New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, February 9, 2018:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Feb. 9, 2018
* NYNY1802.09

- Birds Mentioned

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

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
ROSS’S GOOSE
Cackling Goose
Canada Goose
Tundra Swan
KING EIDER
HARLEQUIN DUCK
BARROW’S GOLDENEYE
EARED GREBE
DOVEKIE
Razorbill
Bonaparte’s Gull
BLACK-HEADED GULL
LITTLE GULL
Iceland Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Glaucous Gull
Lapland Longspur

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, February 9, 2018 at 8:00 pm.

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties we have not been able to record the tape recently.

The highlights of today’s tape are PINK-FOOTED, BARNACLE, ROSS’S and GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, BARROW’S GOLDENEYE, HARLEQUIN DUCK and KING EIDER, LITTLE and BLACK-HEADED GULLS, DOVEKIE and EARED GREBE.

Water birds, not unexpectedly, continue to dominate our regional rarities. The Montauk PINK-FOOTED GOOSE continues to move between the Deep Hollow Ranch farm fields on the south side of Route 27 and the Montauk Downs golf course, noted at the farm Tuesday and on the golf course last Sunday and yesterday.

The BARNACLE GOOSE, originally found at Playland Park in Rye on January 29th, has recently spent most of its time on local private golf courses in Rye and Harrison, but today it, as well as its companion CACKLING GOOSE and most of the CANADA flock, visited a mill pond in Rye off Kirby Lane, flying in early and leaving around 10 am, headed back inland. The mill pond does have a small parking turnout on Kirby Lane but is otherwise surrounded by private property. This area is just east of Playland Lake, which the geese will hopefully return to once it thaws.

This week’s ROSS’S GEESE include one recently spending the overnight on the lake at Belmont Lake State Park and feeding at St. Charles Cemetery to the west in Farmingdale, and two ROSS’S found off Doctors Path north of Riverhead last Sunday.

A GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE has also been noted at Belmont Lake State Park since last Sunday, with another seen again on Tung Ting Pond in Centerport Tuesday.

The TUNDRA SWAN on the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge was present at least to last Saturday, and two were still on Hook Pond in East Hampton last Sunday.

A drake BARROW’S GOLDENEYE has been present recently off Crab Meadow Beach in Northport, with the female still in Fire Island inlet off Oak Beach Road last weekend.

KING EIDERS around the Point Lookout jetties have included drake and immature males and a female or two, while out in the Montauk area last weekend sightings of KINGS featured young males off the Point and at Culloden Point, with a female at Ditch Plains.

At least five HARLEQUIN DUCKS remain around the Point Lookout jetties, with a female also at Ditch Plains last Saturday.

A KING EIDER at Old Field Point at the end of Old Field Road last Saturday was just one of several nice birds there, including a BLACK-HEADED GULL plus two ICELAND and one LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS.

The best GULL, however, was the adult LITTLE GULL found off Montauk Point last Friday afternoon and continuing there over the weekend and noted Tuesday as well, usually near a small group of BONAPARTE’S GULLS.

Last weekend the Montauk area also provided several other nice birds, perhaps topped by a DOVEKIE that visited the Point briefly Sunday morning. The large congregation of ducks there was a highlight in itself, supplemented by an estimated 80 RAZORBILLS on Sunday, when an EARED GREBE was also spotted at the sound end of Lake Montauk. Up to seven ICELAND GULLS were thought to be around the Montauk harbor inlet, and single GLAUCOUS GULLS were spotted off the Point as well as at the harbor inlet Tuesday.

Besides the adult at Old Field Point, other BLACK-HEADED GULLS included an immature visiting Prospect Park Lake Tuesday to Thursday and an adult at Bush Terminal Piers Park in Brooklyn Wednesday, with the adult continuing around Five Islands Park in New Rochelle.

The Fire Island inlet EARED GREBE was still off the west end of Oak Beach Road last Sunday.

A LAPLAND LONGSPUR was spotted around Lot 2 at Jones Beach West End today.

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