New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, March 20, 2015:

RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Mar. 20, 2015
* NYNY1503.20

- Birds Mentioned

MEW GULL+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Eurasian Wigeon
KING EIDER
HARLEQUIN DUCK
Red-necked Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
NORTHERN GOSHAWK
Rough-legged Hawk
Piping Plover
American Oystercatcher
American Woodcock
ICELAND GULL
GLAUCOUS GULL
SNOWY OWL
Eastern Phoebe
Tree Swallow
Orange-crowned Warbler
Pine Warbler
Vesper Sparrow
Lapland Longspur
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Rusty Blackbird
Common Redpoll

If followed by (+) please submit documentation of your report electronically and use the NYSARC online submission form found at http://www.nybirds.org/NYSARC/...

You can also send reports and digital image files via email to nysarc44nybirdsorg

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

Compiler: Tom Burke, Tony Lauro
Coverage: New York City, Long Island, Westchester County

Transcriber: Gail Benson

[~BEGIN RBA TAPE~]

Greetings. This is the New York Rare Bird Alert for Friday, March 20 at 6:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are MEW GULL, GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, KING EIDER, HARLEQUIN DUCK, SNOWY OWL, NORTHERN GOSHAWK, GLAUCOUS and ICELAND GULLS and some spring arrivals.

The combination of lingering winter birds and early seasonal migrants, plus the arrival of spring today accompanied by more snow, produced an interesting but not extremely productive birding week.

The most intriguing bird continues to be the Brooklyn first winter MEW GULL that has been recently seen a few times along the waterfront between the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the original site near the Caesar’s Bay shopping plaza, including being noted today in mid-afternoon between the ballfields and the pedestrian bridge over the Belt Parkway.

Among the waterfowl, five GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE seen on eastern Long Island last Sunday presumably were the birds wintering in that area and often present on Hook Pond in East Hampton; Sunday one was off Daniel’s Lane in Bridgehampton and four were along Beach Lane in Georgica.

At Orient Point County Park Sunday ducks included an immature male KING EIDER and four male HARLEQUIN DUCKS, this park still hosting a EURASIAN WIGEON as of Thursday. Another EURASIAN WIGEON was still in the Arthur Kill Sunday off the Tottenville train station on Staten Island.

CACKLING GOOSE is still being reported among various Canada flocks, and otherwise waterfowl are now generally heading north throughout our area.

Single SNOWY OWLS during the week were spotted at Jones Beach West End last Sunday and on Hicks Island off Napeague on Monday.

GLAUCOUS and ICELAND GULLS were both still being seen along Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn during the week, with another GLAUCOUS again at Bush Terminal Piers Park on Thursday. Other GLAUCOUS GULLS include one at Breezy Point on Sunday and one at Mecox back on the 13th.

A few RED-NECKED GREBES and ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS also continue in the region, with both, for instance, seen during the week at Floyd Bennett Field, where a LAPLAND LONGSPUR was also present Sunday and Monday.

The immature NORTHERN GOSHAWK was noted again today at Jones Beach West End, and 12 PIPING PLOVERS were on the island off the Coast Guard Station.

A surprising survivor through this quite difficult winter we’ve had is a female ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK at the Bronx Botanical Garden as recently as Saturday, having first been discovered at the Bronx Zoo on the Bronx-Westchester Christmas Count on December 28th. Also continuing is an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER at Massapequa Preserve in the cattails north of the bridge at the Walker Street entrance.

A single COMMON REDPOLL continues in Prospect Park.

A VESPER SPARROW spotted at Southard’s Pond Park in Babylon on Wednesday was still present today.

Other migrants appearing in the region recently have included WOOD DUCK, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT, GREAT BLUE HERON, OSPREY, AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER and AMERICAN WOODCOCK; arriving passerines have featured EASTERN PHOEBES Tuesday in Central Park and Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, TREE SWALLOWS, a PINE WARBLER in Ridge Sunday and RUSTY BLACKBIRDS.

To phone in reports, on Long Island call Tony Lauro at (631) 734 4126, or days 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 transcript