New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, January 29, 2016:

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Jan. 29, 2016
* NYNY1601.29

- Birds mentioned

BARNACLE GOOSE+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
ROSS'S GOOSE
HARLEQUIN DUCK
BARROW'S GOLDENEYE
Red-necked Grebe
American Bittern
Clapper Rail
Razorbill
BLACK-HEADED GULL
Iceland Gull
GLAUCOUS GULL
SNOWY OWL
Short-eared Owl
Red-headed Woodpecker
Pine Warbler
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW
LARK SPARROW

- 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, January 29th 2016 at 6pm. The highlights of today's tape are BARNACLE GOOSE, ROSS'S GOOSE, GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, HARLEQUIN DUCK, BLACK-HEADED GULL, GLAUCOUS GULL, SNOWY OWL, LARK SPARROW and CLAY-COLORED SPARROW.

With last weekend's birding activities pretty much stymied by the storm this week's highlights are mostly holdovers.

BARNACLE GOOSE continues to frequent Tung Ting Pond in Centerport. This small pond on the west side of the Chalet Motel Inn parking lot and the Centerport Mill Pond on the north side of Route 25A. Another BARNACLE GOOSE has reappeared on Marratooka Lake off New Suffolk Avenue in Mattituck being seen there with Canadas on Sunday and Thursday. A ROSS'S GOOSE presumably one of the two floating around the Nassau / Suffolk County line was spotted Thursday morning at the Cedar Beach Golf Course on Ocean Parkway. The flock it was with ultimately flying off to the north. A GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE noted Wednesday across from the Pine Lawn train station, directions were sketchy, was likely one of the two that had been roosting overnight at Belmont Lake State Park a little southeast of there.

A drake BARROW'S GOLDENEYE has returned to Sands Point spotted Monday in a Common Goldeneye flock at Half Moon Bay on the west side of the Sands Point peninsula. In prior winters it has moved around the peninsula with the tides sometimes being seen off or just west of the Sands Point Preserve. Two HARLEQUIN DUCKS seen in Jones Inlet Wednesday usually frequent the jetties at Point Lookout or Jones Beach West End.

An adult BLACK-HEADED GULL in Westchester County was seen Tuesday around Five Islands Park in New Rochelle this likely the same bird that visited this area in late November to mid December in 2014. The entrance to Five Islands Park is on Lefevres Lane off Route 1 just west of Salesian High School. The entrance road passes on the right, a water treatment facility, and the BLACK-HEADED often frequents the visible filtration tanks along with some Ring-billed Gulls it can also roost on the off-shore islands in the small harbor. An immature GLAUCOUS GULL was spotted today at the Brooklyn Army Terminal Pier 4 off the end of 58th Street in Brooklyn and local ICELAND GULLS have featured one visiting Central Park reservoir at least to Tuesday, one apparently roosting overnight on the piers by Brooklyn Bridge Park and two seen together at the south end of Randall's Island last Sunday.

A CLAY-COLORED SPARROW at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens was seen again today with at least one PINE WARBLER [...] and at least two LARK SPARROWS continue in the region, one at Jones Beach West End around the outer turnaround and the other at Croton Point Park in Westchester near the large parking lot.

Somewhat scarce so far this winter a RED-NECKED GREBE was present off Coney Island Pier in Brooklyn today and a RAZORBILL was spotted off Jones Beach West End, an immature RED-HEADED WOODPECKER was spotted at Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island Wednesday and birds of note along Dune Road west of Shinnecock Inlet recently have included AMERICAN BITTERN, CLAPPER RAIL and SNOWY OWL. Two SHORT-EARED OWLS have been appearing regularly in the evening along the grasslands at the former Grumman airport in Calverton. They can be seen from the roadways through the property but do not enter the runways which are off limits.

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