Lapland Longspur on Randall's Island - 31st Jan

While waiting for Conor to finish his football training session on Randall's Island today I took a quick tour around the island looking for whatever I could find. Almost the first bird I looked at was a stonking Lapland Longspur sitting on a fire hydrant! It was flushed soon after by a couple of joggers, but I relocated it, and it was fantastically confiding. It didn't let me get too close, it's trigger distance seemed to be about 10 metres, but it was very happy if I stayed beyond that range.

Edit 2nd Feb: This turns out to be a much rarer bird than I expected. This is the first 'on-land' record in New York County (Manhattan) for over 50 years! Odd as they are basically annual at Floyd Bennett Field in Queens...

What a bird!

Wilson's Warbler in Central Park - 7th Jan

Another Central Park foray, this time to pick up on a couple of over-wintering warblers. The first was a gorgeous little Wilson's Warbler on the Great Hill, in the section known as the eastern blowdown meadow. I found this very quickly, and it was extremely obliging, causing me to move back several times in order to get it in focus.

Next stop was a mile or so south, between The Met and the 79th st traverse where a rather drab Orange-crowned Warbler has been hanging out. This was much trickier, giving only brief views after about an hour of waiting around. I shall have to try again tomorrow.

Apart from that the best bird was a juvenile Cooper's Hawk having a staring competition with a squirrel

Female/ first year Wilson's Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk

A bit of a stand-off. I must admit I wouldn't take on a Central Park squirrel without heavy gloves so I know where my money would be here...

Continuing Great Horned Owl, Central Park - 6th Jan

School is back in session, which means early morning birding in Central Park. I made sure on this first foray of the year that I caught up with an old favourite, the Great Horned Owl which has continued to roost near the feeders in The Ramble.

Other nice birds included a very posey Red-tailed Hawk, and lots and lots of White-breasted Nuthatch.

Great Horned Owl

Red-tailed Hawk

Clay-coloured Sparrow at Corona Park - 4th Jan

My first day of birding for 2016 so I headed off to Flushing Meadow Corona Park for the rare sparrows. I got on to the flock of Dark-eyed Juncos that have been hanging around the Meditation Garden. One of the first birds I spotted was the Clay-coloured Sparrow, my major target. The Lark Sparrow turned up after a while, followed by one of the Pine Warblers. Sorted!

Clay-coloured Sparrow 

Lark Sparrow

At one point both rare sparrows posed together.

Ring-billed Gull in Blackrock - 31st Dec

The last day of the year saw me back at Blackrock saltmarsh, the spot I visited on 1st January this year. The waders roost was fantastic, with huge flocks of a number of species. Most numerous was European Golden Plover, with at least 10,000 birds. There were also large flocks of Lapwing, Red Knot, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher and Dunlin. Other waders included Common Redshank, Ringed Plover, Turnstone and Little Stint. The roosts had attracted predators with singles of both Merlin and Eurasian Sparrowhawk seen.

Ducks and geese were mainly represented by Brent Goose, with quite a few Common Shelduck and a small group of Common Goldeneye. A group of 10 Pink-footed Geese passed overhead but didn't stop.

Bird of the day was a 2nd winter Ring-billed Gull on the main beach in front of Blackrock town. Other gulls included a couple of Lesser Black-backed, half a dozen Greater Black-backed, Herring, Common and Black-headed.

2nd winter Ring-billed Gull. Quite a surprise finding this little beauty. The first one of these I saw was in Galway in 1998, but I've seen plenty since then!

Adult winter argenteus Herring Gull to compare with the Caspian Gull in Tallaght. Much shorter primary projection, pale eye, pink legs and pale mantle

3rd winter graellsii Lesser Black-backed Gull

1st winter Herring Gull

Common Gull

Part of a huge flock of European Golden Plover that roost on the flats at Blackrock

Bar-tailed Godwit with a ring, sadly unreadable!

Part of a flock of 10 Pink-footed Geese that passed overhead while I was gull-watching at the seafront of Blackrock town.

'Caspian' Gull at Sean Walsh Park - 24th & 29th Dec

For the last 3 years a Caspian Gull has been reported hanging around Sean Walsh Park in Tallaght. I only found out about it recently from irishbirding.com, so have spent quite a bit of time over the last week looking for it. I caught up with it briefly on Christmas Eve, and again for a prolonged period yesterday, thanks to meeting up with an Irish birder (Dave Fox).

First seen as a juvenile, this 4 year gull is now in adult winter plumage for the first time, and the most striking thing initially is the darker shade of the mantle. It really stands out from the argenteus Herring Gulls it is most similar in size to, looking quite a lot like a Scandanavian argentatus Herring Gull. This isn't a normal feature of Caspian, but is within the range of variation. Note the long primary projection, a feature of Caspian.

It has a nice upright stance most of the time, and is relatively easy to pick out at some distance in profile when with other large gulls.

The legs are greyish which fits Caspian, not pink as would be expected in a Herring Gull

It has dark olive-coloured eyes, and only light streaking on the hind-neck. The gonys is also quite small, though the bill seems shorter and deeper than I expect from Caspian.

All in all, a smart bird with all the features you'd expect from a Caspian Gull...

...until it takes off, and the wing pattern is completely wrong. While the white mirror on the final primary (P10) is present, there's nothing at all on P9...

...and now it looks like an argenteus Herring Gull. A strange bird to be sure. Currently several local birders are carrying around little plastic bottles to try and collect a fecal sample so a definitive ID can be made. The wonders of modern birding techniques...

Dun Laoghaire, west pier - 27th Dec

The weather over Christmas has been pretty rubbish, so when Sunday was forecast to be dry I decided to head down to Dun Laoghaire harbour. All the usuals were there, including quite a few Black Guillemots inside the harbour, Common Guillemots offshore, several Mediterranean Gulls mixed in with the Common Gulls, Kittiwakes, and other commoner species. I finally caught up with the Black Redstarts too, with one popping up next to the car in the west pier car-park.

Winter plumaged Black Guillemot

Kittiwake

Mediterranean Gull

Linnet

Shag

Harbour Seal