A First State Record and Three Pelagic Species in One Day in CT, August 2018

It all started with an absolutely amazing set of sightings in Long Island Sound off the CT coast.  First there were reports of a large number of Shearwaters at the eastern end of the Sound, with Great, Cory’s and Sooty Shearwaters seen in record numbers from the New London-Orient Point ferry.  Unfortunately I couldn’t break free to get out on the ferry during that time.  And when I finally could get out, the Shearwaters had mostly moved on.  The best I could do was add Great Shearwater to my NY list on one leg of one of these ferry trips. 

Then came CT reports of multiple Parasitic Jaegers seen from land, principally from Hammonasset Beach State Park.  And several of these reports included an occasional Shearwater.  All sightings were apparently associated with feeding frenzies including hundreds, if not thousands, of Terns.  I didn’t try chasing after these birds since the sightings were a bit hit or miss, apparently depending on whether there were schools of fish nearby to attract these pelagic species. 

All in all, this was perhaps an unprecedented set of pelagic sightings in Long Island Sound.  Unfortunately one that I hadn’t been able to experience.

That is until a report of a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck in Essex, CT came across the listserve.  Photos confirmed the ID of this first state record, and many birders were able to see this most cooperative bird later that same day.  When the bird continued to cooperate the next morning, though seen in multiple spots in the immediate vicinity, I cleared my schedule to be able to make the trip to Essex on Day 3.  And since Hammonasset was within 30 minutes of Essex, I could combine the 2 locations into one trip with lots of statebird potential. 

But as I was piecing together the directions to the spots where the Whistling-Duck had been seen, I noticed a post that a birder watched it fly north around Noon and he did not refind it.  I posted to the listserve asking for other updates and unfortunately only received negative reports.  I tried to remain positive that it would return since vagrant BBWDs will often stay in one spot for quite a while, and decided to keep with my plans.  And just before closing the computer that night a post came across that the bird returned at 6:30 PM.  The chase was on!

I was out of the house before 6, arriving in downtown Essex by 7:45.  The Whistling-Duck seemed to prefer a small tidal pool in a suburban backyard at the corner of Ferry and Pratt Streets, so that was my first destination.  As I drove down Ferry Street nearing the intersection I looked to the left toward the pool and there was a lone duck standing in the lawn at the edge of the pool – it was the Black-bellied Whistling Duck.  I parked on Pratt Street and got crippling views of this extreme rarity, including these phonescoped shots as it fed in the mud.

 

CT was my 9th state for this species, most of which as a vagrant.

I was happy that my first target was so cooperative because I needed to move on to Hammonasset to try for my next objectives – pelagics on the Sound.  Within a half hour I was at the park gate and realized this was the first time I had ever been there “in season” requiring an entrance fee.  The $15 day pass seemed steep, but I hoped it would be worthwhile.

Minutes later I was at Meig’s Point and walked up to the observation platform.  Two birders were already there, and they mentioned they had just had a couple Jaegers.  And one birder had a Cory’s Shearwater.  That made me hopeful for what might lie ahead, though I wished I could have been there a bit earlier.  With a first scope scan I could see a large flock of Terns flying low over the water – we had a feeding frenzy with critical mass for the pelagics.  And sure enough within a couple minutes I picked out a slim Jaeger which was very most likely a Parasitic.  Then I spotted another, and another, and soon had a group of 6 Jaegers all in one scope field!  Over the next 45 minutes the feeding frenzy continued nearly directly off the point, and we had at least one Jaeger in sight nearly the entire time.  And we all agreed that at least a few we could positively ID as Parasitics, with all the others most likely Parasitics as well.  CT was my 12th state for this species – I only need it in VT to complete the sweep of all 6 New England states.

Over the next couple hours the feeding frenzy would die down, and sometimes completely stop.  And then a few minutes later we would find the big flock of Terns a short distance to the east or west, again accompanied by multiple Jaegers.  I conservatively reported 6 Parasitics in my eBird checklist, since I had 6 in view at once, but the total could well have been more.  Then there was one that got away - at one point I spotted a Jaeger to the west of us, and watched it fly by eventually out of sight to the east.  It was not associating with any of the Terns as all the other Jaegers were, and was apparently just migrating through the area.  Most interestingly, I could not see any white in the primaries.  Could it have been a Long-tailed?  Unfortunately it was too far away for a definitive ID of these very tricky species.

By 11 the activity had slowed dramatically and the other two birders left the point.  I thought about calling it quits myself, very content to have found my second CT statebird for the day.  But then another couple birders arrived, and I decided to stay a bit longer to compare notes.  A little later one of those birders spotted a Shearwater flying west.  Although it was distant we could ID it as a Great.  Finally had my first Shearwater for CT after many unsuccessful trips on the Ferry.  And then a bit later while searching through another Tern flock I spotted another Shearwater gliding by – this one was a Cory’s.  A few minutes later I spotted another Great actively feeding in the Tern flock.  Amazing!  Good thing I didn’t leave earlier!

My statebird maps for Great and Cory’s Shearwaters are very similar – all the coastal states from NY north, plus a few mid-Atlantic states.  I’ve also seen both species in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

On a comparatively minor note, I also had excellent results with Black Terns during my seawatch.  In my last hour there twice I had a single flyby of a Black Tern heading west, once had a pair heading west, and twice I spotted a group of 4 birds feeding in with the Common Terns.  I initially reported 8 Black Terns for the morning, only counting the group of 4 once.  But later I was notified that 8 would be a new record for a single location in CT, so I decided to be overly conservative and revised the total to just 4.  Those were only my second Black Terns for the state.

I guess the $15 entrance fee to Hammonasset was a worthwhile investment after all.

A first CT state record, then not 1 but 3 pelagic species all from land.  That brings my CT statelist to 331.  What a day!

First Trip to Newfoundland – June/July 2018 - 141 Species – Part 2 of 3

This is the second of 3 posts summarizing my trip to Newfoundland.  Days 5 through 8 are described in this post.  Days 1 through 4 are detailed in the previous post and Days 9 through 11 are in the next post.

Day 5 - June 25 – Codroy Valley – Periods of heavy rain and wind, highs in the 50s

The forecasted heavy rain was supposed to hold off until mid-morning giving me just enough time to do some landbirding.  The first stop was at Broom Point Rd. which is well known for southern warblers.  A 2-hour walk resulted in 10 warbler species, including one singing Blackburnian.  But I couldn’t turn any of the 6 high-pitched Black-and-whites into a Bay-breasted.  Other notable birds were 2 different Olive-sided Flycatchers, 2 Blue-headed Vireos, and 8 Swainson’s Thrushes, along with a nice 9 Black-throated Green Warblers.  A flyover pair of Common Mergansers was a surprise.

I could see rain in the distance to the south, but I hoped I could squeeze in a stop at O’Regans a bit farther east before the rain started.  I parked the car and walked east along the road initially not finding too much.  A flyover Great Blue Heron was a nice addition for this specialty of southwestern Newfoundland.  Up ahead I could see a small cow pasture which seemed out of place compared to the wooded habitat in the area.  When I first got to this area I could hear a buzzy rising song in the distance that sounded like Black-throated Blue - but it was distant and I needed to get closer to the bird to verify the ID of this potential rarity.  As I got closer I could hear what sounded like a BT Blue south of the road.  Then it stopped singing.  A few seconds later I heard a Parula singing about 100 m farther to the east, so I thought that perhaps the Parula was just earlier singing a song that sounded like BT Blue.  But then the BT Blue sang again – there were indeed 2 different birds, both a rare Parula and an even rarer Black-throated Blue.  I continued to hear both sing, south of the road. Then I spotted a small bird flying across the road to the north and I was lucky enough to get it in my binocs – it was the BT Blue.  Within a few seconds a second BT Blue was also singing on the north side of the road.  A minute or two later the Parula flew over the road and I watched it join the BT Blues on the north side of the road as well.  I ended up with visuals and song of the Parula, visual and song of one BT Blue, and song only of the 2nd BT Blue.  An amazing spot for these rarities!  Unfortunately despite more than 15 minutes of waiting while I could hear all 3 birds singing back in the woods, I wasn’t able to get additional views of these rarities.  As I walked back to the car I had a Goshawk in the distance – a nice ending for this stop.

I was now back in the car and driving along with my windows open listening for birds as I drove.  I heard a group of Robins squawking in the distance, as if they had found a predator – maybe an owl.  I made my way to the noise and found a small flock of Robins, along with several other birds, all complaining about something in the trees.  I got very close to the spot, flushing a Ruffed Grouse along the way, but couldn’t spot what the birds were yelling about.  Then there was a quick burst of movement, with the briefest view of a small bird flying off, with the entire flock chasing after it.  Maybe a Boreal or a Saw-whet Owl?  One that got away.

The next stop was the Wetlands Trail and Interpretation Center.  Just as it started to rain I spotted the long-staying Shoveler behind the Interpretation Center.  With umbrella in hand I had another Great Blue, 3 more Red-winged Blackbirds, and another Goshawk on the trail.  All things considered not too bad given the wet conditions.

The rain was really coming down, so it was time to switch to birding from the car.  My first stop was the Codroy Valley Cottage Country where a hummingbird was spotted at their feeder the previous day.  I sat in the car watching the feeder for about 45 minutes with no luck.  So next I was off to Codroy Valley Provincial Park, to look for any waterfowl and shorebirds that might be around.  In the wind-blown rain I could see a distant flock of a remarkable 80 Red-breasted Mergansers either standing on a sand bar, or swimming in the shallows nearby.  And mixed in was my first Greater Scaup of the trip.  I wanted to spend more time looking through the flock for other species but I was looking directly into the rain, so I had to cut it short.  I also wanted to check out the inner beach area especially to see if I could find the pair of Piping Plovers that were likely breeding there.  But again I was looking into the wind-blown rain so luckily I spotted the Plovers quickly, and could close the car window right away.

It was still just early afternoon, and I had hoped to do more birding in the area.  But the strong wind and rain continued.  Time for a seawatch!  I headed a short distance to the north to the lighthouse at Cape Anguille to see what might be passing by.  Luckily I could position the car to allow me to look out over water and stay reasonably dry, and visibility was pretty good.  Within a few minutes I had a Sooty Shearwater fly north, followed by another Sooty.  Soon thereafter it was followed by a Great Shearwater – although it was distant I could see if was generally dark gray above, with darker tail and head, and pale below.  Then a minute later another shearwater passed by which was uniformly brown above, and pale below.  It was too far away to tell bill color.  If I were back home on the New England coast I would have just nonchalantly concluded this was a Cory’s Shearwater.  But that would be quite a rarity for Newfoundland, so given the distance and lack of photo, I ended up entering it as a “Shearwater, sp.” in eBird.  I stayed for about another hour and only had a few Gannets pass by, with a few Eiders and Guillemots feeding near-shore.  So given the general lack of birds, I decided I should move on.

But where to go next, especially given the weather conditions?  I checked my weather app and saw that the rain wasn’t as heavy to the north.  And tomorrow’s forecast was for a cold heavy rain, or maybe even snow.  My planned stops the next morning were in Stephenville Crossing, about a 90-minute ride to the north.  So maybe I should try to hit some of those stops yet this afternoon to avoid the heavier precipitation tomorrow. 

But first I would make one more quick stop at Codroy Valley PP to see if I could get any better (and drier!) views of the inner and outer beaches.  I crossed the bridge and successfully positioned my car to look downwind to the outer beach where a small flock of gulls were roosting in the distance.  A quick scan revealed just the normal species.  Then I looked beyond the gull flock and spotted a single tern standing on the beach.  It had a black bill!  Couldn’t be – that would mean it would be quite a rarity.  I looked closer and sure enough its bill was black, along with a full black cap making it an adult in alternate plumage.  The most likely black-billed tern would be Roseate, but my bird wasn’t pale enough, and the tail would need to be a lot longer.  Then I realized it also had black legs.  As I continued to look at it through the scope I just kept saying “Wow”, because I knew that a tern in breeding plumage with black legs and black bill would have to be really rare.  It was too pale mantled for Bridled or Sooty, making it either a Sandwich or Gull-billed.  Then as the bird turned its head I thought I saw a yellow tip to the bill, and the bill was relatively thin and long.  Eventually several more views showed the yellow tip to the black bill – it was a Sandwich Tern!  I took many phonescoped photos of limited quality given the distance and heavy rain, but the best photos show enough details to confirm the ID.  In a word – Wow!  Here are a couple of the “best” phonescoped photos taken through the wind and rain.  

And to get an idea of the distance to the bird, here is a shot of the distant sand bar without any magnification.

Next I was off to Stephenville Crossing where the key targets were Willet and Black-headed Gull – was this indeed the only nesting location for Black-headed in North America?  As I went further north the rain did indeed slow to a drizzle as expected, though a heavy drizzle, so it looked like I made the correct decision to leave the heavy rain in the Codroy Valley.  As I neared the estuary the first of 3 Osprey flew overhead, so I could finally check that one off.  But the pond to the south of the Gut was devoid of birds.  I then headed east on Mattis Point Road to give me a different angle on the estuary to avoid looking into the wind and rain.  I found one Greater Yellowlegs, and a few distant Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, but little else.  I next thought about birding from the old railroad bridge, but that would mean looking into the east over the estuary right into the wind and rain.

What to do?  I headed north across the bridge (the new one that is), and was able to find an old paved road that was east of the present road.  I found a couple spots where the road abutted the wetlands, and luckily ran into 3 different Willets foraging in the grasses.  Are these regular summering birds breeding here?  But still no Black-headed Gulls – I had now scanned most of the estuary and the exposed flats and had come up empty.  I thought they would be reasonably common here.  I remembered an eBird hotspot in the northwest portion of the estuary which was north of the areas I had searched.  After a quick drive I was at this spot, and looked to the south and was able to pick out two adult Black-headed Gulls in with a number of Ring-bills walking on the flats. 

That was a nice way to end the day, with 71 species for the day and now 117 species on my Newfoundland list.  Plus many of my birds were eBird rarities – 22 of the 36 sightings on the daily eBird Rarity report were my sightings!  And after 17,800 steps and 7.9 miles, I had walked 38.8 miles in my first 4 days of birding in the province.

Day 6 - June 26 –  Wind, heavy rain and snow (!), highs in the 30’s

Although I started the day in Stephenville near the southwestern corner of Newfoundland, I had to make my way toward Fortune in south-central Newfoundland from which my ferry to St. Pierre would depart the next morning.  My hotel that night was in Marystown –a long 8-hour drive from Stephenville.  It was pouring down rain in Stephenville, and the forecast was for more of the same all day long, so I guess this would be a good day to drive rather than bird.  But I did make a couple quick stops in Stephenville Crossing first – finding a nice flock of 35 Scaup sp. (likely Greaters) in the distance from Mattis Point, and another Black-headed Gull in the northwestern estuary.

As I started my drive north I noticed the rain was mixed with snow, and then it turned to all snow.  The temperature on the car thermometer kept dropping, until it actually reached 0 degrees C.  The grass and trees were covered in a layer of snow, and the road was slushy in places.  Ugh. 

I was thinking of making another quick stop at the Deer Lake sewage impoundments which were right along the way, but not in the rain and snow.  But amazingly, the precipitation stopped as I got into Deer Lake, so I made a quick stop at the impoundments, adding 3 Green-winged Teal (3 males) to my province list.  Interesting that I made 3 stops over 4 days at these impoundments and the mix of waterfowl was different each time.

The next potential stop was in Glovertown at the Ken Diamond Memorial Park to try for Palm Warblers – 4 had been reported there a couple weeks earlier.  Again the birding gods were looking kindly on me since it was just drizzling heavily when I reached the area, so I decided to make a quick stop.  When I got out of the car to get my rain suit on I quickly noticed a bigger problem – the wind was howling!  I spent about an hour walking the trails in the park through nice boggy habitat that would be great for Palm Warblers, but undoubtedly due to the strong winds and heavy drizzle I was only able to find several sparrows and a couple Yellowthroats.  I had driven right by this area on the 22^nd when the weather was much better – if I had stopped that day I would have likely found the Palms.

The long drive and miserable weather meant I only walked 7,700 steps and 3.3 miles that day, and added just 2 species to my province list – now at 119.

While eating dinner that night I received an e-mail saying my ferry to St. Pierre the next morning had been canceled due to the bad weather.  If I had known that earlier I wouldn’t have made the long drive down the peninsula.  Although I guess I could take the 7:30 PM ferry that same day (though that was not mentioned as an option in the e-mail), the weather forecast for the day I was to return was just as bad.  Would that ferry end up being canceled as well?  Who knows when I would be able to get back to Newfoundland.  After quite a bit of deliberations I decided to cancel my trip to St. Pierre altogether, and take advantage of the 2 extra days of time in Newfoundland to make stops at a couple areas not on my original itinerary – Terra Nova National Park, and the Cape St. Mary’s seabird colony.  Plus the extra time could make for some more leisurely birding.  

Day 7 - June 27 –  AM – cloudy and windy.  PM - Sunny, highs in the 60s

With my ferry canceled, and a bit more time on my hands, I slept in a bit and even ate breakfast.  At 9 AM just as I was leaving my hotel to begin my birding day I got an e-mail that the 9 AM ferry was back on, but delayed to 11 AM.  But I had already moved on mentally, and made hotel reservations for the extra nights in Newfoundland.  For better or worse, St. Pierre was in my rear-view mirror.

Since I was already far south down the peninsula, Alvan suggested I make a couple stops nearby.  My first stop was at Frenchman’s Cove.  I hoped the rough weather might result in some wind-blown coastal birds but a short seawatch did not yield any.  Though in a quick woodland stop I found a most cooperative pair of Pine Grosbeaks (aren’t male PIGR’s amazing?), and several Boreal Chickadees.  Then I headed to L’Anse au Loup T and found a nice collection of 3 Least Sandpipers and 10 Greater Yellowlegs feeding in seaweed-covered rocks.  Two more Caspian Terns were nice here as well.

Next I was off to Terra Nova NP, with my first stop being Sandy Pond where a recent post included 2 Palm Warblers – a second chance to try for this species now that I wasn’t going to St. Pierre.  I arrived in the late afternoon hopeful that bird song will have picked up for the day.  There was a really nice trail around the large beaver pond, with a portion in spruce bog habitat that looked ideal for Palms.  The first part was through woodlands which were unfortunately pretty quiet.  When I got to the bog song picked up quite a bit with Swamp, Savannah, and Lincoln’s Sparrows and Yellowthroats dominating.  But no Palms yet.  I got to another portion of the bog and heard some sharp chipping, and with a bit of spishing attracted a Palm Warbler carrying a dragonfly.  As I continued around the trail an Olive-sided Flycatcher called in the distance, as did a Gray Jay.  A very nice walk.

The last 2 remaining realistic possibilities for new boreal species for my province list were Black-backed Woodpecker and White-winged Crossbill.  Both were possible in Terra Nova, though without specific locations for either species my strategy was to just spend as much time as possible in appropriate habitat and cross my fingers.  To that end, after dinner I tried to do a walk on the Louil Hills trail, but mosquitoes were intense.  The best I could do was to find a cooperative pair of Pine Grosbeaks.

My day ended with 2 new species for my province list (now at 121), and a reasonable 13,900 steps and 5.8 miles walked.

Day 8 - June 28 – Partly cloudy, highs in the 60s

My initial plan was to take a dawn hike on a woodland trail, but at the last minute I shifted my attention to an area to the north called Anchor Brook where two recent eBird posts included all 3 Scoter species and a number of alcids.  With the extra time I decided to give this spot a try in the early morning.  The first thing I did when I arrived was to do a quick scan of the coast with my binoculars but didn’t find any Scoters.  Photos on at least 1 eBird post showed that the Scoter flocks were quite close, so I was a bit worried.  But then with a scope scan I picked out a very distant tight flock of all dark ducks – now the challenge was to ID them at this distance.  I was really struggling with IDs until a portion of the group took off and flew to the west out of sight showing white wing patches.  And then a bit later a small flock of Scoters flew into the flock – these had no white wing patches and a few had white hind-necks indicating that at least some of these were Surf Scoters.  Later another small group took off which also had no white in the wings but I couldn’t see any head colorations.  After about 45 minutes of trying to ID this distant flock I decided I had 45 White-wings, 11 Surf, 5 Surf/Blacks, and 20 Scoter, sp.  That was a bit frustrating since others recently had Black Scoters in the area, and some I couldn’t ID might well have been Blacks.

Now I turned my attention to scanning the ocean in general and soon began to pick out fly-bys of large alcids, but the vast majority (an estimate of 30) were just too far to ID.  One group of 4 were close enough that I could ID as Common Murres, and there was 1 Razorbill quite close on the water.  So again a bit frustrating since I still needed Thick-billed Murre for my province list.

But perhaps the best sighting for this location was of a large iceberg in the distance.  It’s visible (but just barely) on the horizon in this picture. 

 

After a short drive I was back at Terra Nova and took a 2-hour hike on the Newman Campground Trail.  Unfortunately no luck with my boreal Woodpecker and Crossbill targets, but had some nice birds like yet another “rare” Olive-sided Flycatcher, a Goshawk, and a family of 4 Gray Jays.  The most common species was White-throated Sparrow (10), and the most common warbler was Black-and-white (6).

I really enjoyed my hikes in these boreal habitats, but it was time to shift gears and head to the coast of the Avalon Peninsula to look for seabirds.  My next stop would be Cape St. Mary’s and the seabird nesting colony there with large numbers of Gannets, Kittiwakes, Thick-billed and Common Murres, and Razorbills.  This spot was not on my original itinerary since it is a bit far to get to, and each species would be feasible elsewhere, but with my extra time I would be able to spend much of the afternoon there.  My targets here were Horned Lark and American Pipit nesting in the grasses/tundra in the area, Thick-billed Murres, and Great Cormorants all reported in recent eBird reports.  The first bird I saw when I got out of the car when I arrived was a Horned Lark – a nice start.  I went inside the visitor center and spoke to a very helpful naturalist inside who gave me great tips to find all of my remaining targets. 

I started my short walk to the nesting colony and had at least 5 more Horned Larks along the trail.  Then I heard the two-note “pip – it” call of a Pipit as it rose up a grass-covered portion of the cliff, just as the park naturalist described.  Next target was to look for the mixed flock of roosting Cormorants, and found “the” rock they like to roost on, again just as the naturalist said.  The only challenge I had was to get a view of the rock down by the water line without getting too close to the edge of the cliff.  Eventually I safely got this distant photo showing 2 Greats with several Double-cresteds.

  

The next target was Thick-billed Murre.  Interestingly each species had specific portions of the cliffs where they preferred to nest, and the naturalist showed me the preferred location for the Thick-bills.  And sure enough that’s where they were, as shown in this picture.

 

I quickly had all my targets, so now I could just enjoy my time watching the birds in the nesting colony.  I took a number of phonescoped photos of various portions of the colonies, including these shots of the Gannets.

 

 

Then there were close Common Murres, including this “Bridled” Common Murre.

And there were nearby Kittiwakes including this one with a chick.

 And this lone Razorbill in an area that was dominated by Common Murres.

 

What a great stop, and glad that I was able to add it to my itinerary.

On my way back I stopped in the visitor center to thank the naturalist.  While I was there I asked about Short-eared Owl and Willow Ptarmigan.  The naturalist suggested a couple key areas for each one, with the Short-eared most likely at dusk and the Ptarmigan most likely to be calling pre-dawn.  Ordinarily it would have been impossible to be there both at dusk and the next dawn, but my hotel was just 5 minutes from the park.  So after dinner I was back to try for the Owls after sunset, but without success.


I ended Thursday with 128 species in Newfoundland and 13,800 steps/5.8 miles walked.

South Polar Skua, Point Judith, Narragansett, RI, September, 2017

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!

Cory’s Shearwater and Pomarine Jaeger, New London, CT - Orient Point, NY Ferry, August-September 2015

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.