New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, October 12, 2018

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Oct. 12, 2018
* NYNY1810.12

- Birds Mentioned

Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Black-billed Cuckoo
Common Nighthawk
Virginia Rail
American Oystercatcher
American Golden-Plover
MARBLED GODWIT
Stilt Sandpiper
BAIRD'S SANDPIPER
Long-billed Dowitcher
Parasitic Jaeger
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Bald Eagle
Broad-winged Hawk
American Kestrel
Merlin
WESTERN KINGBIRD
Worm-eating Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
CONNECTICUT WARBLER
Mourning Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Canada Warbler
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT
CLAY-COLORED SPARROW
Nelson’s Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
BLUE GROSBEAK
DICKCISSEL

Greetings! This is the New York Rare Bird Alert for Friday, October 12, 2018 at 9 pm. The highlights of today’s tape are WESTERN KINGBIRD, MARBLED GODWIT, BAIRD’S SANDPIPER, CONNECTICUT WARBLER, YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, BLUE GROSBEAK, DICKCISSEL and CLAY-COLORED SPARROW.

Another WESTERN KINGBIRD provided this week's rarity highlight, though it was a bird seen only for a brief time last Monday afternoon at the Salt Marsh Nature Center section of Marine Park in Brooklyn, searches to relocate it coming up empty.

Six MARBLED GODWITS have remained around Jones Inlet at least to Thursday, often seen on the island sandbar just east of the Coast Guard Station at Jones Beach West End. Also on the bar Thursday among a nice selection of shorebirds were an AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER plus large gatherings of AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS and BLACK SKIMMERS, with 11 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS also at West End.

A BAIRD'S SANDPIPER was still around the tip of Breezy Point Thursday, along with 4 PARASITIC JAEGERS harassing Gulls and Terns off the tip as well. Two PARASITIC JAEGERS were also noted off Robert Moses State Park Thursday, where 9 LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS were also counted. Other multiple LESSER BLACK-BACKEDS included 4 at Breezy Point Saturday.

Single LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS were identified last Sunday on Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge’s East Pond as well as at Santapogue Creek in West Babylon. A STILT SANDPIPER was also still on the East Pond Tuesday.

Several reports of CASPIAN TERNS this week included 4 at Jamaica Bay Tuesday and 2 each at Mecox Saturday, Plumb Beach and Piermont Pier Sunday and Floyd Bennett Field Thursday, while ROYAL TERNS remain at various coastal sites, including up to 4 at Plumb Beach.

Strong northwest winds today provided a decent hawk flight locally, with about 20 BALD EAGLES, for instance, recorded over Central Park and a few BROAD-WINGED HAWKS still moving through. At Fort Tilden today the hawk count included 102 MERLINS and 594 AMERICAN KESTRELS, the latter, however, overshadowed by over 5,000 KESTRELS counted at Cape May today.

Single BLUE GROSBEAKS last weekend were noted on Saturday at Flushing Meadows Park and at Croton Point and on Sunday at the Queens Botanical Garden.

DICKCISSELS during the week included 1 still in Central Park Saturday, another at Floyd Bennett Field Saturday, and on Monday 2 each at the Salt Marsh Nature Center and at Robert Moses State Park.

CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS reported this week included 1 at Floyd Bennett Field during the week, 1 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Sunday, and 1 in Kissena Park, Queens, Sunday to Tuesday. Among the other SPARROWS now arriving are some NELSON’S in various coastal salt marshes and some LINCOLN’S and WHITE-CROWNED.

Among the more unusual WARBLERS this week were a CONNECTICUT reported in Central Park Monday and Tuesday, a MOURNING banded at Tobay Saturday, and an ORANGE-CROWNED in Gardiner Park in West Bayshore Sunday.

A YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT was spotted at Southard’s Pond Park in Babylon last Sunday.

A small influx of YELLOW WARBLERS this week augmented the list of late lingering WARBLERS locally, including WORM-EATING, CAPE MAY and CANADA.

A small unfortunate fallout of VIRGINIA RAILS onto the streets of lower Manhattan Saturday through Monday demonstrates the fragile and uncertain nature of rail migration and the perils the birds sometimes find themselves faced with.

On the later side this week have been COMMON NIGHTHAWK and BLACK-BILLED and YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS.

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