New York City Rare Bird Alert

Below is the New York City Rare Bird Alert for the week ending Friday, February 19, 2012:

-RBA
* New York
* New York City, Long Island, Westchester County
* Feb. 19, 2021
* NYNY2102.19


- Birds Mentioned

MEW GULL+
FERRUGINOUS HAWK (extralimital)+
SPOTTED TOWHEE+
WESTERN TANAGER+
(+ Details requested by NYSARC)

KING EIDER
HARLEQUIN DUCK
Red-necked Grebe
Common Gallinule
Semipalmated Plover
COMMON MURRE
BLACK-HEADED GULL
Iceland Gull
GLAUCOUS GULL
American Bittern
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Rough-legged Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
Common Redpoll
Red Crossbill
LAPLAND LONGSPUR
Vesper Sparrow
LECONTE’S SPARROW
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT

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

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, February 19, 2021 at 10:00 PM.

The highlights of today’s tape are SPOTTED TOWHEE, MEW GULL, LECONTE’S SPARROW, WESTERN TANAGER, COMMON MURRE, KING EIDER and HARLEQUIN DUCK, BLACK-HEADED and GLAUCOUS GULLS, LAPLAND LONGSPUR, YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, winter finches, extralimital FERRUGINOUS HAWK and more.

The SPOTTED TOWHEE at Baldwin Harbor Park has been seen several times this past week at least through Wednesday, presumably coming more into the open due to the snow covered grounds. Look especially along the paved bike and walking path that bisects the wooded area east of Grand Avenue and the first of two large parking lots. There is an entrance to this path from the northwest corner of the second large parking lot, which is farther down Grand Avenue.

The immature MEW GULL in Brooklyn has been visiting Prospect Park Lake on likely a daily basis, including around 2:00 PM this afternoon, where it roosts on frozen portions of the lake and bathes in open water when available. This European form, referred to as Common Gull, is usually best viewed from the south side of the lake. The immature BLACK-HEADED GULL has also been spotted visiting the lake several days this week, including today.

A nice and unexpected find this week was a LECONTE’S SPARROW spotted briefly a few times Tuesday morning as it elusively skulked its way around the outer dunes at Breezy Point, finally providing enough to confirm the identification.

The female WESTERN TANAGER wintering in Carl Schurz Park in Manhattan was still visiting feeders there yesterday, these feeders located just inside the park off East End Avenue just below East 86th Street.

A COMMON MURRE spotted just offshore at Robert Moses State Park last Sunday was found deceased on shore Monday, being devoured by a PEREGRINE FALCON.

Last Monday, the female KING EIDER was seen again off Floyd Bennett Field’s Archery Road and a drake KING was spotted in flight off Montauk Point. Besides the HARLEQUIN DUCKS present around Jones Inlet, two drake HARLEQUINS were also off Orient Point on Monday.

An immature GLAUCOUS GULL visited Cedar Beach on Long Island’s north shore at Mt. Sinai Tuesday, and an ICELAND GULL was noted out at Breezy Point Tuesday, perhaps the one also occurring along the Brooklyn waterfront.

Among various lingering non-passerines of interest this week were a RED-NECKED GREBE off Brooklyn, the COMMON GALLINULE at Mill Pond Park in Bellmore, 5 SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS at Jones Beach West End Sunday, AMERICAN BITTERNS at Tobay and along Dune Road, an adult YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON at Randall’s Island, and a few ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, including, on Wednesday, 1 at Tobay, 2 along Dune Road at Shinnecock, and 3 around the Calverton grasslands north of Riverhead. Here it should also be mentioned that the FERRUGINOUS HAWK continues in the Orange County black dirt region.

Single LAPLAND LONGPURS were noted at Robert Moses State Park Saturday, at Jones Beach West End Sunday, and at Nickerson Beach on Tuesday.

A VESPER SPARROW continues at the Calverton grasslands, and a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT appeared at Floyd Bennett Field last Saturday.

Among various appearances of COMMON REDPOLLS in our area this week were 12 at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery Sunday and over 25 at Plumb Beach Wednesday, while some RED CROSSBILLS Wednesday included sightings of 9 at Jones Beach West End, 4 at Tobay and around 40 at Robert Moses State Park Field 2.

To phone in reports 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