In July I had the opportunity to take the ferry
across Long Island Sound from Bridgeport, CT to Port Jefferson, NY, and of
course birded from the ship while we crossed the Sound. Unfortunately I didn’t see anything but a few
gulls and Common Terns. Afterwards I
found out that birders typically take the more eastern ferry from New London,
CT to Orient Point, NY hoping for the occasional pelagic bird closer to open
ocean waters. Pelagic birds are
exceptionally rare in CT given the coastal geography of that state with Long
Island blocking the entire coast from open ocean waters. So on my next trip to Long Island in late
August I decided to take the ferry from New London to give it a try. I was especially hoping for birds in CT, but
would be happy with new birds for my NY list too. Though I was well aware that many trips on
the ferry are pretty slow with no pelagic birds seen at all.
As we left the New London harbor there were
many gulls and a few terns, but the numbers dropped off dramatically soon after
we got into the open waters. For quite a
while I saw just a few Laughing Gulls, with a couple larger gulls mixed in, but
that was all. As we got roughly halfway
out I checked the GPS on my phone and I estimated that we were now in NY
waters. So much for a new CT statebird
that day. But just a couple minutes
later I noticed two birds flying along with the boat low over the water. I got them in my binoculars and was shocked
to see that they were Cory’s Shearwaters.
They continued to fly roughly southwest, passing the boat and then
heading west when I lost them in the sun glare.
If only I had picked them out a little sooner they would have been in CT
waters. A little later I spotted another
Cory’s now well into NY waters. I took
this picture with my iPhone (no magnification) of the third bird right next to
the boat.
Even though Cory’s Shearwater isn’t a rare
bird in NY (they are seen regularly in season on the ocean side of Long
Island), they are pretty rare on the Sound.
And of course just as rare in CT waters.
In fact I don’t remember seeing any reports of Cory’s from the ferry in
either state. Cory’s was number 277 for
my NY list, which was my 7th Atlantic coastal state for this species (see my
statebird map below).
I posted my sightings to the CT listserve
that evening because even though the birds were in NY waters, they were
tantalizingly close to being in CT. And
sure enough a number of birders went out on the ferry the next several days and
spotted Cory’s in CT as well as NY.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get back on the ferry for at least another
week, so I would have to be content to have gotten them in NY. And I was happy to know that my initial
sightings resulted in a number of CT birders being able to add them to their CT
lists.
But now it was a week later and surprisingly
the Cory’s sightings continued. So on a
whim I decided to take a round-trip midday ferry, hoping to find them this time
in CT waters. This trip started very
much like the first one, with few birds in the open sound. We were now very close to the CT/NY line and
I was just about to give up hope in seeing a shearwater in CT. But just then I noticed a large dark bird
flying alongside the boat with white wing patches – a Jaeger! I got good looks at this sub-adult bird which
was very stocky, making it a Pomarine Jaeger.
I rechecked my GPS and we were still in CT, but just barely. The bird continued to fly south, and soon
crossed into NY - #321 for my CT list and #278 for me in NY. Although I’ve seen this species in just 11
states, they are scattered across the country including most all the “corners”
of the US.
The return trip was very quiet with no
Jaeger or Shearwaters. So although I
missed Cory’s in CT (there were no further reports of these birds), I was very
happy to have discovered the Pomarine. It
appears that Pomarine Jaeger is even rarer than the Cory’s Shearwater in
CT. I checked the 1990 reference “Connecticut
Birds” by Zeranski and Baptist, and Pomarine is not even included in the
book. So it was likely not even on the
CT state list as of 1990.
I once again posted my sightings on the
listserve, again resulting in a number of birders heading out on the
ferry. The next day another birder had a
Pomarine Jaeger at the same spot near the stateline – undoubtedly the same bird
I had. Although others on subsequent
days could not find the Pomarine, they had a couple different Parasitic
Jaegers. I sure could have used that one
for my CT list, but home and work commitments kept me from heading back
out. Maybe I’ll get lucky again on a
future ferry trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment