New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, November 15, 2013:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Nov. 15, 2013
* NYNY1311.15

- Birds mentioned

Cackling Goose
EURASIAN WIGEON
Common Eider
HARLEQUIN DUCK
Northern Gannet
Black Vulture
Black-bellied Plover
MARBLED GODWIT
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Dunlin
Laughing Gull
Glaucous Gull
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Barn Owl
Long-eared Owl
Short-eared Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
WESTERN KINGBIRD
NORTHERN SHRIKE
Blue-headed Vireo
PHILADELPHIA VIREO
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Tree Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Nelson's Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Snow Bunting
DICKCISSEL
Red-winged Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird
Purple Finch

- 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:

Gary Chapin - Secretary
NYS Avian Records Committee (NYSARC)
125 Pine Springs Drive
Ticonderoga, NY 12883

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, November 15th 2013 at 7pm. The highlights of today's tape are WESTERN KINGBIRD, NORTHERN SHRIKE, MARBLED GODWIT, HARLEQUIN DUCK, EURASIAN WIGEON, PHILADELPHIA VIREO, DICKCISSEL, RED-HEADED WOODPECKER and incoming owls.

A decent week for November perhaps the highlight was the bright WESTERN KINGBIRD found Saturday at Captree State Park. This bird hung around the periphery of the upper parking lot at Captree at least to Monday.

There were no weekend sightings of the Jones Beach West End NORTHERN SHRIKE but another Northern was spotted out east Monday along Crassen Boulevard in the Lazy Point section of East Hampton.

A couple of interesting passerines in Central Park were a late PHILADELPHIA VIREO photographed in the Ramble Saturday and a DICKCISSEL visiting the Pinetum near West 86th Street on Wednesday.

A decent flight along the south shore of Long Island Wednesday witnessed at various sites including Jones Beach West End and Fort Tilden besides large numbers of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS and AMERICAN ROBINS like other recent flights also produced some AMERICAN PIPITS, EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, RUSTY BLACKBIRDS and PURPLE FINCHES with some SNOW BUNTINGS now joining in. An ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER was also spotted at Zach's Bay at Jones Beach with a VESPER SPARROW at Fort Tilden.

Among the recent late landbirds have been BLUE-HEADED VIREO and NASHVILLE and BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLERS while now arriving are AMERICAN TREE and FOX SPARROWS. NELSON'S SPARROWS in diminished numbers do persist at a few coastal sites. Fifty-three AMERICAN PIPITS were counted on the Van Cortlandt Park Parade Ground last Saturday.

RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS during the week included an immature in Prospect Park to at least Tuesday, 2 still at Pelham Bay Park's Turtle Cove Wednesday, 1 still at Muttontown Preserve Monday and one at Marine Park in Brooklyn Thursday.

A MARBLED GODWIT was still at Pike's Beach just east of Cupsogue County Park in Westhampton Dunes Sunday seen from the bay side viewing platform along with single FORSTER'S and ROYAL TERNS. A nice high tide gathering of roosting shorebirds on the wharf at the boat basin next to the Point Lookout waterworks on Saturday included 220 RED KNOTS among several hundred DUNLINS, some BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and 2 RUDDY TURNSTONES. This site is the first bay side entrance after turning west on Lido Boulevard from the loop causeway. At the Point Lookout Town Park across from the loop causeway a drake HARLEQUIN DUCK joined 18 COMMON EIDER at the westernmost of the 3 Point Lookout jetties on Saturday. Offshore there were also hundreds of NORTHERN GANNETS and at one point in a large feeding frenzy off Jones Inlet large numbers of Gannets have been present recently all along the south shore of Long Island producing counts of one-thousand plus at Smith Point County Park in Shirley Saturday and 750 off Jones Beach Wednesday. A good number of LAUGHING GULLS were also still off Jones Beach field 6 on Saturday.

As waterfowl variety increases so do the number of EURASIAN WIGEONS. Last Saturday 3 were reported from Mill Pond in Sayville, a drake and 2 females, and another drake was on Patchogue Lake. A CACKLING GOOSE remained at Van Cortlandt Park at last to Monday and another was on Baisley Pond in Queens Sunday. Forty-five COMMON EIDER were at Shinnecock Inlet Saturday.

Owl variety is also on the increase. A LONG-EARED appeared in Coney Island Brooklyn Wednesday, a SHORT-EARED was at Smith Point County Park in Shirley Saturday and a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL visited Central Park Thursday. A BARN OWL continues to been seen in a box on the north side of Big John's Pond viewed from the bird blind at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. But while at the bay tell them again to get the West Pond breach repaired.

A BLACK VULTURE was seen over Greenport on the north fork of Long Island last Sunday and a white-winged gull, probably GLAUCOUS GULL, was at Mattituck Inlet that day.

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