New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, February 12, 2016:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Feb 12, 2016
* NYNY1602.12

- Birds Mentioned

PINK-FOOTED GOOSE+
BARNACLE GOOSE+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
TUNDRA SWAN
EURASIAN WIGEON
GREEN-WINGED TEAL (EURASIAN FORM)
TUFTED DUCK
KING EIDER
HARLEQUIN DUCK
Common Goldeneye
BARROW’S GOLDENEYE
Red-necked Grebe
Purple Sandpiper
Razorbill
BLACK-HEADED GULL
Iceland Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Glaucous Gull
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
Yellow-breasted Chat
Lark Sparrow

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, February 12, 2016 at 7:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are BARNACLE, PINK-FOOTED, and GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, TUNDRA SWAN, TUFTED DUCK, BARROW’S GOLDENEYE, HARLEQUIN DUCK, KING EIDER, EURASIAN WIGEON and Eurasian form of GREEN-WINGED TEAL, BLACK-HEADED GULL, RED-HEADED WOODPECKER, YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT and LARK SPARROW.

Again this week, not much change in the composition of our locally unusual birds, which are mostly waterfowl, though one interesting nuance was provided by the presence of 3 BARNACLE GEESE, apparently a family group with 1 immature bird, on Sunday north of Riverhead. These were together in a large flock of CANADA GEESE on fields off Roanoke Avenue just south of Reeves Avenue.

Also noteworthy there was a PINK-FOOTED GOOSE reported flying out in one of the Canada flocks as birds were departing from these fields in small groups.

A GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE was spotted Wednesday with Canadas at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens.

Also in the Riverhead area were 5 CACKLING GEESE identified Sunday on a field on the west side of Oakleigh Avenue, which is north of Sound Avenue and just east of Twomey Avenue.

What is presumably the young male TUFTED DUCK that had been on Lake Capri in West Islip was photographed a little west of there Wednesday in a Scaup flock along Santapogue Creek off Venetian Blvd. south of Route 27A in Lindenhurst.

The drake BARROW’S GOLDENEYE should be looked for with COMMON GOLDENEYE off the Sands Point peninsula; there are, unfortunately, parking issues if the bird continues along the western side of the peninsula.

Out east a drake KING EIDER remains in the large congregation of birds off Montauk Point, usually seen on the south side from the Camp Hero overlook, and 2 TUNDRA SWANS remain on Hook Pond in East Hampton.

Four HARLEQUIN DUCKS were off the Jones Beach West End jetty last Sunday, these birds continuing around Jones Inlet, and also noted Sunday were a RAZORBILL and a dozen PURPLE SANDPIPERS.

Besides the 2 drake EURASIAN WIGEONS continuing on the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, single drakes were also seen this week on Fresh Pond north of Route 25A east of Northport, on the Setauket Mill Pond on the north side of Old Field Road, and on Deep Hole Creek off New Suffolk Avenue in Mattituck. The Setauket Mill Pond also featured a drake Eurasian form of GREEN-WINGED TEAL Sunday.

The presence of 2 BLACK-HEADED GULLS in Brooklyn was pieced out recently, with an immature still at Brooklyn Bridge Park last Saturday and perhaps the same bird still visiting Prospect Park Lake at least to Wednesday, while the Bush Terminal Piers Park bird, not reported this week, had been an adult. Another adult BLACK-HEADED GULL was feeding on Premium Mill Pond in Larchmont last Saturday.

The Bush Terminal Piers Park GLAUCOUS GULL was still around last weekend and a sub-adult ICELAND GULL was at Fort Tilden Saturday, with another at Moriches Inlet along with a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL Saturday.

Single RAZORBILLS in Brooklyn were off Coney Island Pier Saturday and Gravesend Bay Monday, with a few others along Long Island’s south shore out to Montauk. A small number of RED-NECKED GREBES also continue in Brooklyn waters.

A RED-HEADED WOODPECKER continues at Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown.

The only notable passerines were a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT spotted Saturday morning around the parking lot at Montauk Point, and single LARK SPARROWS continuing at the turnaround at Jones Beach West End and at Croton Point Park in Westchester.

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