New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, June 27, 2014:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Jun. 27, 2014
* NYNY1406.27

- Birds mentioned

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCK+
AUDUBON'S SHEARWATER+
LEACH'S STORM-PETREL+
SANDWICH TERN+
EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cory's Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Red Knot
Short-billed Dowitcher
Roseate Tern
ARCTIC TERN
Forster's Tern
Black Skimmer
CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW
Eastern Whip-poor-will
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER

- 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 nysarc44(at)nybirds{dot}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, June 27th 2014 at 7pm. The highlights of today's tape are BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCK, ARCTIC and SANDWICH TERNS, CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW, LEACH'S STORM-PETREL, YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER and a pelagic trip announcement.

A recent incursion of BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCKS into the northeast brought 6 on Tuesday to Morningside Park up in northern Sullivan County. The birds were not seen on Wednesday but this is a species to be mindful of this Summer.

A first summer ARCTIC TERN appeared on the flats north of the Cupsogue County Park parking lot in West Hampton Dunes last Saturday morning and stayed through much of the low and incoming tides. ROSEATE and FORSTER'S TERNS, 2 BLACK SKIMMERS and very few shorebirds were also out there.

Also Saturday morning two birders nearing the termination of an unproductive seawatch at Cupsogue heard a parrot like call overhead and looked up to see a decent sized, very white looking tern with a long dark bill and no tail streamers passing directly overhead. The tern was watched as it headed well out to sea eventually disappearing into a large feeding frenzy of gulls and terns. Thinking SANDWICH TERN the Sandwich call was brought up on a smart phone and it matched perfectly. Though hopefully anticipated this tern did not appear later on the Cupsogue flats and neither it nor the ARCTIC TERN were found there Sunday. A seawatch later in the afternoon Saturday at Shinnecock Inlet did produce a GREAT and a few CORY'S and unidentified shearwaters mostly way off shore. On Tuesday at Cupsogue what may have been an influx of new shorebirds did include a few more SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS and a RED KNOT.

The YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER at Connetquot River State Park was still singing there today near the administration buildings. Two birds may be present and breeding evidence would be much desired.

Both CHUCK-WILL'S-WIDOW and EASTERN WHIP-POOR-WILL continue to sing just before dark at Napeague west of Montauk the birds can be heard from Lazy Point Road or Napeague Meadow Road.

A possible EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE reported Sunday from Pier 63 in Manhattan between West 24th and 26th Streets should be checked out. Inexplicably this species has so far really avoided the northeast while exploding over most of the rest of the country.

A boat trip Sunday well south of Montauk noted 4 CORY'S and 6 GREAT SHEARWATERS plus a black and white shearwater possible AUDUBON'S and 35 WILSON'S and 8 LEACH'S STORM-PETRELS.

With onshore pelagics so far this year generally sporadic and under whelming perhaps you've been thinking you should try to get farther offshore where many more possibilities exist. Providing that possibility an overnight pelagic trip has been scheduled by See Life Paulagics from Freeport Long Island departing at 8pm on Monday, August 11th and returning the following evening at 6pm. The trip is aboard the Star Stream VIII of the Captain Lou Fleet and costs $255 per participant. The objective is to be out at the continental shelf at dawn, set up a sizable chum slick and then work backwards back slowly, hopefully encountering an exciting selection of seabirds and mammals. For information and reservations call See Life Paulagics at (215) 234-6805 or visit their website at http://www.paulagics.com/site/.

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