New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, July 10, 2015:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* July 10, 2015
* NYNY1507.10

- Birds Mentioned
WHITE-FACED IBIS+
ARCTIC TERN+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Common Eider
Black Scoter
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel
Glossy Ibis
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
WHIMBREL
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
RED PHALAROPE
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Black Tern
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER
SUMMER TANAGER
BLUE GROSBEAK

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, July 10 at 6:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are RED PHALAROPE, ARCTIC TERN, WHITE-FACED IBIS, WHIMBREL, YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, BLUE GROSBEAK, and SUMMER TANAGER.

A breeding-plumaged female RED PHALAROPE this morning dropped into the pools between Jones Beach West End Lot 2 and the Roosevelt Nature Center and was still there in mid-afternoon.

Certainly unexpected by location was a subadult ARCTIC TERN found Saturday morning near South Jamesport Park on the North Fork, the bird photographed as it associated with two immature FORSTER’S TERNS on Peconic Bay; the three birds took off shortly, and though the FORSTER’S returned, the ARCTIC did not.

The Captree Island WHITE-FACED IBIS was reported as recently as yesterday, though not noted on a regular basis lately. Look for it among the GLOSSY IBIS in the marsh north of the private community road west of the Robert Moses Causeway, and please park appropriately off the road.

Now as the shorebird migration is starting up, with the first wave of adults heading south, a few WHIMBREL have already appeared in our region. Singles last Sunday were spotted at Marine Park in Brooklyn and Cupsogue County Park in Westhampton Dunes, with another at Breezy Point Wednesday and one at Piermont Pier in Rockland County today. Among the expected species on the move have been decent numbers of SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS plus lower totals of LESSER and GREATER YELLOWLEGS and LEAST SANDPIPERS. A WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER was also at Cupsogue Sunday, along with a BLACK TERN.

Unfortunately the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, one of the east coast’s most celebrated feeding and resting stopover points for shorebirds, is nowhere near ready to accommodate the first wave passing through now. If you’d like to voice your concerns and request better, more attentive management of the East Pond’s water level, please call Dave Taft at 718-338-3625 or email him at dave_taftnpsgov. Thanks if you do.

At Breezy Point along with the WHIMBREL Wednesday were an immature LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL and four WILSON’S STORM-PETRELS offshore. Seabird numbers seem to have been slight for the week, but a research boat out of Connecticut last Monday did note 15 WILSON’S STORM-PETRELS in very eastern Long Island Sound in the vicinity of Little Gull Island. They rarely make it far into Long Island Sound, but it is something to watch for.

A COMMON EIDER was with 21 BLACK SCOTERS off Rockaway Beach Thursday.

A ROYAL TERN was noted Sunday at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn, where two young GREAT CORMORANTS were seen moving by with three DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS on Monday. A small number of non-breeding GREATS often summer on Long Island, so these and the one Tuesday at Bush Terminal Piers Park in Brooklyn are not that unexpected.

Single male BLUE GROSBEAKS were noted Sunday at Connetquot River State Park and Wednesday at the former Grumman Airport grasslands in Calverton, while at least two YELLOW-THROATED WARBLERS were still being seen and heard just inside the entrance booth at Connetquot this week.

And reports of “new” locations this week for a SUMMER TANAGER in Manorville and a BLUE GROSBEAK in Rocky Point indicate there are probably even more out there to be discovered.

For the next two weeks, the RBA will be handled by Tony Lauro-- please call Tony with reports at 631-734-4126.

This service is sponsored by the Linnaean Society of New York and the National Audubon Society. Thank you for calling.

- End transcript