New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, August 25, 2017:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Aug. 25, 2017
* NYNY1708.25

- Birds Mentioned

YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

AMERICAN AVOCET
Semipalmated Plover
Whimbrel
Stilt Sandpiper
BAIRD’S SANDPIPER
White-rumped Sandpiper
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER
Pectoral Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Bald Eagle
Peregrine Falcon
Olive-sided Flycatcher
WESTERN KINGBIRD
Eastern Kingbird
Worm-eating Warbler
GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER
Blue-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Canada Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
LARK SPARROW
DICKCISSEL
Bobolink


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

Compilers: Tom Burke and 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, August 25, 2017 at 9:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, AMERICAN AVOCET, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER, BAIRD’S SANDPIPER, WESTERN KINGBIRD, LARK SPARROW, DICKCISSEL, GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER and much more.

Late August highlights are usually reserved for shorebirds and the like, but this week also produced some great land birds. On Monday a WESTERN KINGBIRD visited Staten Island in the Charleston area, including at Fairview Park, and on Thursday during a morning flight a male YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD flew west over Robert Moses State Park. Also notable is a LARK SPARROW first noted Wednesday at Jones Beach West End and still present today around the eastern side of parking field 2, feeding in the lot itself as well as in the short grass along the road side. Additionally, a fly-over DICKCISSEL at Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers Wednesday was followed by another at Robert Moses Park field 2 Thursday.

A nice variety of shorebirds for the week included an AMERICAN AVOCET, perhaps the departing Jamaica Bay bird, visiting the Goethals Bridge pond on Staten Island Saturday, last seen there Sunday morning.

In the Bronx a substantial puddle in the huge Orchard Beach parking lot at Pelham Bay Park has been attracting an unusual number of shorebirds, highlighted by the appearance this afternoon of 2 RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, which flew out before dusk. Also notable there were single PECTORAL and WESTERN SANDPIPERS during the week.

Out on Eastern Long Island north of Riverhead the fields on the east side of Doctor’s Path on Thursday afternoon produced 4 BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPERS and 2 BAIRD’S SANDPIPERS, and these 6 birds were still present today with a good sized flock of mostly SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, feeding on the dirt of the recently harvested sod fields near the intersection of Reeves Avenue.

LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS were found last weekend at Oak Beach Saturday and Captree Island Sunday.

At Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge the water level on the East Pond has lowered enough that the south end of the pond is readily navigable certainly to the Raunt and beyond up the East side. The north end, however, continues to be quite mucky and thus tricky to work down the west side towards Dead Man’s Cove, so if there, tread carefully. The East Pond this week has provided peaks of 33 STILT and 8 PECTORAL SANDPIPERS Saturday plus several WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS and increasing numbers of mostly juvenile WESTERN SANDPIPERS. An adult BALD EAGLE has been sitting around the pond this week, and it has joined the PEREGRINES in keeping the shorebirds moving around or, unfortunately, off the pond. At Cupsogue County Park in Westhampton Dunes Tuesday there were 2 WHIMBREL, 1 WESTERN, 1 PECTORAL and 3 STILT SANDPIPERS and 9 BLACK TERNS. Two CASPIAN TERNS were in Jamaica Bay and 1 at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn last Sunday.

A highlight of the flights recently has been the appearance of single GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLERS in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Wednesday and Inwood Park in northern Manhattan today. The long list of recent WARBLER migrants has included WORM-EATING, BLUE-WINGED, NASHVILLE, MOURNING, HOODED, CANADA, WILSON’S, MAGNOLIA, BLACK-THROATED GREEN, BLACK-THROATED BLUE, CAPE MAY and BAY-BREASTED.

Other migrants have featured numbers of BOBOLINKS and EASTERN KINGBIRDS, OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER and a few Empidonax Flycatchers.

To phone in reports, on Long Island call Tony Lauro at (631) 734 4126 or 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