Archive for rarities

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Vagrant Mountain Bluebirds Are Sticking Around

By January 8, 2012 5 comments

As of today, 8 January 2012, the Mountain Bluebirds in New York’s Suffolk County and Ontario’s Wellington County are both being seen. Both have stuck it out for awhile now and neither shows any signs of moving on, odd for birds that, from what I understand, tend to stick for a brief time when they [...]

Brown Booby in Cape May

By October 26, 2011 11 comments

The Brown Booby is a bird that helps explain why birders don’t always want to share what they are doing with non-birders.  Explaining to people that the main goal you have for a visit to Cape May is seeing a Brown Booby and you will, at the least, get an odd look.  Others will crack [...]

Disappointed with a Florida Fork-tailed Flycatcher

By April 21, 2011 4 comments

Steve Walter is a New York nature photographer, birder, and long-time member of the New York City Butterfly Club.  Readers of 10,000 Birds who pay attention will remember him from when he showed Patrick and me some really cool damselflies out in Suffolk County.  This blog post is written by Steve and by writing it [...]

Winter Visitors in Cyprus

By January 21, 2011 4 comments

Geographically, Cyprus is caught between the Western and Central Paleo-arctic. And we get all sorts of vagrants it seems, especially in winter. Last winter in particular was surprising with a Baird’s Sandpiper and a Pectoral Sandpiper, that must’ve gotten just a bit lost. This winter is equally interesting, although the vagrants seem to be coming [...]

Mystery Bird Revealed: Chaffinch in Massachusetts

By March 31, 2010 15 comments

You may remember that back in January I rejoined the Bloggerhead Kingbirds and competed in my second Superbowl of Birding.  You may also, if you have an absurdly good memory, remember that the day before the competition we tried to chase down some good birds.  What you are most likely not at all aware of [...]

Inaccessible Island Rail Atlantisia rogersi

By February 21, 2010 5 comments

The Inaccessible Island Rail is perhaps the coolest bird that neither I nor anyone I will ever meet will ever see.  The world’s smallest, still-extant, flightless bird is only found on the aptly-named Inaccessible Island, an island in the Tristan da Cunha archipelago of the south Atlantic Ocean (the largest island in the archipelago is [...]

Reporting a Rare Bird in New York State

By September 10, 2008 7 comments

Finding a rare bird is fun.  Chasing a rare bird is fun.  Twitching a rare bird is fun.  Reporting a rare bird?  Not so fun, which is why I have been so very negligent in filling out the form to report the Yellow-headed Blackbird that I saw last summer at Jones Beach to the to [...]

Magnificent! (Frigatebird in New York)

By September 7, 2008 19 comments

When I posted a short blurb a couple of days ago about my plans to scour the south shore of Long Island in the wake of Tropical Storm Hanna I had anticipated maybe finding a good tern or perhaps a shearwater near the shore.  But after an hour or so of searching Jones Beach frustration [...]

Union Square Park Hosts a Mega Rarity

By April 16, 2008 1 comment

Jean M. Loscalzo is a resident of Queens and has been kind enough to not only show Corey around Forest Park a bit (and give Corey and Charlie a ride not so long ago) but she has also agreed to share this article with the 10,000 Birds readership. The article first appeared in the newsletter [...]