The sighting of a Western Grebe at Cove Island Wildlife Sanctuary east of Stamford, Connecticut, turned out to be only the Seventh State Record for the species.

November ended with a bang, yielding an exciting list of rare birds that featured Connecticut records of a First State Record Brewer’s Sparrow and a Seventh State Record Western Grebe, plus across the continent a Third State Record Eastern Towhee was photographed in western Montana. A pair of Eighth Records including a Little Egret in Nova Scotia and a Limpkin in North Carolina. Rare birds crossing oceans included a Northern Lapwing, La Sagra’s Flycatcher, Barnacle Goose, and Tufted Duck – and there’s more.

STATE & PROVINCIAL RECORDS

First State Record Brewer’s Sparrow – Hammonasett Beach, Connecticut

Third State Record Eastern Towhee – Willow Creek, Montana

Seventh State Record Western Grebe – Stamford, Connecticut

Eighth Provincial Record Little Egret – Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia

Eighth State Record Limpkin – near Norwood, North Carolina

REALLY RARE SIGHTINGS

Northern Lapwing – near Fairhaven, Massachusetts

La Sagra’s Flycatcher – Everglades Park, Florida

Barnacle Goose – Milton, Massachusetts

Tufted Duck – Bridgeport, Connecticut

Brown Booby – offshore Newfoundland

Swainson’s Hawk – southeast New Brunswick

Dusky-capped Flycatcher – Laguna Atascosa, Texas

Vermillion Flycatcher – Independence, Missouri

MORE REALLY RARE BIRDS

Ferruginous Hawk – near Rochelle, Illinois

Bullock’s Oriole – Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland

Mew Gull – Somerset, Massachusetts

Western Tanager – Torrington, Connecticut

Yellow-throated Warbler – Laurentides, Quebec

Heermann’s Gull – Miami Beach, Florida

Fork-tailed Flycatcher – Riviera, Texas

Barrow’s Goldeneye – Paris Landing, Tennessee

King Eider – Smith River, California

Mountain Bluebird – Munising, Michigan

Rose-throated Becard – Mission, Texas

Western Gull – Corpus Christi, Texas

Say’s Phoebe – Westminster, Vermont

CONTINUING RARE BIRDS

In addition to the rare are birds listed above, a few finds from previous weeks continue to be sought out by birders, including the almost famous Antillean Palm Swift on Marathon Key in Florida, a Red-footed Booby on the California coast, and a Pink-footed Goose in Nova Scotia. December effectively begins the winter season, and with the many new off-course species found last week, be sure to keep alert for any rare bird that may cross paths with you.

For more information, see the American Birding Association’s Rare Bird Alert at http://blog.aba.org/2019/11/rare-bird-alert-november-29-2019.html/ Special Thanks to the ABA, and Nate Swick, who does such a great job of compiling the ABA’s Rare Bird Alert, which we use to prepare this weekly replay.

You can often find more information about individual rare bird sightings from the state rare bird alert listserves that you can access at http://birding.aba.org/ or at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ABArare/