Over
the years I’ve added some really nice statebirds in every New England state except
CT following close calls with hurricanes.
It all started when Hurricane Earl passed by the New England coast in
September 2010 and I was lucky enough to see a Sabine’s Gull and a South Polar
Skua fly by at First Encounter Beach in MA.
And then in August 2011 I guessed right and traveled to Quabbin
Reservoir in MA immediately after the eye of Hurricane Irene passed right
overhead and had an amazing White-tailed Tropicbird and several Sooty
Terns. Plus over the next several days I
added Sanderling in VT, Brown Pelican and Sooty Tern in RI, and Black Skimmer
in ME - all attributed to the passage of Irene.
But a couple other times I’ve guessed wrong and missed multiple hurricane-blown
rarities, and other times I’ve headed to the coast following a storm and saw
nothing. It’s important to be in the
right place at the right time.
So
it was with great anticipation that I watched forecasts of the projected path
of Hurricane Jose in September 2017. The
storm was predicted to travel northeast a short distance off the coast as far
as the Mid-Atlantic States. Then Jose was
forecasted to take a sharp turn to the east sparing a direct hit on New
England. That track would result in
strong easterly winds on the south coast of New England as the storm passed by
to the south. And if all that came
together, a seawatch from the RI coast could be quite productive, hopefully yielding
open ocean birds that had been blown to the west. I need both Red-necked and Red Phalaropes in
RI, so maybe I’d get lucky and the winds would divert a few Phalaropes to the
west as they passed by on their regular migration routes down the coast. Given these conditions, Point Judith was
likely the best spot from which to do a seawatch. So my plans were set to be at Point Judith early
the next morning.
But
when I work up the next day I saw that the actual track of Jose had been a bit
farther east than predicted. That meant
that the forecasted east winds were now out the north instead. That would blow birds away from the RI coast
instead of closer to shore. I was
tempted to cancel my plans altogether, but since I had already cleared my
calendar, and I love doing seawatches regardless of the weather, I stuck with
my plans and headed out for my 2-hour drive to the RI coast.
When
I arrived at the lighthouse at Point Judith there were quite a number of
sightseers already there watching the angry seas. But the wind was blowing hard out of
Narragansett Bay making viewing conditions difficult. So I quickly decided to relocate to nearby
south-facing Camp Cronin, where I could be a bit protected from the wind. As I arrived I found a flock of about 60
Laughing Gulls (mostly immatures) feeding in the churned up waters just off
shore. Despite my best efforts, I
couldn’t find anything better in the flock.
Then I turned my attention to the west and watched the waves overtopping
the jetty that protects Galilee harbor – pretty amazing. Here is a picture I took through my
windshield of the jetty in the distance.
But
now it was time to get down to doing the seawatch. Winds were out of the north-northeast, at
maybe 15-25 mph, and it was only raining occasionally. Visibility was quite good – Block Island was
visible. All in all – surprisingly good
conditions for a seawatch. Now I just
needed the birds to cooperate.
I
started to scan the open waters and quickly picked out my first Shearwater
flying east to west – it was a Cory’s. Additional
scans yielded more Cory’s Shearwaters – most were single birds with an
occasional group of up to 4. I would end
up with 40 Cory’s plus 2 Greats, and another 4 others that were too far out to
ID, all flying east to west. But despite
the good early passage of Shearwaters, I didn’t spot any more in the afternoon.
Throughout
the morning there was also a steady stream of Common Terns flying by. Interestingly, virtually all were flying west
to east - opposite of the direction of the Shearwaters. But I couldn’t find any other tern species
mixed in. There were also quite a number
of Herring Gulls passing by, mostly first year birds. And with the exception of one 3rd-year Lesser
Black-back, there no unusual gulls either.
By
noon the movement of birds had slowed down quite a bit, and successive scans
picked up few birds at all. But then on
one of my scans I briefly spotted a bird low to the water far to the east that was
all dark, very heavy-bodied, and broad-winged.
Although I only saw the bird for a couple seconds before it disappeared
behind a swell, I instantly thought it could be a Skua. Luckily a few seconds later it reappeared as
it rose a bit above the waves, and I got an extended view as it continued to
fly west. It had white patches at the
base of the primaries typical of Skuas and Jaegers. And it was really big! Now that the bird was closer (as close as the
closest Cory’s that flew by) I could see it was much heavier bodied than a
Jaeger. For a while the bird chased
after a Great Black-backed Gull and the bird was only a little smaller. It was definitely a Skua – but which species? I continued to follow the bird for at least a
full minute and saw no pale mantle or body feathers, this eliminating Great
Skua. It was a South Polar Skua – quite
a rarity for RI. Eventually the bird
disappeared off to the southwest out of sight.
And to think I was just hoping for maybe a Phalarope to pass by – I
never expected something as rare as a Skua!
South
Polar Skua was #326 for my RI list. I’ve
now seen this pelagic species in ME, MA, RI and Nova Scotia.
And
it was a nice addition to my list of hurricane-assisted birds in New England! Speaking of hurricane-assisted birds, my Skua
was the only bird reported from anywhere in New England associated with the
hurricane that would have been a new statebird for me. That is except for a state-first Blue-footed
Booby that was picked up on Cape Cod and taken to a rehabilitator. So it looks like I guessed right at least for
this hurricane!
