New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, July 26, 2019:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* July 26, 2019
* NYNY1907.26

- Birds Mentioned

BRIDLED TERN+
BLACK-CAPPED PETREL+
LEACH’S STORM-PETREL+
BAND-RUMPED STORM-PETREL+
GRAY KINGBIRD+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cory’s Shearwater
Great Shearwater
MANX SHEARWATER
AUDUBON’S SHEARWATER
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel
Tricolored Heron
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
WHIMBREL
Stilt Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
GULL-BILLED TERN
CASPIAN TERN
Royal Tern
Purple Martin
Cliff Swallow
Worm-eating Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Northern Waterthrush
Blue-winged Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER
Prairie Warbler
SUMMER TANAGER

If electronic submission is not possible, hardcopy reports and photos or sketches are welcome. Hardcopy documentation should be mailed to: view

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, July 26, 2019 at 9:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are GRAY KINGBIRD, BRIDLED TERN, pelagic trip results including BLACK-CAPPED PETREL, BAND-RUMPED and LEACH’S STORM-PETRELS, AUDUBON’S and MANX SHEARWATERS, WHIMBREL and nice mammals, GULL-BILLED and CASPIAN TERNS, YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, SUMMER TANAGER, and early fall migrants.

Last Sunday morning a GRAY KINGBIRD was photographed as it briefly perched atop a sign at Smith Point County Park in Shirley. The bird has not been relocated once it flew off towards the bay.

The BRIDLED TERN roosting on Great Gull Island was still present today; favoring the northeast side of the island, the bird can be viewed by boat, but landing on this important tern research island is not permitted.

A pelagic trip sponsored by See Life Paulagics aboard the Brooklyn VI on Monday visited quite warm waters out at the continental shelf, where some great birds and mammals were encountered. Not yet official trip totals featured 3 BLACK-CAPPED PETRELS, 17 BAND-RUMPED, 26 LEACH’S and about 600 WILSON’S STORM-PETRELS, 2 AUDUBON’S, 1 MANX, 4 GREAT, and 6 CORY’S SHEARWATERS, a juvenile LAUGHING GULL, and 11 WHIMBRELS and other migrating shorebirds. Mammal highlights included numerous Atlantic Spotted and Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins riding the bow, a large group of Risso’s Dolphins, and a wonderful pod of Cuvier’s Beaked Whales.

Back on shore, the first wave of the southbound shorebird migration continues, though we are unfortunately missing out on the wonderful opportunities the East Pond at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge usually provides, as high water there continues to be a problem.

Single WHIMBREL were noted this week at Robert Moses State Park on Monday and at Plumb Beach in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Three STILT SANDPIPERS were at Wolf’s Pond Park on Staten Island last Sunday, and other shorebirds noted this week have included GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS, SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, SEMIPALMATED, LEAST, SOLITARY and SPOTTED SANDPIPERS and other expected species. This early part of shorebird migration, featuring mostly adults, provides the best window for foreign vagrants, but it will be closing soon.

A LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was spotted at Breezy Point Monday evening, and among the TERNS, a CASPIAN was off Robert Moses State Park Monday, a GULL-BILLED paid an unusual visit to Cupsogue County Park in Westhampton Dunes Thursday, and ROYAL numbers continue to grow.

A TRICOLORED HERON was seen in the Captree Island marsh today.

Singing and presumably still nesting land birds include the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER at Bayard Cutting Arboretum reportedly heard today and a SUMMER TANAGER on territory out in Northwest Harbor last Sunday.

Recent migrant land birds have included PURPLE MARTIN and CLIFF SWALLOW, and, among the WARBLERS, BLUE-WINGED, BLACKBURNIAN, PRAIRIE, BLACK-AND-WHITE, WORM-EATING and NORTHERN and LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSHES, these all breeding not far north of the City.

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