New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending May 15, 2015:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* May 15, 2015
* NYNY1505.15

- Birds Mentioned

SWALLOW-TAILED KITE+
WESTERN TANAGER+
PAINTED BUNTING+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

CATTLE EGRET
White-rumped Sandpiper
WILSON’S PHALAROPE
Gull-billed Tern
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Black-billed Cuckoo
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Alder Flycatcher
PHILADELPHIA VIREO
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Swainson’s Thrush
Tennessee Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Mourning Warbler
SUMMER TANAGER
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 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, May 15 at 7:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are SWALLOW-TAILED KITE, WESTERN TANAGER, PAINTED BUNTING, DICKCISSEL, CATTLE EGRET, WILSON’S PHALAROPE, SUMMER TANAGER, PHILADELPHIA VIREO, RED-HEADED WOODPECKER and spring warblers.

This week produced some interesting birds, though migration itself has not been overwhelming.

As seems to be the case almost every year in New York, a SWALLOW-TAILED KITE appeared in the region but was seen by only one observer before quickly disappearing. This time the bird flew over Untermyer Park in Yonkers before crossing the Hudson last Monday. Then on Wednesday two other Swallow-tailed Kites moving west along the Connecticut coast were tracked as far as Stamford but not picked up in New York; someday one will remain somewhat sedentary in New York and remove our stigma as a Swallow-tailed Kite black hole.

Another interesting report was of a male PAINTED BUNTING late last week in an area off limits to the birding public on western Fire Island.

One bird that did thrill several birders was a female WESTERN TANAGER found and photographed nicely in Prospect Park’s Vale of Cashmere last Tuesday, but it also soon disappeared.

A good spring find was a DICKCISSEL spotted Saturday along the baseball fields at Fort Tilden.

Inadvertently left off last week’s tape was a CATTLE EGRET, now for some reason a fairly unusual visitor to our area, that stayed on the town green just off Route 27 in Watermill from Friday the 8th at least through Monday.

Two interesting Staten Island birds this week were a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER at Conference House Park on Monday and a WILSON’S PHALAROPE on a private pond Tuesday.

Among the rarer passerines, female-type BLUE GROSBEAKS were reported from Forest Park last Sunday and Prospect Park Thursday, while among the SUMMER TANAGERS were a male at Hempstead Lake State Park last Sunday, different birds in Forest Park Thursday and today, and one or possibly two in Central Park in mid-week. Another fairly rare spring bird, PHILADELPHIA VIREO, was noted at Riverside Park last Saturday and in Central Park Tuesday and Wednesday.

We should note that the water drip in Riverside Park, located just south of the tennis house at 120th Street, has just started to bring in birds, including a PROTHONOTARY WARBLER Friday the 8th and 22 species of warblers this week including TENNESSEE and MOURNING today. Central Park recorded two MOURNING WARBLERS this week, both in the Ramble and at the north end, and a few others of this later migrant have already been noted in the region. Otherwise, most of the sought-after warblers have been noted in the city parks this week, including a female CERULEAN visiting the Forest Park waterhole Thursday.

Both BLACK-BILLED and YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS are occurring locally and north of the city, while FLYCATCHER species have increased this week with the addition of OLIVE-SIDED from Tuesday and a few ALDER and YELLOW-BELLIED. GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSHES have also been noted, along with a good increase in the number of SWAINSON’S, and SPARROW variety now includes more LINCOLN’S and WHITE-CROWNED.

Three GULL-BILLED TERNS were around the south end of the former West Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge today, and WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS were spotted Saturday at Floyd Bennett Field, Timber Point in Great River and Sagg Pond in Bridgehampton.

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