Hey guys! This post contains short summaries of all my rarity chases/ unexpected finds. They could be extremely hard to find birds like Cerulean Warbler, state rarities such as Painted Bunting, or ABA rarities such as Barnacle Goose. Without further ado, here is part one of my Rarity Round Up!
Barnacle Goose
December 23 2012
Van Cortland Park, Bronx
This bird was the third Barnacle Goose of the season and had been here for about a month. I made a trip up there to find it, most of it trying to find the ball fields where the geese were. Fortunately, the goose was in a flock of less than 50 birds not far from us. I saw birders there, but they left as I got there and I had to look for a minute before I found it being pushed around by the larger subspecies of Canada Geese. A wild goose chase I won't forget.
Red-Necked Grebe
March 23 2014
Central Park Reservoir, New York
This bird was the second of three of the spring (and second in 30 years!) in Central Park. I traveled around the entire reservoir scanning around the countless waterfowl for it. Then I ran into a guy at the south end who was looking at the bird sleeping and gave me a look. I would have missed it if it wasn't for him, due to it looking like a goose from a distance.
Western/Clark's Grebe
July 2011
East River, New York
One day during my first month of middle (summer) school on Roosevelt Island, one of my class mates spotted an odd bird in the water and wanted me to take a look. I thought it might be a cormorant as I was walking to the window, but I was astonished that I didn't know what this black and white bird was. I looked it up later to find out I was looking at a rarity, but the bird was probably gone.
Storm-Petrel sp.
April 15 2012
1 mile off Coney Island, Kings
Although common just offshore in summer, this bird was seen much earlier than that. As we were headed back to Jamaica Bay on a seal-watching trip in New York Harbor I spotted a small, brown bird feeding near the boat with a white rump. The bird was seen within sight of Coney Island. When I described what I saw to some birders of the boat, they agreed that it was probably a storm-petrel.
Yellow-Crowned Night Heron
May 11 2014
Azalea Pond, Central Park, New York
Ran into a group of birdwatchers from the walk I was on looking at the bird in a tree. Very rare in the park and presumably fallout from the storm the previous day. It was one of the star birds of the day.
Glossy Ibis
April 12 2014
Shakespeare Garden, Central Park, New York
On a bird walk when we saw an ibis soaring overhead. Common in Jamaica Bay, but flyovers in Central Park are rare.
Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!
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