“Pelagic” Birding in VT (and NY) on Lake Champlain, September 2017

Pelagic – adjective; of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea.

That is the definition of the word “pelagic” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.  There’s certainly no “open sea” in VT.  But one of the key birding attractions in VT in fall is to hope to see pelagic birds on Lake Champlain.  Although landlocked, Lake Champlain attracts quite a nice collection of typically “open sea” birds like Jaegers, Kittiwakes, Sabine’s Gulls, and even rarer species.  Many think the pelagic birds seen on Lake Champlain have passed down the St. Lawrence seaway and eventually make their way to the lake on their southbound migration routes.  Or perhaps these birds are just taking an overland route south and are at least momentarily attracted to pelagic-like, almost normal, habitat at this large body of water.  In any case, these are exciting rarities to try for especially in this landlocked state.

Passage of the pelagics is especially associated with certain weather conditions.  Typically they are seen following a frontal passage on northwest winds.  They are often spotted from shore, with a preferred location being the Charlotte Town Beach.  I have done a few lake-watches from this spot in the past but have not had any success, mostly because my trips haven’t coincided with the passage of the fronts. 

Plus in the last few years, Allan Strong has set up boat trips on Lake Champlain to look for pelagics.  The first of these trips occurred in October 2013 a day after a front, with remarkable success.  I added 3 statebirds to my VT list that day – Little Gull, Red Phalarope, and “Jaeger, sp.” (an unidentified bird at considerable distance).  Plus there was a tremendous passage of geese, ducks, loons, and grebes that day.  The next trip was in September 2015, when summer-like weather resulted in next to no migration and no pelagics.  That’s the nature of pelagic birding in general, and more specifically pelagic birding in VT.

The next boat trip was planned for early September of 2017, timed to be at the peak of Jaeger migration.  Luckily I would be able to squeeze it in between business trips, so I signed up to go.  My plan was to arrive in the area the evening before, get a hotel in Burlington, and be ready to go on the boat the next day.  And since the boat didn’t leave the dock until 9:30, I could spend a couple hours at the Charlotte Town Beach doing an early morning lake watch before heading to the boat.  Plus as the trip neared it appeared that I could arrive early enough to do a bit of land birding the evening before, with the key target being Orange-crowned Warbler which continues to elude me in VT. 

My plans were set – now I just needed to hope for the right weather conditions.  As the pelagic neared, the weather forecasts were looking promising.  The day before the trip would be showery, preceding the passage of a cold front overnight, followed by northwesterly breezes the day of the pelagic.  I would have preferred the winds to be a bit stronger after the front, but I would take it.

I arrived in northern VT the evening before the pelagic, with just enough time to bird the Whitney Creek area in Addison.  This spot has nice brushy undergrowth that has featured quite a number of Orange-crowned Warblers over the years.  Luckily the rain had stopped just before I arrived.  But despite lots of spishing and playing a bit of tape, there were few migrants of any type, and certainly no Orange-crown.  It was a long shot, but still worth the try since I don’t often get to this Orange-crown hot spot in northwestern VT.

The next morning I arrived at the Charlotte Town Beach on Lake Rd. just as it was getting light.  Skies were partly cloudy, and there were light breezes out of the northwest.  Visibility was quite good, though there was a bit of heat shimmer coming off the water.  All things considered, pretty nice viewing conditions.

I sat on a bench at the park and started my scans.  Unfortunately it was quite slow.  I spotted occasional flocks of Cormorants heading south, and the ever-resent Ring-billed Gulls milling about, but little else.  Three continuing Sanderlings on the beach were nice.  But certainly not my targets.  A little later my VT birding friend Hank Kaestner arrived to join in the scans, but we continued to come up empty.

But just then I spotted a medium-sized dark bird rise up off the water a short distance out.  It was flying much more tern-like than an immature Herring Gull – the only other option for an all dark Larid – it was a Jaeger!  But what species?  Both of us followed the bird for a couple minutes, and during most of this time the bird lazily flew around the lake, sometimes even rising quite high and soaring out over the water.  At one point it chased a Ring-bill and it was a bit smaller than the Gull.  All the while we could hardly see any white in the base of the primaries, and the bird was very sleek-bodied.  I was now starting to think that this could be a Long-tailed Jaeger.  After the bird flew north out of site, we started to compare notes.  In addition to my observations, Hank also commented that this bird was more gray than brown and rufous seen on Parastics and Pomarines.  We both agreed that this was indeed a Long-tailed Jaeger.  Not bad for the only pelagic bird I saw on the lakewatch.

I’ve now seen Long-tailed Jaeger in only 5 states – in AK as a breeder; in CA, NH, and MA on pelagic trips, and now from shore in VT (see my statebird map below).  And although new for my VT list, it replaces my earlier “Jaeger, sp.” sighting, so no net addition on my list.

Then it was off to the boat trip, where I was joined by about 10 other birders all keenly hoping for more pelagic species.  The trip started pretty slowly, with a few migrant flocks of Cormorants and Canada Geese, but no other obvious migrants.  We passed by a few feeding flocks of gulls, in each case hoping to find a Jaeger in their midst, but to no avail.  Although there was a breeze out of the northwest, it must have been too light to usher in our pelagic targets.

A bit later the boat made its way toward the middle of Lake Champlain just a bit east of the VT/NY stateline.  We continued to come by a few feeding flocks of gulls, with some of those gulls coming over to the boat to feed on the chum Allan was throwing.  And then in one of the gull flocks I spotted a gull with large white triangular wing patches – Sabine’s Gull!!!  I soon got the rest of the boat on this immature bird, and we successfully chased it a bit farther west where we got close looks as it fed.  And then the bird became attracted to the chum and came over right next to the boat.  Birders with nice cameras and lenses got amazing photos of the Sabine’s – I got these miserable shots just holding up my cell phone.

We continued to watch the bird as it flew a bit farther west eventually getting into NY waters.  One of the rare times where one single bird has passed over a stateline giving me ticks in two different states - #280 for me in VT and #282 for NY.  I’ve seen Sabine’s Gull only twice before in the in East (in MA and NH), plus once in AK.  And my personal Sabine’s jackpot was seeing flocks of hundreds of birds while on my sole CA pelagic trip years ago.

Later on in the trip I spotted a distant immature Jaeger flying by to the west.  Although we tried to chase after it, we couldn’t refind the bird, which would unfortunately have to stay as another “Jaeger, Sp.” – and likely in NY waters.  Though while trying to refind the Jaeger we did come up with a late Black Tern, which would turn out to be the last bird of interest for the trip. 

Although we didn’t have many pelagics on the trip, the Sabine’s was quite amazing.  And of course the Long-tailed Jaeger from shore was special too.  The other Jaegers will have to wait till another time.

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)