Yellow-billed Loon, Provincetown, MA – First MA State Record, March 2016

“Race Point – Point, Apparent YELLOW-BILLED LOON” – that was the subject of a post from Steve Arena on the MA listserve on 2/27.  Needless to say that certainly got my attention.  Steve also posted photographs that convincingly showed that the bird was indeed a 1st year Yellow-billed Loon.  In subsequent days others refound the bird and confirmed this amazing sighting - a first record for MA. 

Ordinarily I would drop everything to chase after an extreme rarity like this, but Provincetown is a 3-hour drive from home, and beyond the distance I normally drive for a chase.  But as the bird continued to be seen on a daily basis, and apparently quite reliably, I started to think about whether I should give it a try.  Finally I decided to go for it, and started to research the particulars on this bird.  It was being seen about 1.5-2 miles southwest of the Race Point parking lot, requiring an hour walk one way in loose sand.  But I’m in good shape and was up for the challenge.  I set my alarm for 5 AM and was ready to go.

The next morning I was wide awake at 3:45 AM so decided to get out of bed and head out early.  I was at the Race Point parking lot at 7:45 and started the trek down the beach.  I wasn’t too worried about the walk down the beach since I expected I would spend most of my time walking on wet, hard-packed sand.  But even the wet sand was loose, making walking very slow and laborious.  Plus I was walking into a pretty stiff breeze.  As a result I was happy to notice that there were many birds along the beach and offshore giving me excuses to make frequent stops to catch my breath.  One of the first birds I stopped for was a Thick-billed Murre swimming just a few feet offshore.  And at each stop a scan of the ocean would reveal 1 or more flocks of large alcids flying by.  As I continued my walk I began to take notice of the steady stream of mostly single gulls flying along the beach in the same direction I was walking.  Almost half were white-wings – and virtually all were adult or 3rd year.  I conservatively estimated 25 Iceland Gulls, along with 2 adult Glaucous Gulls, plus one adult gull with very dark wingtips that I would have loved to have identified as a Thayer’s, but never pulled the trigger.

But back to the target bird…  The Yellow-billed Loon was apparently most often seen offshore in an area close to a radio tower.  As I neared the tower I saw 4 other birders arriving using an inland route, and all set up there scopes.  Then I noticed one birder pointing out to the ocean, and hoped that that meant he had spotted the bird.  A couple minutes later I got to the birders and they had indeed spotted the Yellow-billed offshore.  Although the seas were quite rough, I quickly picked out the Yellow-billed in with a number of Red-throated Loons.  Then one birder said he had a Pacific Loon – and I soon found it in the same scope field with the Yellow-billed.  Amazing! 

Over the next hour we continued to watch the Yellow-billed Loon as it loosely associated with about 35 Red-throated’s, 10 Common’s, and likely 2 different Pacific’s.  During that time we spotted 4 species of alcids on the water with them – Dovekie, Razorbill, Common Murre, and Thick-billed Murre.  Along with flyby flocks of large alcids offshore, and the continued parade of white-winged gulls, it was quite a spectacle. 

I tried taking phone-scoped photos of the Yellow-billed Loon, but the rough seas and distance to the bird made it very difficult.  I managed these miserable shots which only barely document the sighting.

 

On the way back I continued to spot alcids offshore and white-winged gulls closer to the beach.  At one point I spotted a flock of 15 gulls sitting on the beach – 3 were white-wings.  I took photos of this one bird that had a heavy bill and body larger than an Iceland suggesting immature Glaucous, but the bill was all dark and it was still smaller than a Herring suggesting Iceland.  An Iceland x Glaucous hybrid perhaps?

 And here it is next to a 3rd year Iceland for comparison -

Finally as I neared the parking lot I ran into a few small flocks of Horned Larks feeding in the wrack.  One flock included a Lapland Longspur – a nice conclusion to the trip.  And even though I was completely exhausted when I finally got back to the car, it was certainly all worth it.  Not only did I get a MA statebird, but it was only my second MA sighting of Pacific Loon and Dovekie.  What a tremendous experience – I have to get to Race Point more often!

Yellow-billed Loon was #409 for my MA list, and the 433rd species I’ve recorded anywhere in New England.  I’ve also seen this species in WA, AK, and BC.