Rare Bird Alert: March 3, 2017

Things are beginning to pick up in the ABA Are this week, as the slow turn to spring begins. Though you wouldn’t know it from the weather in the eastern half of the continent this week, which seemed to swing wildly between normal and way above normal. In any case, that brief stint of warm weather came without the accompanying birds of spring.

Continuing rarities in the ABA Area this week include the Pennsylvania Black-backed Oriole, both a Rose-throated Becard (3) and a Golden-crowned Warbler (4) in Texas. The Yellow-legged Gull (4) in Newfoundland has finally made it into consecutive week’s reports. The Redwing (4) is still being seen in British Columbia, as is the Streak-backed Oriole (4) in Arizona, the Brambling (3) in Oregon, and a number of Pink-footed Geese (4) and Barnacle Geese (4) in various places throughout the northeast.

It was a very good week for (Common) Mew Gull in a few spots in the northeast, including New Hampshire’s 2nd record of the European counterpoint to our western North American breeding Mew Gull in Salem.