Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Feb 1st Ultra Rarity: Prospect WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL

In a completely unexpected surprise for early 2012 and likely the BIRD OF THE YEAR for Prospect, Adam Welz found a WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL at the Prospect feeders.

The rare visitor ,a female was spotted 2x at 3 pm this afternoon. As more birders arrived from Twitter tweets and cell phone alert, however the Crossbill did not reappear from its initial showing. Lets hope it sticks around. Text me if you see the rare finch.

Pending records search tomorrow , it may be only the second showing for Prospect's history from 1960's . A few years ago, a small flock of WWCB was seen at Brooklyn Botanic Garden but never "crossed" over to Prospect ( I may be wrong,stay tuned)

See Adam's terrific photo of his sighting today.Congrats Adam on a great find!



On the lake , 5 HOODED MERGANSERS and 7 continuing RING-NECKED DUCKS are being seen around Three Sisters Islands vicinity.

-Kingsboider

Addenum: I did a records search from Cornell's Ebird. The last Prospect sighting was Feb 9, 1964 . In the previous year, the high count , only 3 months before, apparently a very good winter irruption I presumed, 62 WWCBs seen in Prospect Park Nov 25, 1963. (Long overdued for us ! ) Incidentally, at the same time, 40 Red Crossbills were present as well (Red Crossbill 40 NYC Bird Report Data Prospect Park (map) Nov 23, 1963 ). Yep, must have been an irruption