New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, June 22, 2018

- RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Jun. 22, 2018
* NYNY1806.22

- Birds mentioned
ARCTIC TERN+
SANDWICH TERN+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

KING EIDER
Common Eider
CORY'S SHEARWATER
GREAT SHEARWATER
SOOTY SHEARWATER
BROWN PELICAN
Cattle Egret
PARASITIC JAEGER
Lesser Black-backed Gull
GULL-BILLED TERN
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Roseate Tern
Royal Tern
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Black-billed Cuckoo
Acadian Flycatcher
Northern Waterthrush
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Canada Warbler

- 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, June 22nd 2018 at 9pm. The highlights of today's tape are BROWN PELICAN, SANDWICH, ARCTIC, GULL-BILLED and other terns and sea flights including CORY'S, GREAT and SOOTY and PARASITIC JAEGER, KING EIDER, PROTHONOTARY WARBLER and more.

Once again this week much of the birding excitement centered around the beaches and inlets along the southern shores of Long Island. Two more occurrences of BROWN PELICAN involved two seen moving east off Nickerson Beach in Nassau County late Wednesday afternoon and then what was presumably the same pelican flying west off Main Beach in East Hampton and then a half hour later off Mecox. This at midday. Like last week this one again produced two reports of SANDWICH TERN. One visiting the tern colony area at Nickerson Beach Tuesday morning and one noted rather distantly this morning off Robert Moses State Park field 2. Single ARCTIC TERNS in varying plumages indicating the presence of multiple birds during the week but only one per day were noted at Nickerson Beach from Saturday to at least Wednesday and another visited the flocks at Cupsogue County Park in West Hampton Dunes Thursday. A GULL-BILLED TERN continues to visit the tern colony at Nickerson Beach there to snatch the fish from the bills of incoming Common Terns. Another GULL-BILLED appeared briefly on the Cupsogue flats last Sunday. Single BLACK TERNS were spotted Thursday at Nickerson Beach and at Cupsogue and among the increasing numbers of ROYAL TERNS were two at both Nickerson and Cupsogue last Saturday and one at Mecox Sunday. Up to 6 or more ROSEATE TERNS have recently been visiting the shore adjacent to the tern colony at Nickerson at least a couple having been previously banded on Great Gull Island and other ROSEATES included two out at Breezy Point Wednesday and Thursday and 6 reported from Cupsogue Thursday. Missed on last week's tape was a CASPIAN TERN at Pine Neck Sanctuary in East Quogue last Friday.

Seawatching so far this year has been somewhat spotty and unproductive but that may have just changed for the better. Thursday a small flight off Cupsogue included a CORY'S, 17 SOOTY and a few unidentified shearwaters and a PARASITIC JAEGER. A precursor to a large flight witnessed off Robert Moses State Park field 2 this morning rough estimates of the number of shearwaters passing by Moses, generally west to east but with some milling about, totaled 750 CORY'S, 500 SOOTY and 75 GREAT SHEARWATERS. This flight died well before noon and no afternoon flight was observed at Moses or off Shinnecock Inlet.

A couple of LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS were in the Moses 2 parking lot today.

A flock of 20 COMMON EIDER, lingering in Shinnecock Bay east of the inlet, also contains a drake KING EIDER in handsome plumage.

A CATTLE EGRET was at the Timber Point Golf Course last Sunday only.

A male PROTHONOTARY WARBLER was spotted Sunday at the northern section of Hempstead Lake State Park on the north side of the Southern State Parkway. Was this the same bird present at Hempstead earlier in the Spring?

Among some late migrants as reported in Central Park this past week have been both BLACK-BILLED and YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS, ACADIAN FLYCATCHER and mostly singles of various warblers including BLACK-THROATED BLUE, BLACK-THROATED GREEN, BLACKPOLL, NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH and CANADA.

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