New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, October 13, 2017

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Oct. 13, 2017
* NYNY1710.13

- Birds mentioned
BROWN BOOBY+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Snow Goose
EURASIAN WIGEON
American Wigeon
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Cory's Shearwater
AMERICAN AVOCET
American Oystercatcher
American Golden-Plover
Whimbrel
HUDSONIAN GODWIT
MARBLED GODWIT
Stilt Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
POMARINE JAEGER
Parasitic Jaeger
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Red-headed Woodpecker
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW
BLUE GROSBEAK
DICKCISSEL

- 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

Compilers: Tom Burke and 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, October 13th 2017 at 9pm. The highlights of today's tape are BROWN BOOBY, AMERICAN AVOCET, HUDSONIAN GODWIT, MARBLED GODWIT, POMARINE JAEGER, EURASIAN WIGEON, DICKCISSEL, BLUE GROSBEAK and CLAY-COLORED SPARROW.

The marvelous opportunity to see a BROWN BOOBY in the southern portion of New York State continues as the adult was still present today on Lake Montauk on eastern Long Island. The BOOBY, present since at least September 27th, is best looked for either from the Star Island entrance road off West Lake Drive or from the end of South Lake Drive. From Star Island entrance road look south at the first cove on the right scanning the visible sailboat masts and buoys for the BOOBY. If not visible there try the end of South Lake Drive, a short road on the north side of Route 27, that offers a very good vista of the southern end of Lake Montauk from where it has often been seen both perched and flying around.

At Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge's East Pond shorebird numbers have declined notably as expected these replaced by large numbers of waterfowl nonetheless on the East Pond an AMERICAN AVOCET was still present at the north end today, an HUDSONIAN GODWIT was present last weekend reported a couple of times during the week to Thursday. An AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER also stayed through Sunday. Other lingering shorebird species have featured one or more STILT, WHITE-RUMPED and PECTORAL SANDPIPERS. Impressive waterfowl numbers feature mostly dabbling ducks including many NORTHERN SHOVELERS, AMERICAN WIGEON, GREEN-WINGED, BLUE-WINGED TEAL and even a few NORTHERN PINTAIL but are highlighted by a bright female type EURASIAN WIGEON and a few arriving SNOW GOOSE. Also out in Jamaica Bay proper west of the refuge today were a WHIMBREL and a MARBLED GODWIT keeping company with a lingering AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER flock. Four AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVERS and a LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER visited Heckscher State Park Sunday and 2 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS were still at Santapogue Creek in West Babylon Saturday.

A watch at Fort Tilden Saturday was highlighted by a PARASITIC JAEGER, 42 ROYAL TERNS and a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. But the storm moving through Monday improved on that with Breezy Point site of large tern activity that drew in a POMARINE JAEGER and at least 15 PARASITIC JAEGERS as well as a CORY'S SHEARWATER. Two CORY'S were also noted Sunday off Robert Moses State Park along with a PARASITIC JAEGER, 2 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS and 6 CASPIAN TERNS and 2 PARASITIC JAEGERS appeared off Coney Island Monday. CASPIAN TERNS also occurred at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge early in the week and at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn while lingering ROYAL TERNS included 13 at Floyd Bennett Field Sunday.

On the landbird front a nice influx of birds occurred mainly on Tuesday with fairly decent numbers of anticipated migrants dropping into the area. Also very encouraging lately have been the numbers of Monarch butterflies moving through the region. Tuesday alone producing an estimated 35 thousand plus moving south along the dunes at Fort Tilden.

Among the rarer landbirds several DICKCISSELS included sightings at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Canarsie Beach Park, Jones Beach West End, Robert Moses State Park Pelham Bay Park and Marshlands Conservancy in Rye. Interesting was a report of two BLUE GROSBEAKS on Governors Island on Tuesday and another visited Manhasset on Saturday. A few CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS sightings mentioned Owl's Head Park, Floyd Bennett Field and Cow Meadow Park Saturday, Prospect Park Tuesday and Robert Moses State Park Wednesday.

In the over 20 species of warblers for the week included such species still as TENNESSEE, CAPE MAY, BAY-BREASTED and WILSON'S and this is the time when ORANGE-CROWNEDS start coming through in numbers this week's reports including from Central and Prospect Park, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Governors Island plus several other sites.

To phone in reports on Long Island call Tony Lauro at (631) 734-4126 or call Tom Burke at (914) 967-4922.

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

- End transcript