New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending on Friday, November 9, 2012:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Nov 9, 2012
* NYNY1211.09

- Birds Mentioned:
CAVE SWALLOW+
VIRGINIA'S WARBLER+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cattle Egret
BLACK-HEADED GULL
Barred Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl
WESTERN KINGBIRD
Orange-crowned Warbler
Vesper Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Nelson's Sparrow
Lapland Longspur
BLUE GROSBEAK
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL
Common Redpoll
Pine Siskin
EVENING GROSBEAK

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@nybirds.org .

If electronic submission is not possible, hardcopy reports and photos or sketches are welcome. Hardcopy documentation should be mailed to:

Gary Chapin - Secretary
NYS Avian Records Committee (NYSARC)
486 High Street
Victor, NY 14564

~ Transcript ~

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

To report sightings call:
Tom Burke (212) 372-1483 (weekdays)
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 9th, at 7:00pm. Sorry for last week's weather-related nonrecording. The highlights of today's tape are VIRGINIA'S WARBLER, CAVE SWALLOW, BLACK-HEADED GULL, WESTERN KINGBIRD, BLUE GROSBEAK, and arriving winter finches.

A bird tentatively identified by its finder as VIRGINIA'S WARBLER at Alley Pond Park in Queens on Wednesday, October 31st, and glimpsed by one of two observers at Alley on Monday, was found again today and photographed at Alley Pond Park, the photos showing all the field marks one would want to confirm the identity as a VIRGINIA'S WARBLER and rule out an extremely dull Nashville. Unfortunately, this bird is very elusive, having been looked for extensively last week and this, but only spotted three times. Twice it has initially been detected by its soft chipnote, and today it was photographed feeding on the ground. It has been frequenting the wooded area west of the baseball and cricket fields near the parking lot off Winchester Boulevard, though the appropriate area may be closer to the parking area off 76th Avenue on the west side of the park. Today the bird was seen off the path that goes west from left field on the baseball diamond, past some obstacle course equipment, up near a small weather station in the woods and some green shipping containers, but the bird obviously moves around quickly and can get lost easily.

Other recent rarities include a CAVE SWALLOW, seen at the Dyker Beach ball fields in Brooklyn last Sunday; a WESTERN KINGBIRD photographed flying up Third Avenue in Manhattan Monday afternoon; and an immature BLACK-HEADED GULL out east at Hook Pond off Dunemere Lane in East Hampton on Thursday.

Certainly exciting recently has been the variety of winter finches coming into our area. WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS have been fairly widespread since last Sunday, the sightings including 30 in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, and 9 in a Queens backyard on Sunday, and about a dozen near Shakespeare Garden in Central Park Tuesday, with a couple there the next day. Outside the city were some in Rye Sunday to Tuesday, 10 in Setauket, 5 in Patchogue, and 6 in Sayville Sunday morning, and other reports as well. Fewer EVENING GROSBEAKS were also noted, with 13 passing over a patient birder in a Queens gas line Saturday, 2 in Central Park Sunday and Monday, and a few other observations, including 10 in East Patchogue Sunday. In addition to these, 2 COMMON REDPOLLS were spotted in Setauket Tuesday, and of course numbers of PINE SISKINS and some PURPLE FINCHES remain in the area.

Also locally, in Central Park both BARRED OWL and NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL appeared recently, but both were harassed from their roosting sites.

A VESPER SPARROW was at Randall's Island Saturday, and a BLUE GROSBEAK continued at least to Thursday along with a decent gathering of landbirds at Kissena Park in Queens, these other birds including ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER and VESPER SPARROW. A GRASSHOPPER SPARROW was in Prospect Park Saturday to Monday, and a LAPLAND LONGSPUR and NELSON'S SPARROW were among the birds at Brooklyn's Calvert Vaux Park last Saturday.

Out east, two CATTLE EGRETS were in a Sagaponack field on Wednesday, on the south side of Daniel's Lane, and a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW was at Montauk Point today.

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 ~