Vermont Pelagic Trip on Lake Champlain – 3 Statebirds, October 2013

For years I’ve salivated when reading posts about sightings of seabirds on Lake Champlain.  Most every Fall there are sightings of rarer gulls (Little, Black-headed, Sabine’s), all 3 Jaegers, Purple Sandpiper, Red Phalarope, Gannet, and sometimes even Eiders and alcids.  Although I’ve seen some of the more common seabirds on Lake Champlain (all 3 Scoters, Long-tailed Duck, Red-necked Grebe), and a couple of the rarer ones (Harlequin Duck and Black-tailed Gull), there are still many of these real rarities to hope for. 

The typical approach to see these birds is to position yourself on the VT shore line, set up your scope, and stare across the water into the teeth of a bitter northwest wind in hopes that something will pass by close enough to be able to identify.  But this fall some VT birders came up with a new idea – rent a boat and take it out on the lake in an attempt to get much closer to birds that may be migrating down the lake.  A pelagic trip in Vermont!  So when I heard about the planned trip I signed up right away with my fellow New England statelister Denny Abbott.  As the day approached the forecast for the day was for a stiff breeze out of the south.  Typically these migrants are only expected to move on a north or northwest wind, so it was unclear how successful we would be that day.  With about 20 optimistic birders on board, the boat departed at 7 AM with views of a beautiful sunrise.   

Soon after we left the dock we started to see a number of Common Loons migrating overhead – a sign of good things ahead.  A bit later a White-Winged Scoter flew by, then another group, and later a small flock of Surf Scoters.  Then came the first of several flocks of Brants.  We had flocks all day long - before that day I had seen just 1 Brant ever in Vermont.  But still no statebirds.  Then I noticed four small shorebirds flying south down the middle of the lake – they were very pale above and below and showed a considerable wingstripe.  Unfortunately we were on the eastern side of the lake at the time so didn’t get to see these birds too closely as they passed by.  But everyone agreed that they were Phalaropes, and very likely Red Phalaropes.  I checked the bar charts for Phalaropes in late October and Red is by far more likely than Red-necked – maybe even the only one.  So admittedly no one was 100% sure just based on the sighting, and one couldn’t be 100% sure just based on the date, but all of these features were highly suggestive of Red Phalarope.  So based on a preponderance of the evidence, I checked them off as Red Phalaropes and a new VT statebird.  That was my 11^th state for Red Phalarope, with many of those coming in the northeast, either on pelagic trips or as a rarity on-shore (see my statebird map below).

The next excitement came just a few minutes later when a birder yelled – I’ve got a young Little Gull!  The bird was flying south by itself, first passing right by the boat, and then landing on the water a short distance away.  The Captain was able to maneuver the boat to get close to it for all to see.  What an amazingly cooperative bird, and statebird #2.  VT is my 4^th New England state for this rare but regular gull.

Another highlight of the trip were the small number of Red-throated Loons we saw, mostly flying south alone.  I had only ever seen 1 Red-throated Loon before in VT, and it was a distant bird next to impossible to see very distantly bobbing in the waves on the lake.

And the last highlight came as we reached the northern end of the route.  I was scanning the water to the north and noticed a small flock of gulls (likely Ring-bills) a considerable distance away – far enough away that they were little more than white specs.  Then I noticed them start to wheel around in a small ball, almost as if they were being harassed.  And just then an all dark bird roughly the size of the gulls made a very rapid pass through the flock.  Over the next 30 seconds I saw it make 2 rapid passes through the gulls 2 more times.  It was a Jaeger!  At that distance I certailnly couldn’t tell which species it was, but based on larger size and dark plumage it was most likely a Pomarine or Parasitic.  But since I have no Jaegers for my VT list, I could add Jaeger, sp. as a new statebird for VT.  That gives me 258 for my VT list.

The count for the trip included the following highlights –

    Brant - 676 (in 8 flocks)

    Snow Goose - 60

    Greater Scaup - 1

    Greater/Lesser Scaup - 4

    White-winged Scoter - 10

    Long-tailed Duck - 3

    Common Merganser - 18

    Red-breasted Merganser - 10

    Red-throated Loon - 6

    Common Loon - 81

    Horned Grebe - 1

    Red-necked Grebe - 2

    Double-crested Cormorant - 204

    Red Phalarope - 4

    Jaeger, sp. - 1

    Little Gull - 1

What a tremendous trip!  Though we were very lucky - the boat went out again the next day and the birders saw almost nothing of interest.  Maybe it was just one too many days of southerly winds for any good migrants on the lake.

The folks that organized this trip are considering doing it again in September next year - sign me up!

Lake Champlain looking North (NY on the Left, VT on the right)