of this plant's long, spindly, bright-yellow petals against the Winter's deep azure sky. After reading about the various species of hammamelis plants, I came away a bit confused. I've always assumed that the local species was "virginiana", however most reference material describe it as blooming in late-Fall. Another species, Hamamelis vernalis, is said to bloom from December to March. Unfortunately, Hamamelis vernalis or Ozark Witchhazel, is supposedly only found in the Ozark Plateau of Central North America. Maybe a reader with more knowledge of botanicals can post a comment here and help clear up this mystery.
While walking down the shore at Dead Horse Bay on Sunday I came across this "Mermaid's Necklace". This egg case of the Knobbed or Channeled Whelk holds several thousand tiny bivalves waiting to hatch. I usually find them empty and dried out, having washed up on the shore after the juvenile whelks disperse. I never gave much thought to the timing, until now. According to the Smithsonian Marine Station website, whelks migrate from deep to shallow water in the Spring. Their reproduction cycle runs from March to September. So I guess that the "Mermaid's Necklace" at Dead Horse Bay was a sign that the whelk's Spring has commenced.
