Rare Bird Alert: October 13, 2017

The California Blue-footed Booby (ABA Code 4) continues in the Farallons, and as the only long-staying ABA Area vagrant seeming to stick tight in this season of bird movement. One exciting re-discovery came from South Carolina, where the American Flamingo (3), originally found in the immediate wake of Hurricane Irene, was refound in the extensive estuary marshes of that state where it has a lot of room to roam.

We’ll start, as we so often do this time of year, in Alaska, where Gambell has been the epicenter of new additions to the ABA Checklist (at least until the Hawaii birds drop). A Brown Shrike reported last week was, after a great deal of study, found to be a juvenile Red-backed Shrike, a potential 1st for the ABA Area, at least as a full species. But that wasn’t all, a few days earlier, the ABA’s 1st record of River Warbler was discovered in the near boneyard, making the 3rd potential ABA 1st in the last 6 weeks, a phenomenal run.