New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, February 3, 2012:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Feb 3, 2012
* NYNY1202.03

- Birds Mentioned:
COMMON MURRE+
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Greater White-fronted Goose
Brant (subspecies "BLACK BRANT")
EURASIAN WIGEON
Green-winged Teal (subspecies "EURASIAN TEAL")
Harlequin Duck
BARROW'S GOLDENEYE
Red-necked Grebe
Northern Gannet
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Iceland Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Glaucous Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
DOVEKIE
Razorbill
SNOWY OWL
Red-headed Woodpecker
NORTHERN SHRIKE
Common Raven
Yellow-breasted Chat
Vesper Sparrow
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL
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, February 3rd, at 8:00pm. The highlights of today's tape are pelagic trip results, including DOVEKIE and COMMON MURRE, RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD, BLACK BRANT, BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, EURASIAN WIGEON, Eurasian form of GREEN-WINGED TEAL, SNOWY OWL, NORTHERN SHRIKE, and WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL.

The pelagic trip last Saturday from Freeport aboard the Captain Lou VII encountered a fairly peaceful Atlantic Ocean and a reasonable number of birds. Alcids featured a dozen DOVEKIES, in somewhat closer this year due to warmer sea temperatures, a total of 86 COMMON MURRES in various states of plumage, and around 480 RAZORBILLS, plus 52 unidentified large alcids. Gulls included two ICELAND GULLS and 29 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES, 200+ NORTHERN GANNETS were nicely seen, and around Point Lookout a BLACK BRANT was spotted and photographed around the many Brant along the inlet, and the three lingering HARLEQUIN DUCKS were present along the Point Lookout inlet jetty. Some Common Dolphins and Harbor Porpoises also added to trip.

Though COMMON MURRE numbers have been increasing in recent years offshore, certainly unexpected was one in changing plumage, photographed in a Massapequa canal as it swam back into Great South Bay back on January 25h.

In the New York City area, the RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD continues to visit the flowers and feeders at the American Museum of Natural History. Look for it on either side of the entrance to the planetarium off West 81st Street. The immature RED-HEADED WOODPECKER remains around the northwestern side of the Hallett Sanctuary in the southeast corner of Central Park. And YELLOW-BREASTED CHATS have still been present recently at Bryant Park around the front of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue south of 42nd Street, and at Union Square Park off East 14th Street. A few PINE SISKINS have arrived in Central Park lately, including around the Ramble feeders, and a WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL appeared briefly Wednesday afternoon at the feeders at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Other WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS and PINE SISKINS are just north of the city.

COMMON RAVENS have been encountered a few times recently in northern Manhattan and along the Hudson.

The drake BARROW'S GOLDENEYE continues in Jamaica Bay, seen Tuesday in the bay off the boat launch area in Floyd Bennett Field, and then early this morning, on the West Pond of Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, where it is believed to spend the night at least on occasion. Also at the Refuge, the drake EURASIAN WIGEON was spotted again last Sunday at the south end of the East Pond where it was joined by a drake Eurasian form of GREEN-WINGED TEAL.

The NORTHERN SHRIKE was also relocated along the runway at Floyd Bennett Field last Tuesday.

In Brooklyn a couple of RAZORBILLS were present off the Coney Island boardwalk on Wednesday and Thursday, joined the second day by a RED-NECKED GREBE.

At Jones Beach West End, the apparently overwintering PIPING PLOVER and SEMIPALMATED PLOVER were seen again on Tuesday, but the white SNOWY OWL has not been found recently.

A late afternoon gathering of gulls at the Bellport Bay Yacht Club at the end of Bellport Lane, in (you guessed it) Bellport on Wednesday and Thursday included single GLAUCOUS GULL and ICELAND GULLS as well as LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.

A VESPER SPARROW was reported from Caumsett State Park this morning.

Out east last Sunday, a DOVEKIE was picked up along the entrance road to the Camp Hero Overlook in Montauk and succesfully released in Turtle Cove, the grateful bird finding the ocean much more to its liking. Another DOVEKIE had been seen earlier that day off Culloden Point on Montauk's north shore. Moderate numbers of RAZORBILLS were also noted. Seven RED-NECKED GREBES were also off Culloden Point, and three separate ICELAND GULLS were along the beach adjacent to the Montauk Harbor Inlet last weekend.

A BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE was on Montauk Point Sunday, and a single PINE SISKIN visited the Point on Saturday.

At Napeague the SNOWY OWL appeared again on Sunday, on the island off the end of Lazy Point Road, where a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL continues west of the boat launch area.

Two CACKLING GEESE were at Mecox Saturday, and a GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE reappeared on the Further Lane fields in East Hampton this morning.

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 ~