New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, July 12, 2013:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* July 12, 2013
* NYNY1307.12

- Birds Mentioned:

RED-NECKED STINT+ (not reported this week)
ARCTIC TERN+
SANDWICH TERN+
ELEGANT TERN+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cory's Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
AMERICAN AVOCET
Whimbrel
MARBLED GODWIT
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Dunlin X White-rumped Sandpiper (hybrid)
Black Tern
Roseate Tern
Royal Tern
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER
BLUE 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 AT 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 (Long Island)

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, July 12th, at 6:00pm. The highlights of today's tape are ELEGANT TERN, SANDWICH TERN, ARCTIC TERN, AMERICAN AVOCET, MARBLED GODWIT, BLUE GROSBEAK, and YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER.

After its discovery on the flats at Cupsogue County Park in West Hampton Dunes on July 3rd, the first summer ELEGANT TERN seemed to develop a pattern, appearing three evenings in a row, from the 4th through Saturday the 6th on a sandy cove at Tiana Beach, about ten miles east of Cupsogue on the north side of Dune Road. Unfortunately with birders staked out there Sunday evening, the bird instead reappeared at Cupsogue, disappearing with the rising evening tide. That's turned out to be the last sighting, despite intensive searching during the week. It's conceivable that the ELEGANT continues in the area, but other than in the Cupsogue/Pike's area and the Tiana Beach cove (which is on the bay side just east of the boardwalk that goes east from the bay side parking lot), the only places the tern has been seen, both on Saturday, were along the south shore of the tern breeding island in the bay just west of Tiana Beach and then on the ocean beach in a large gull and tern roost, a quarter mile east of Triton Lane. So it covered lots of territory and hopefully will reappear in an area that it will be detected again. This tern constitutes a first New York state record, pending NYSARC acceptance.

At Cupsogue, the RED-NECKED STINT was last seen on July 4th, but the hybrid DUNLIN x WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER was still there recently.

A few first-summer ARCTIC TERNS continue to visit the Cupsogue flats, and interestingly, an adult also visited last Saturday and later, with another adult stopping by briefly at Tiana Beach Saturday evening. Numbers of ROYAL TERNS have been increasing, occurring at Cupsogue and nearby Pike's Beach, as well as at Tiana recently. Cupsogue has also been hosting several BLACK TERNS and ROSEATE TERNS.

Shorebird migration has also been noted in that area, with a strong movement of SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS and LEAST SANDPIPERS for instance last Monday, and a MARBLED GODWIT was noted at Tiana Thursday, with a WHIMBREL the same day at Triton Lane.

The good news is that the water level on the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is coming down, which has already paid dividends with the appearance of an AMERICAN AVOCET on the pond on Monday. The avocet was still being seen yesterday, but has not been refound today. Other shorebirds there include some STILT SANDPIPERS, with a PECTORAL SANDPIPER as of Thursday. Please note that the East Pond conditions are not as you remember them from before Sandy, and diligent care needs to be exercised when walking the pond edges.

Out at Nickerson Beach off Lido Boulevard west of Point Lookout, a SANDWICH TERN paid a brief visit to the tern and skimmer colony on Wednesday but has not reappeared since.

Offshore pelagics have been few and sporadic for the most part, but better the farther east you go. A WILSON'S STORM-PETREL was spotted off Shinnecock Inlet last Friday, and a few distant shearwaters were off Tiana Beach Saturday. During the week, some CORY'S SHEARWATERS, a GREAT SHEARWATER and a MANX SHEARWATER were noted off Georgica Beach on eastern Long Island on Tuesday, with 75 CORY'S and 3 MANX reported off East Hampton Thursday.

A singing BLUE GROSBEAK was at the Southport Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton yesterday morning, and the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER was still singing near the entrance to Connetquot River State Park on Saturday.

For the next two weeks the Rare Bird Alert will be handled by Tony Lauro, so please call in your reports to Tony at (631) 734-4126.

This service is sponsored by the Linnaean Society of New York and the National Audubon Society. Thank you for calling.

[~END TAPE~]

~ End Transcript ~