We birders are good at distinguishing between the improbable (e.g., seeing a Lined Seedeater in New York) and the imponderable (e.g., deliberately driving the Belt Parkway on a morning when one had been granted a reprieve from doing so). With a chance at the former as an inducement for the enduring the latter, I visited the Charles Memorial Park this morning, on the north shore of Jamaica Bay, directly north of the parking area where we stage for visits to the north end of the East Pond.
The male Lined Seedeater was skulky but still present, continuing from at least 7 Sep: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60461352 I'm not sure why this bird has not garnered more attention within the birding community. Lined Seedeater is a trans-equatorial austral migrant and a plausible candidate for natural vagrancy to North America. There is a specimen from the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire, from 8 August 1935 (MCZ), and records of vagrants north of the regular northern South American austral winter (our summer) range from Costa Rica, and from Guadeloupe--the latter from 6-7 Sep 2017, perhaps not coincidentally almost exactly the date the present bird was found this year. Shai Mitra Bay Shore -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
