New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, February 13, 2015:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Feb. 13, 2015
* NYNY1502.13

- Birds mentioned

PINK-FOOTED GOOSE+
GYRFALCON+ (Ulster County)
MEW GULL+
THICK-BILLED MURRE+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
Cackling Goose
Eurasian Wigeon
KING EIDER
HARLEQUIN DUCK
BARROW'S GOLDENEYE
Red-necked Grebe
American Bittern
Bald Eagle
Northern Goshawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Clapper Rail
Wilson's Snipe
LITTLE GULL
Bonaparte's Gull
Iceland Gull
Glaucous Gull
Razorbill
BOHEMIAN WAXWING
Orange-crowned Warbler
Lapland Longspur
Common Redpoll

- 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, February 13th 2015 at 7pm. The highlights of today's tape are MEW GULL, THICK-BILLED MURRE, PINK-FOOTED GOOSE, BOHEMIAN WAXWING, LITTLE GULL, GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, KING EIDER, HARLEQUIN DUCK and more plus an extralimital GYRFALCON.

Despite the weather a pretty decent week for birds. A second MEW GULL was spotted Monday in Brooklyn. This bird is a year older than the first Winter bird not seen this week around Cesar's Bay shopping mall. The gull appeared on Veteran's Memorial Pier with a few hundred Ring-billed Gulls and was nicely photographed before it flew off into New York Harbor. The pier is off the Belt Parkway north of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

A few THICK-BILLED MURRES were noted during the week. There was one at Brooklyn's Coney Island Creek off the Leonard Kaiser Pier Thursday morning, another off Lemon Creek Pier on Staten Island Wednesday, one swimming west on the ocean off Tiana Beach west of Shinnecock Inlet on Sunday and 2 around Montauk Point last Saturday.

The PINK-FOOTED GOOSE north of Riverhead was seen Saturday, Sunday and Thursday in the large Canada Goose flock that gathers on the fields bordered by Doctor's Path on the west, Sound Avenue on the north and Route 105 on the east. A GREATER WHITE-FRONTED and CACKLING GEESE have also been noted there.

A BOHEMIAN WAXWING, perhaps the bird wandering around Long Island since January 9th, was seen Thursday near the turnaround at Jones Beach West End where it lingered at least to this morning. Other West End birds during the week featured the immature NORTHERN GOSHAWK plus 2 HARLEQUIN DUCKS last Sunday. The HARLEQUINS at the West End jetty but if not there check the jetties at Point Lookout across the inlet. Another nice bird was an adult LITTLE GULL with one BONAPARTE'S GULL off the restaurant at Montauk Point last Sunday morning. Over 20 RAZORBILLS were also counted there among the many Common Eider and scoters.

The immature female type BARROW'S GOLDENEYE was still on the pond at Moravian Cemetery north of Richmond Road on Staten Island yesterday. A EURASIAN WIGEON also remains off the Tottenville train station. Another EURASIAN WIGEON continues at Brooklyn's Bush Terminal Piers Park where 2 were again seen Thursday along with a RED-NECKED GREBE. While on the north fork of Long Island a drake EURASIAN WIGEON remains at Deep Hole Creek in Mattituck.

At Brooklyn's Marine Park recently have been 1 or 2 of the several ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS now present in the area with WILSON'S SNIPE, CLAPPER RAIL and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER last weekend there. Other ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS have been seen fairly regularly at Floyd Bennett Field and especially along Ocean Parkway from Jones Beach West End east to Cedar Beach. Also in Brooklyn a GLAUCOUS GULL was seen again Sunday at Bush Terminal Piers Park and an ICELAND GULL continues in the vicinity of the Cesar's Bay Mall.

Single LAPLAND LONGSPURS were at Floyd Bennett Field Saturday and Robert Moses State Park Sunday and a flock of up to 30 COMMON REDPOLLS were around Jones Beach West End at least to Thursday. Three GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE were still on Belmont Lake State Park Tuesday.

On eastern Long Island a drake KING EIDER remains in the Common Eider flock that is usually just inside Shinnecock Inlet best viewed from the north end of the main parking lot. An AMERICAN BITTERN continues along Dune Road west of the inlet.

Over 100 BALD EAGLES were seen along the Hudson River from George's Island Park north to Bear Mountain Bridge last weekend so not surprisingly they have also been seen at numerous other locations as well.

As an extralimital note: an immature pale gray-phased GYRFALCON has been present recently in Ulster County. Check the Internet on the New York list on http://birding.aba.org for updated information.

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