day of rarities, Prospect birds

The Brooklyn Bird Club lucked in on a scheduled walk today,recording two rarities,one a week long by now famous bird,the other unexpected. The former continues to draw large crowds, the latter besides the group,several other Twitter participants.

First,the PAINTED BUNTING continues it hot roll. Still entertaining birders and big numbers of them,this showboat of a bird on the Lefrak Rink ( Lakeside) greenroof moves about ; for new visitors ,just look for the birders. The BBC group recorded its first day rarity.

Then onward to Prospect Lake for the second rarity. I was in Manhattan for Xmas shopping this morning at Macy's looking at the holiday window display  celebrating Peanuts 50th  anniversary of the Christmas special when I got the tweet from Dennis Hrehowsik : BLACK HEADED GULL. The rare gull was spotted by Bobbi Manian, the rare Eurasian gull in the northwest sector; it was actually near the shore where BBC members got fantastic close by in looks for an hour.

I ventured over to the lake after my return from NYC.For an hour and a half, the search was in vain.Karen O and Chris L joined in and we searched hard with no luck. Then about 245, from the west island shelter spot I looked northward and spotted my nemesis bird : Its Back! For the next hour we watched the BLACK HEADED GULL wade around  200 feet offshore in the northwest section,going back and forth in its limited range. A really good bird for the park.I will search the Ebird records later.

Facebook photo https://www.facebook.com/BrooklynBirdClub/photos/a.536485489731320.1073741829.532443593468843/983874024992462/?type=3&notif_t=like