New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, August 30, 2019:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Aug. 30, 2019
* NYNY1908.30

- Birds Mentioned

BROWN BOOBY+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

Cory’s Shearwater
MANX SHEARWATER
AMERICAN AVOCET
AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER
Whimbrel
MARBLED GODWIT
White-rumped Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Parasitic Jaeger
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Common Nighthawk
Red-headed Woodpecker
WESTERN KINGBIRD
Eastern Kingbird
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Philadelphia Vireo
LARK SPARROW
Grasshopper Sparrow
HENSLOW’S SPARROW
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT
Worm-eating Warbler
Hooded Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Canada Warbler
DICKCISSEL

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

Compiler: Tom Burke
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, August 30, 2019 at 10:00 pm.

The highlights of today’s tape are BROWN BOOBY, WESTERN KINGBIRD, HENSLOW’S SPARROW, AMERICAN AVOCET, AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER, MARBLED GODWIT, MANX SHEARWATER, LARK SPARROW, DICKCISSEL, YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT and more.

Monday morning produced another BROWN BOOBY sighting, this a bird moving west past Robert Moses State Park Field 2. There is also a report of one landing on a fishing boat Tuesday off Atlantic Beach, and this has also apparently happened previously with boats out of Point Lookout fishing in the same general area.

The WESTERN KINGBIRD at Croton Point Park in Westchester County was last seen last Saturday.

A banding team at Fresh Kills Park on Staten Island this morning reported a HENSLOWS’ S SPARROW while studying GRASSHOPPER SPARROWS. This area is off limits to the general public, but hopefully others might be found elsewhere.

An AMERICAN AVOCET visiting Mecox Bay where it meets the outer beach since last week was joined by a second AVOCET Thursday, one of these perhaps the individual that has moved over to Sagg Pond just east of Mecox Bay in Bridgehampton. Both sites do have daily parking restrictions.

An AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER visited Field 7 at Hechscher State Park for a few hours this morning before flying off, and six MARBLED GODWITS were still at Cupsogue County Park in Westhampton Dunes at least through Wednesday.

Robert Moses State Park this week, besides the BROWN BOOBY, also produced a number of other good finds. On Monday both MANX SHEARWATER and PARASITIC JAEGER were seen offshore, and then on Tuesday an adult LARK SPARROW was found on the north side of Lot 2, staying there through Thursday and overlapping with a DICKCISSEL in the same area Thursday and today. Another DICKCISSEL was heard today at Coney Island Creek in Brooklyn.

A MANX SHEARWATER also appeared off Sagg Pond last Sunday, and CORY’S SHEARWATER was also spotted off a couple of eastern Long Island south shore sites.

A WHIMBREL was still out in Jamaica Bay last Saturday, and other recent shorebirds have featured PECTORAL, WESTERN and WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPERS.

CASPIAN TERNS today included 3 at Brooklyn’s Plumb Beach and 2 at Robert Moses State Park, and a nice high count of ROYAL TERNS featured 71 around Fire Island Inlet last Saturday.

The RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS along Paumanok Trail off Schultz Road just north of Jones Pond in Manorville have recently been seen with an immature bird.

Finishing the non-passerines, COMMON NIGHTHAWKS have begun their southward push and have been appearing in decent numbers recently at appropriate locations in the evening.

Among the FLYCATCHERS, OLIVE-SIDEDS have been seen at various locations including Caumsett State Park Sunday and Robert Moses State Park today, and a few YELLOW-BELLIEDS have also arrived.

A small number of PHILADELPHIA VIREOS included one visiting a penthouse terrace in Manhattan for a while Saturday.

A YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT was found last Friday at the Lido Beach Passive Nature Area and reported again Saturday.

WARBLER variety continues to increase, though numbers generally remain low, and notable among these have been WORM-EATING, CAPE MAY, BLACKBURNIAN, BLACK-THROATEDS BLUE and GREEN, CANADA and HOODED.

An EASTERN KINGBIRD flight today featured 862 over Coney Island Creek and 307 at Robert Moses State Park.

To phone in reports please 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