New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, March 1, 2019:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* March 1, 2019
* NYNY1903.01

- Birds Mentioned

BARNACLE GOOSE+
PACIFIC LOON+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE
Cackling Goose
Wood Duck
EURASIAN WIGEON
Blue-winged Teal
KING EIDER
Red-necked Grebe
American Woodcock
Razorbill
ICELAND GULL
Lesser Black-backed Gull
GLAUCOUS GULL
Eastern Phoebe
Common Yellowthroat
Pine Warbler
DICKCISSEL
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
EVENING GROSBEAK

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, March 1, 2019 at 9:00 pm.

The highlights of today's tape are PACIFIC LOON, BARNACLE and GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, KING EIDER, EURASIAN WIGEON, GLAUCOUS and ICELAND GULLS, DICKCISSEL, EVENING GROSBEAK and more.

With most of our highlights continuing to be lingering birds as we await a seasonal changeover, fortunately one of those is the winter-plumaged PACIFIC LOON still frequenting the boat basin of the Sagamore Yacht Club in Oyster Bay. Perhaps, locally, a better opportunity to see this species so well will be a long time coming. Enter Oyster Bay on Route 106 and continue on South Street, staying to the left at the end by the white tanks to enter the Yacht Club and adjacent Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, where a large parking lot is available. Search the boat basin carefully; if not there, the loon has at times also moved east along the shore.

Waterfowl recently have been on the move; among the geese out in the Riverhead area the BARNACLE GOOSE was seen early in the week on fields along Reeves Avenue near the Buffalo farm just west of Roanoke Avenue, and today by the Cherry Creek golf course east of Roanoke Avenue. A GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE plus a CACKLING GOOSE have also been spotted there, and an alternative site to search for these species is at their roost on Merritts Pond in Riverhead, east of Roanoke Avenue, or on the traditional sod fields around Doctors Path and Route 105 south of Sound Avenue. Another GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE remains in southern Westchester but moves between a few golf courses and ponds, including Playland Lake in Rye and a pond off Bowman Avenue in Rye Brook. Other CACKLING GEESE include continuing singles at Miller Field on Staten Island and in the Rye area.

Brooklyn EURASIAN WIGEON were still around the Marine Park Salt Marsh Nature Center and Bush Terminal Piers Park, and a young male KING EIDER was reported again at Shinnecock Inlet last Saturday. A drake BLUE-WINGED TEAL was still at Robinson Pond in Patchogue Saturday, and numbers of WOOD DUCKS have been increasing nicely lately.

A RAZORBILL was off Coney Island Beach last Saturday and off Plumb Beach today, with a RED-NECKED GREBE remaining off Floyd Bennett Field to Wednesday.

Both GLAUCOUS and LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, one each, were still at the Bellport Bay Yacht Club early in the week, and an ICELAND GULL was seen again in Brooklyn’s Gravesend Bay last Saturday.

One nice new arrival this week, possibly wintering nearby, was a DICKCISSEL spotted Wednesday at the feeders at the Oceanside Marine Nature Study Area. The DICKCISSEL was still present today at the sanctuary, accessed from Links Drive in Oceanside.

Northern Manhattan’s long-lingering male EVENING GROSBEAK was still present in Riverside Park today, usually around 117th street or a little north of these. Union Square’s COMMON YELLOWTHROAT was also still around Tuesday.

Though it’s still winter, AMERICAN WOODCOCKS, one of spring’s earliest migrants, have been showing up recently and should be displaying in appropriate areas once the weather improves a little. Flocks of COMMON GRACKLES and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS have also arrived, and also watch for other early arrivals like EASTERN PHOEBE and PINE WARBLER, among others.

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