Rare Bird Alert: September 21, 2018

First things first, thanks to Greg Neise for covering the Rare Bird Alert last week while I was in Cuba.

Mid-September is traditionally a very good time for rare birds in North America, particularly on the western side of the continent. Even so, the landfall of Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas was the major weather event of the week, and the storm arrested the migration of birds like Sabine’s Gull and others who typically traverse the continent without touching down. That species, especially, seemed to be affected by the storm with several inland records in the past week, along with coastal species blown inland along with at least two tubenoses.

But we’ll start with the 1st records, as we do. In Utah, a Blue-footed Booby (ABA Code 4), a noteworthy bird anywhere in the ABA Area, was discovered in Kane, representing a 1st record for that state.