New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, May 12, 2017:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* May 12, 2017
* NYNY1705.12

- Birds Mentioned

PACIFIC LOON+
YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS+
RUFF+
ARCTIC TERN+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Red-throated Loon
Common Loon
Cory’s Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
MANX SHEARWATER
Northern Gannet
Cattle Egret
Whimbrel
White-rumped Sandpiper
Parasitic Jaeger
Razorbill
Iceland Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Black Tern
Roseate Tern
Eastern Whip-poor-will
Red-headed Woodpecker
Willow Flycatcher
Worm-eating Warbler
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER
Tennessee Warbler
KENTUCKY WARBLER
Hooded Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Wilson’s 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
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 12, 2017 at 8:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS, PACIFIC LOON, RUFF, ARCTIC TERN, MANX SHEARWATER, PROTHONOTARY and KENTUCKY WARBLERS, SUMMER TANAGER, BLUE GROSBEAK and much more.

Given the generally unfavorable conditions this past week for decent migration in our area, the best choice would have been to place yourself at Robert Moses State Park last Saturday morning in time to watch the ALBATROSS fly by heading east. The descriptions of the bird, seen nicely under the given conditions and supplemented by a few stills and a video clip as it cruised by not too far offshore with an accompanying NORTHERN GANNET, seem sufficient to determine it was a YELLOW-NOSED ALBATROSS, rather than the quite similar Black-browed. The ALBATROSS angled out to sea and was not therefore spotted by other birders stationing themselves further east along the coast.

Additional rewards for vigilant sea watching Saturday included a substantial movement of COMMON and RED-THROATED LOONS, the few hundred of each joined by a breeding-plumaged PACIFIC LOON also heading east and seen from two different locations within Moses Park. Other pelagic highlights included a MANX SHEARWATER and two PARASITIC JAEGERS off Moses, the JAEGERS likely the two spotted later off Smith Point County Park. Single CORY’S and SOOTY SHEARWATERS were seen off Dune Road in Westhampton Dunes, and an adult ARCTIC TERN was found on the Cupsogue County Park sand flats Saturday afternoon. Four BLACK TERNS appeared off Smith Point County Park Saturday, and a late RAZORBILL was also off Dune Road, with ROSEATE TERN and WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER among the many other birds along the shore that day.

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, now staging mostly along the south shore of Long Island, included a peak of 12 at Robert Moses State Park Sunday, while Saturday provided single ICELAND GULLS at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn and out near Mecox.

Two WHIMBRELS were reported from Jones Beach West End Sunday, and more intriguing was an apparent female RUFF, or REEVE, spotted Wednesday at the Cedar Beach in Southold on the North Fork, appropriate field marks noted before the bird suddenly got up and flew out of sight.

An EASTERN WHIP-POOR-WILL was in Central Park last Sunday, and birds are on territory north of us. The Manhattan CATTLE EGRET was last reported Tuesday, and a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER was at Hempstead Lake State Park Thursday.

SUMMER TANAGERS had a great week locally, with close to a dozen reports. A male in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn all week was joined by a female late in the week, perhaps three different birds were in the vicinity of the waterhole in Forest Park this week, females were noted in Central Park on Wednesday and at the north end Friday, and on Wednesday two were at Jones Beach West End, one at Cunningham Park, and one at Battery Park in Manhattan. The latter TANAGER joined a BLUE GROSBEAK present in Battery Park from Monday on, and another BLUE GROSBEAK was spotted at Jones Beach West End Thursday.

Four PROTHONOTARY WARBLERS featured one at Strack Pond at the west end of Forest Park last weekend, one at the New York Botanical Garden Saturday, another at A KENTUCKY WARBLER in Prospect Park last Sunday was followed by one in Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan Thursday and today.

A decent variety of Warblers this week has also featured WORM-EATING, TENNESSEE, CAPE MAY, BAY-BREASTED, HOODED and WILSON’S, and WILLOW FLYCATCHER was noted as of Tuesday.

Please note this new number for phoning in reports. Call Tom Burke at (914) 967-4922 and leave a message.

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

- End transcript