Hi -- According to the MDosprey rules, here is an initial alert for a very
rare bird close enough to drive to (!) -- for updates go to the NY bird
alert which can be accessed on Jack Siler's web site, www.birdingonthe.net

It also means -- maybe another one will come very closer!

Gail Mackiernan
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From: John Wall <>
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 02:54:57 +0000
To: 
Subject: Boreal Owl in Central Park today!

http://www.calvorn.com/gallery/list.php?exhibition=7

Click on left three thumbnails. I just received a call from Peter
Post, who saw the bird this afternoon after it was discovered on a
Christmas Count. It was roosting about 10' up in the open in a Norway
Spruce next to Tavern on the Green. With the dense population of rats,
perhaps it will stick around all winter, like the one that roosted on
Commonwealth Ave. in Boston in 1996.

I think this is the first record from NYC and the first twitchable
bird in the immediate NYC area. A Boreal Owl was photographed in pines
at Cedar Beach (?) LI in the late 1970s, but the photographer assumed
it was a Saw-whet until he had the film developed about a year later.
In the meantime the bird was killed by a car and recovered by someone
who put it in the freezer and later forwarded the specimen to the
AMNH.