New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, June 8, 2012:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Jun. 8, 2012
* NYNY1206.08

- Birds mentioned

CAPE VERDE SHEARWATER+
LEACH'S STORM-PETREL+
MISSISSIPPI KITE+ (Orange County)
ARCTIC TERN+
LONG-TAILED JAEGER+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Common Loon
Cory's Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Northern Gannet
White-rumped Sandpiper
WILSON'S PHALAROPE
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE
Black Tern
Roseate Tern
Royal Tern
Parasitic Jaeger
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Acadian Flycatcher
Yellow-throated Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Nelson's Sparrow

- 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, June 8th 2012 at 7pm. The highlights of today's tape are a great on shore pelagic flight including a possible CAPE VERDE SHEARWATER, LONG-TAILED JAEGER and LEACH'S STORM-PETREL, ARCTIC TERN, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, WILSON'S PHALAROPE and MISSISSIPPI KITES in Orange County.

Thanks to the stormy southeast winds along the south shore of Long Island last Saturday morning good numbers of pelagic birds were pushed towards the coast offering nice views and exciting times for birders gathered at Robert Moses State Park field 2 and at Main Beach in East Hampton. Main Beach, possibly due to its more easterly location, produced the larger totals but perhaps the most unusual bird was off Moses Park, this a Cory's type shearwater passing by not too far off shore, that, due mainly to its dark capped appearance and thinnish dusky looking bill gave the impression of a CAPE VERDE SHEARWATER. Photos taken were unfortunately not sufficient to aid in this tricky separation from Cory's.

Another highlight at Moses was an adult LONG-TAILED JAEGER that dropped down to harass a passing PARASITIC JAEGER. This Long-tailed, like virtually all the other migrants, was headed east. A call to the birders at Main Beach alerted them and 3 hours later they did spot an adult Long-tailed moving by. Also most notable at Main Beach was a LEACH'S STORM-PETREL passing by just beyond the surf late in the morning. With the shearwaters certainly the most prevalent was SOOTY SHEARWATER with counts of 2,322 off Main Beach and 716 at Moses. Main Beach also had a couple of loose flocks of MANX SHEARWATERS early on making up most of their 27 for the day while Moses only recorded 2. 77 CORY'S SHEARWATERS were counted at Main Beach, 21 at Moses and GREAT SHEARWATER totals were 10 at Main Beach, 5 at Moses while WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS numbered 78 off Moses, 69 off East Hampton. Moderate numbers of NORTHERN GANNETS were also noted with good numbers of migrating COMMON LOONS, Main Beach counting 132 of the latter and the totals for PARASITIC JAEGER were 15 off Main Beach and 8 at Moses. Among the other birds off Moses were 2 BLACK TERNS and 5 ROSEATE TERNS.

The consistent appearances of ARCTIC TERNS on the mudflats north of the parking lot at Cupsogue County Park in West Hampton Dunes reached a seasonal peak of 6 on Saturday afternoon with 3 adult types and 3 first summer birds. A ROYAL TERN and a few ROSEATE TERNS also visited the flats, 2 WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS were present at adjacent Pike's Beach and a late afternoon seawatch off Cupsogue produced 30 SOOTY SHEARWATERS, a couple of WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS and a PARASITIC JAEGER, a far cry from the morning's activity.

On Sunday on the Mecox Bay flats the 2 lingering WILSON'S PHALAROPES were joined by a RED-NECKED PHALAROPE and both species were present through the week with 3 WILSON'S PHALAROPES and the RED-NECKED PHALAROPE there today. Also counted on these flats last Saturday were 22 WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS.

Late migrant land birds were still being seen during the week with midtown Manhattan's Bryant Park adding another good warbler to its impressive Spring list this a MOURNING WARBLER present Sunday and Monday and it didn't end there with a WILSON'S WARBLER appearing there Thursday.

HOODED WARBLERS have popped up at a few Long Island sites recently and the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER was still singing yesterday at Connetquot River State Park near the fish hatcheries.

Migrants of note at Marshlands Conservancy in Rye this week included NELSON'S SPARROW Monday, ACADIAN FLYCATCHER Wednesday and YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO Thursday.

If you plan on visiting Sterling Forest State Park in Orange County to see the MISSISSIPPI KITES please take care so as not to disturb these birds or the good number of other nesting specialties up there. The kites are located near the visitors center on Old Forge Road and be aware that there is a very healthy population of ticks in the park's grassy areas.

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