New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, October 4, 2013:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Oct 04, 2013
* NYNY1310.04

- Birds Mentioned:
SAY'S PHOEBE+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cory's Shearwater
American Bittern
GOLDEN EAGLE
Virginia Rail
SORA
MARBLED GODWIT
Pectoral Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
SABINE'S GULL
Royal Tern
Parasitic Jaeger
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
WESTERN KINGBIRD
Cliff Swallow
Orange-crowned Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler
CONNECTICUT WARBLER
Yellow-breasted Chat
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW
Vesper Sparrow
GRASSHOPPER SPARROW
Nelson's Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
BLUE GROSBEAK
DICKCISSEL

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)
125 Pine Springs Drive
Ticonderoga, NY 12883

~ 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, October 4th, at 7:00pm. The highlights of today's tape are SABINE'S GULL, SAY'S PHOEBE, WESTERN KINGBIRD, GOLDEN EAGLE, MARBLED GODWIT, GRASSHOPPER SPARROW, CLAY-COLORED SPARROW, BLUE GROSBEAK, CONNECTICUT WARBLER, DICKCISSEL, SORA, and RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.

Firstly, we recently lost a well-respected regional birder and naturalist, Nick Wagerik. A very nice piece on Nick, written by Tom Fiore, can be found on the ABA website under ABA Birding News for New York, posted on Sunday, September 29th: http://birding.aba.org/maillistdigest/NY01#524673 ... and also archived here: http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Mail/NYSbirds-L/1472640?year=2013

This week's principal highlights unfortunately involve quite brief sightings. The first was a report of an adult winter-plumaged SABINE'S GULL, seen for a minute on Monday morning on Mill Pond off Merrick Road in Wantagh before the bird headed south. The second involved a SAY'S PHOEBE, identified as it flew by the hawk watch platform at Robert Moses State Park Wednesday morning, the bird fortunately heading west on the bay side of the platform in decent sunlight. Also last Friday, missed on last week's tape, was a WESTERN KINGBIRD, not seen for long at Edgemere Landfill in Queens. Following this trend, another western-type kingbird also flew by the Moses hawk watch site today.

Certainly unusual for New York City was an immature GOLDEN EAGLE photographed as it flew over Kissena Park in Queens, a little after noon time on Monday.

Given the recent fairly static weather conditions, there have been no real waves of migrants, but a steady turnover has occurred throughout the week, with Wednesday perhaps the best day.

In Central Park, a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW appeared on Wednesday, and WORM-EATING WARBLER was among 18 species of warblers noted that day, with a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT there today.

In Prospect Park, a SORA has been offering nice views Monday through today around the Peninsula at Prospect Park Lake, where a VIRGINIA RAIL had been present earlier.

Continuing their decent fall run, RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS were spotted at Pelham Bay Park last Saturday and Sunday; at Riverside Park in northern Manhattan Tuesday and Wednesday; and at Robert Moses State Park Wednesday and Thursday.

Two CONNECTICUT WARBLERS on Wednesday involved a very brief sighting in Coney Island and another at Uplands Farm Sanctuary in Cold Spring Harbor, and an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER was at Robert Moses State Park Thursday.

A CLAY-COLORED SPARROW was seen at Marine Park in Brooklyn Thursday, and among the DICKCISSELS still moving through was one at Robert Moses State Park Wednesday, with a CLIFF SWALLOW also among the migrants there that day.

A nice gathering of sparrows near the hawk watch site at Robert Moses State Park today included CLAY-COLORED SPARROW, VESPER SPARROW, LINCOLN'S SPARROW, and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. Also at Moses, field 2 today was a BLUE GROSBEAK, and a seawatch produced four PARASITIC JAEGERS and a dozen or more CORY'S SHEARWATERS.

PECTORAL SANDPIPERS and STILT SANDPIPERS were among the shorebirds still at Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area on Wednesday.

NELSON'S SPARROWS are now appearing in appropriate coastal salt marshes, including Plumb Beach in Brooklyn and Cupsogue County Park out east, and should be present through October.

Out east, 2 PARASITIC JAEGERS were reported off Montauk Point last Saturday, and 3 MARBLED GODWITS and 15 ROYAL TERNS were still present Sunday at Pike's Beach in West Hampton Dunes, with an AMERICAN BITTERN just to the west at Cupsogue County Park.

As a note, thanks to the current boondoggle in Washington, federal parks like Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge are currently shut down.

Transcriber's Note: For those planning to submit comments on the Draft General Management Plan for Gateway National Recreation Area, the October 2nd deadline for submission has been extended. When the shutdown has been lifted, the following link should be active again: http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?documentID=54826

To phone in reports on Long Island, call Tony Lauro at (631) 734-4126, or during the day except Sunday 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 ~