Another New York Nemesis Bird Surrenders!

Finally seeing perhaps the most common bird I still need in the State.

Saturday, February 18 - Montauk

Everyone has nemesis birds.  Birds that aren't necessarily all that rare and that other people seem to see regularly ... but you don't.  There are a few birds that show up in New York state more or less annually that I have never seen.  Some are what I call "Act of God" birds - a Magnificent Frigatebird or a Swallow-tailed Kite will fly over me one day, when the time is right and if I continue to be very kind to widows, orphans and small furry animals .... right?  Other species should be see-able with enough effort .... in New York, if you sea-watch as often as I do, you should have seen a BLACK GUILLEMOT or two over say the past 26 years, right?  It's a species that is seen almost annually somewhere in the state, usually at Montauk where I do all my sea-watching.  It's also a species I know well and have seen in several other states and countries (so we know I'm not overlooking it).  But in 25+ years of birding in New York State ... not one Black Guillemot had I seen before this weekend ....

Last weekend when I was 9 hours North of Montauk looking at Great Gray Owls, a Black Guillemot was found in the harbor there and seen by many birders.  My reaction was basically ... "D'oh!"  ... totally fits the pattern of many other Black Gullemot sightings I haven't had in New York.  But this bird stuck!  It was seen on Monday, and Tuesday ... and even though I had no chance of getting out to see it before the weekend, I kept checking the status daily, hoping that his would maybe be the one that broke the curse.  The bird was still being seen on Friday and on Saturday I headed out to East Hampton, but with guests, dinner plans, etc. I had no real hope of getting to the bird before Sunday.  Would it stick another day?  I couldn't stand the tension and wait, so I persuaded some of my guests that Saturday lunch in Montauk would be a good idea, bundled 3 non-birders into the Land Rover and chugged out to Montauk at noon on Saturday.

Surf Scoter

What happened next, never happens.  A perfect 'surgical strike' on Montauk with birds lining up to be seen in an improbably short time-window.

As we pulled into Montauk with 30 minutes to spare before lunch I checked the list serves and saw that Tom Burke and Gail Benson had just found a LITTLE GULL with a Bonaparte's Gull flock at Ditch Plains.  Would my guests like to visit the famous surfing beach?  Yes?


Pulled up to Ditch Plains ... bins up ... Bonaparte's Gull flock ... dark wings ... Little Gull ... Suffolk County bird #322 ... nice!

Next stop, down the street to Star Island, where I parked the car and jump out promising to be no more than five minutes.  Bumped into Frank Quevedo (and a birding group from the South Fork Natural History Museum) and Mike Scheibel (the Nature Conservancy guy from the Mashomak Preserve) and they have the BLACK GUILLEMOT all tee'd up in the scope.  Suffolk County bird #323 and and New York State bird #394.  Nearby an Iceland Gull also joined the year list right next to the restaurant we were heading to ... which was closed for the season.  Oops!

Black Guillemot and Iceland Gull

Sunday, February 19 - Montauk and East Hampton

After a fabulous home cooked Italian Dinner - picture home made Carponata, Italian cheeses, Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage sauce and Braised Short-Ribs with Polenta, all served with a great selection of Italian wines and homemade desserts - 8am Sunday morning came way too soon.  Michael Duffy was one of my dinner guests the night before and while everyone else planned to sleep until noon, we got up at 7am and headed off to Montauk to do some birding.

The day started well with a female KING EIDER at Montauk Point and some year birds for me including Great Cormorant and Purple Sandpiper.  We spent more time with the Black Guillemot but spent most of our time looking for the Little Gull (which Michael - who's a huge world lister and probably seen lots of everything we saw that day) was most interested in ... but unfortunately it seemed to have moved on.

Canvasbacks and Pied-billed Grebe in Montauk 

Coming to terms with failing to get the gull, and having to buy ingredients for dinner and be back at the house for lunch, we gave in and ran to East Hampton to shop.  With a few minutes to spare though we stopped at Wainscott to look for a Sandhill Crane that had been spending the Winter there.  I'd looked for this bird before and not seen it, but today after careful scanning I spotted it mostly hidden in the willows and phragmites along the North side of Wainscott Pond.  I have a soft spot for Cranes and this was only the fourth one I'd ever seen on Long Island so a nice bird for the day.

So not a bad haul of birds (Michael tried and dipped again on the Little Gull the next day but did get a Black-headed Gull) but I had to get back to cook a multi-course Portuguese dinner for guests ... lots of pork, clams, and even an olive-oil cake.  The weather was fabulous, the food and wine were delicious, the guests were charming, and the birding was good ... pretty much the perfect weekend.

Perfect Spring weather in East Hampton in February!

Puffins, Dovekies, Razorbills and Murres

A Winter Pelagic out of Brooklyn

Until yesterday I had never managed to go out on a Winter Pelagic birding trip in New York State waters.  That's not to say that I hadn't tried to go out - in fact I'd booked on at least four or five boat trips that had been cancelled due to weather - I'd just never actually managed to get out there.  So the omens were good for January 2017, with Paul and Anita Guris organizing a trip on January 7th out of Brooklyn ... which was to course cancelled due to weather (!).  Luckily this time though, the boat captain gave us an alternate date, and despite the threat of another snow storm, at 3am on Friday morning I was driving to Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn in search of a boat and a whole bunch of similarly judgement-challenged birders planning to spend a brisk January day out on the Atlantic Ocean.

The plan quite simply was to motor out fifty miles into deeper water, hopefully arriving in an area frequented by working scallop dredges and other fishing boats by first light.  Then we'd lay a chum slick and 'tow' a bunch of gulls around with us while we looked for other species.  The trail of gulls would make us look like a fishing boat discarding by-catch and hopefully attract other, rarer species to join the gulls.  Well that was the plan anyway ....

Black-legged Kittiwake (2 shots)

By 7:30am, the sun was up, and even though it was cold, gray, and cloudy, there were birds to be seen around the boat.  We did establish a chum slick (diced Menhaden and Beef Suet) and had a bunch of gulls behind the boat all day.  Most were Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls but we did have a single Lesser Black-backed Gull and a lot of Black-legged Kittiwakes stay with us for part of the day.  The gull flock was also supposed to attract Northern Gannets and NORTHERN FULMAR, and both species did show up in very small numbers, but neither species stayed long  The Fulmar was a State Bird for me (#392) and one of my main reasons for coming out on the trip, so I was very happy to see a couple of them even if they didn't put on the kind of show we were hoping for.  The gulls were also supposed to attract Great Skuas, an almost legendary bird in the Western North Atlantic.  Almost every birder on the boat wanted this species, and all but a tiny handful need it for their New York, ABA, or even Life List.  I definitely need it for New York and would love to have seen one, but despite hours or scanning, today was not our day.

While the Skua did not cooperate, the Alcids most definitely did.  As the sun came up we were treated to many fly-by Razorbills and quite a lot of fly-by Dovekies.  Dovekie, a starling sized puffin relative, are really very hard to see from shore.  Experienced sea-watchers in New York might get a couple of distant ones zip by in their scopes in the average year, but for many of the riders on the boat this was a highly desired state/ABA/Life bird.  And we saw lots and lots of them ... I'm guessing perhaps 75 Dovekies, with the captain making an effort to get the boat close to several individuals on the water for photographs.

Nice as Dovekies are, they weren't my target bird.  I'm one of the lucky ones who gets to see Dovekies most years while sea-watching at Montauk, but the same could not be said for ATLANTIC PUFFINS which never come close to shore.  I've waited a long time to see a puffin in New York (a species I've seen only in Maine, Canada, Iceland, and in the UK) and as the day wore on with no sightings I was starting to get stressed that this might not be the day I got them after all.  Then around lunch time, the boat slowed and voices were discussing a bird visible from the bow.  When I heard the words "dusky face" I knew what the bird was and, after a tense few minutes trying to get on the bird, Atlantic Puffin joined my New York State list (#291).

Dovekie (above) and Atlantic Puffin (below)

While birds were the main goal, and it being Winter we weren't expecting much else in terms of vertebrate life out in the cold sea, we did actually see a few non-bird highlights.  Best for me were a pod of BLUEFIN TUNA mixed with a pod of Short-beaked Common Dolphins.  Others apparently saw a whale spout (I missed it) but I did get good views of a couple of Harbor Porpoises ... a species I'm always happy to see.

By 2:30pm, with only a couple of hours of light ahead, it was time to come back in and once again admit defeat in the search for Great Skuas.  On the way in though we had to pass through the 'Murre-Zone' and would add another bird that would be a lifer or state bird for many on the boat.  Common Murres are remarkably loyal to a band of water 23-25 miles offshore in New York in the Winter.  I've seen them before in this zone, and as soon as we motored into the right area, we started to see Common Murres and saw in the end perhaps ten of them.

Common Murre (3 shots)

Darkness overtook us before we reached land, and as we pulled into the dock in Sheepshead Bay, we arrived to several inches of fresh snow that had fallen while we were out at sea.  Not the most fun drive back to Manhattan, but it was a very fun day at sea.  Two state birds (Atlantic Puffin and Northern Fulmar) and four year birds (Lesser Black-backed Gull and Common Murre) made it worthwhile.  I took the opportunity to book myself on two additional Paulagics (June and August) and I guess I'll keep doing the Winter ones and hoping one day for a Skua.  I will get my New York State list to 400 one day (392 currently) and who knows, maybe Great Skua will be that 400th bird.

Early January on Long Island

A few days of Year-Birding to start 2017

Sunday, January 1 - Montauk and Shinecock

I think by now I can categorize it as a ritual.  I have started my year list in perhaps 7 of the last 15 years with a sunrise sea-swatch at Montauk Point, and it never disappoints as a great way to start a year of birding.  This year was relatively mild, and after a quick stop en-route to add Great Horned Owl, the day started there with a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic as it got light enough to distinguish the birds.  And there were plenty of birds ... highlights including thousands of scoters of all three species, hundreds of Common Eider and a scattering of other sea-ducks, loons and grebes.  Specialty birds also put in an appearance with a couple of Black-legged Kittiwakes, a Red-Necked Grebe, nearly 75 Razorbills and a fly-by DOVEKIE (plus a Gray Seal).  Not a bad start.  23 species in all, and the year-list 2017 was officially on it's way.

After Montauk I worked my way back West, stopping at a number of local spots picking up more species at each of them.  Highlight for me was a GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE at Further Lane Fields in East Hampton (it's hard to tell but the picture below is a mansion lawn, not a  grassy field ... it's a big lawn and a big mansion).

Greater White-fronted Goose in a Canada Goose Flock

By lunch time I'd worked my way to Shinecock Inlet where a couple of Harlequin Ducks and a Glaucous Gull were both good close views.  The local Snow Buntings were also quite confiding, but unfortunately, the only Snowy Owl of the day stayed at a very respectable distance.

Harlequin Ducks

Can you spot the Snowy Owl?

Glaucous Gull

I finished the day off back at the house in Northwest Harbor watching my feeders and drinking wine on the deck, coming out again just after dark to hear my local Eastern Screech Owl become Owl species number three for the year.  Not a bad way to start 2017.

Monday, January 2 - Robert Moses State Park and Cammann's Pond

Up early, but unfortunately I had to head back to the City with the dogs in the car, allowing me only two or three quick stops on the way back in.  Stop one was Robert Moses State Park where I managed to dip a couple of Ross's Geese that had been present for several days but had apparently moved on.  There was a nice consolation though in the form of a single Lapland Longspur, a bird I rarely see more than one or two of in New York in the average year.

Lapland Longspur

Last stop of the day was Cammann's Pond in Nassau County, where I'd dipped a BLACK-HEADED GULL a few days earlier.  No problems this time though as the bird was on the water near the parking lot and I saw it before I'd even turned off the engine.  A new species for me for Nassau County (#214) and a bird I missed altogether in New York in 2016, so I was happy to call it a day and had back to the city with a nice haul of 92 species on the year list.

Black-headed Gull

Not a bad start to the year ....

Rusty Blackbirds and Thick-billed Murres

Mopping up some year birds and county birds on Long Island

So the plan today revolved around two target birds - Rusty Blackbird, which I needed for the year and for my Suffolk County Life List, and Barrow's Goldeneye, which would only have been a year bird, but I like them a lot, probably my favorite duck in the world.

First stop was Fuch's Pond in NorthWestern Suffolk County, one of a number of potential Rusty Blackbird spots I'd planned out from eBird.  This is a species that really isn't doing well in the US, with populations having crashed over the last twenty years.  On Long Island it's gone from being a regular wintering bird in numbers to being decidedly scarce during the time I've lived here.  When I first moved to New York I'm guessing that hundreds wintered on Long Island, but today the number of wintering birds might be a dozen or so, and given their wandering nature they've become decidedly hard to see.  My plan today was to devote the whole morning to the species though, and hit all the spots where they had been seen this Winter.

By 8:00am, I pulled into Fuch's Pond, having already had a year bird when a Killdeer flew over the car on the way in.  Rusty Blackbirds had been seen here regularly over the past couple of week so I was pretty optimistic about bumping into one (although I had three other possible sites lined up just in case).  Indeed, as I walked the trails at the preserve and could swear I was hearing a blackbird but couldn't see one, but as I came back to the parking lot, there it was, a Rusty Blackbird perched on top of a tree doing it's weird gurgling call - Suffolk County Bird #309!

Luck was clearly on my side this morning so I hit some other local spots and quickly added a couple more year birds with Purple Finch and Winter Wren joining the list.  So by 9:30am, I'd run out of things to do locally, and knowing that I had to wait for the low tide in the late afternoon for the Barrow's, I suddenly had time to burn.  Checking the Listserve, the answer was obvious ... time for a quick trip to Montauk.

During the week someone had found a Thick-billed Murre at Montauk (same place I had one last Winter).  While it was just a year bird, any Murre is a good bird in New York and I was surprised that this one had lasted so long.  Generally speaking, a Murre that comes into a harbor is not a healthy Murre and so by now I thought this bird would be making its way through the digestive system of a Great Back-backed Gull.  So when I saw that it had been reported alive and well in the morning, I though I may as well go and see it.

Bonaparte's Gull (2 shots)

By 12:30pm I arrived at Montauk Inlet and started to scan ... and nope, no Murre.  Remembering where last year's bird had spent it's time, I repositioned to Star Island and joined some other birders in scanning for the bird, but still no Murre.  Then, as luck would have it, some birders who I'd never seen there before showed up and said they'd just had the Murre on the East Jetty of  Montauk Inlet.  So everyone back in the cars, quick run around Lake Montauk and scopes out at the East Jetty.  Couple of Snow Buntings, nice ... five Great Cormorants, nice ... Thick-billed Murre!

Thick-billed Murre - not yet Gull food ...

Turns out we seemed to be a having a mini Thick-billed Murre invasion this week with several other birds reported on the East End and even one found that day in Brooklyn.

So mission accomplished and back to the original plan, an almost certain Barrow's Goldeneye at Sand's Point in Nassau County.  Well let's just say that lucky streaks don't last forever and there's no such thing as a certain thing in birding.   After an hour and half of scope work, I came up empty.  Oh well, such is birding ...

Harlequin Ducks and Purple Sandpipers

A few more year birds from (mostly) Nassau County, NY ....

A late start today but I'd worked out an itinerary in advance so I felt like I was getting some productive birding in anyway.  First stop was Jamaica Bay where a quick, snowy, hike in to the East Pond produced a good mix of waterfowl including all three mergansers and a drake Eurasian Wigeon.  Then on to Nassau County and a quick stop at Caarmann's Pond Park to pick up Black-crowned Night Heron for the year list - this seems to be a great spot for wintering night herons with at least ten in view while I was there.  As an added bonus I also saw a Rough-legged Hawk from the Meadowbrook Parkway shortly thereafter - the day was starting out really well.

One of 10 Black-crowned Night Herons at the pond

And then on to Jones Beach, which I've visited several times this year so far, but today I vowed to get out of the car and do some real birding.  Ironically, the first good bird I saw was very much from the car - as I pulled into the West End parking lot several birders had re-found the Lark Sparrow that I originally found a few weeks ago.

I found this Lark Sparrow several weeks ago ...

The bird was on narrow entrance road, so while the birders wanted to see it, the non-birder cars behind resented the delay in getting to the beach parking lot.  I tried to stop and get photos but in the end I had to just grab a record shot and move on.  Interestingly, of the 5 (?) Lark Sparrows that showed up in late December / early January, only this one is still here (or still alive?).  

I've always thought of the walk out to the Jetty at Jones Beach as a bit of a 'death march' as, despite being only three-quarters of a mile, the soft sand makes the walk a cardio work out.  Today of course a layer of soft snow lay on top of the soft sand so extra cardio for all ... but it's not like I don't need it.  Once I  eventually got there though, it really was quite birdy - Common Eiders, Long-tailed Ducks, Horned Grebes, Red-throated Loons, and a single Razorbill under a flock of 30+ Bonaparte's Gulls.  The jetty itself also had a very photogenic group of 15+ Purple Sandpipers and a single Harlequin Duck, both of which I managed to get photos of.  This tiny jetty is an isolated piece of rocky shore habitat in a land of land featureless sand beaches and so it does tend to be a regular spot for both these quintessential rocky shore birds - very nice to get them so close and cooperative though.

15 Purple Sandpipers and a Harlequin Duck were hanging out at the Jetty. 

After slogging back to the parking lot, I decided to stay on foot and keep working the pine trees in the entrance road median,  The weather was actually a balmy 40-degrees so it was actually quite pleasant trying to pick up some land birds.  Nothing super-unusual had been seen recently but my goal was Red-breasted Nuthatch for the year list and a half an hour later I managed to find one closer to the Coast Guards Station.  Mission accomplished and on to other things.

After that I hit a bit of a lull.  Poking around Jones Beach and Southern Nassau County hoping for some shorebirds didn't really produce very much so I decided to look for Monk Parakeets instead.  Driving along route 27A - a densely packed and busy strip of suburban shops and small businesses - is usually a good bet for finding them.  I found one nest fairly easily in Babylon but there were no parakeets in residence.  Short thereafter though, while stopped at a red light, I happened to look up, waiting for the light to turn green, and sure enough, there was some 'green' on the light.  I wonder if these lights are heat lamps for the parakeets, they certainly seem very adept at using man-made heat-sources to make the Winter more bearable for them.

And so back to the City.  A stop at Bush Terminal Piers Park, where several good gulls (a Black-headed Gull and a Glaucous Gull) had been seen earlier in the day, was cut short when the park ranger (?) closed the park at 4pm and asked all the birders to leave.  But here will be other days ....

First Snow of the Season and White Birds Arriving in Suffolk County

Snowy Owls and White-winged Gulls Out East

Saturday, January 16 - Dune Road and Calverton

I had to stay in the City on Friday night but forced myself to get up early on Saturday and run out to East Hampton with a plan to drop off the dogs, fill the feeders, then double back and do some Winter birding. The temperatures had started to drop Out East, with the threat of snow later in the weekend, so it seemed like a good chance to round up some recently reported, and newly arrived, Northern birds.

The weather was not really cooperating, it was cold, windy and wet, but I stuck with the plan and forced myself over to Dune Road in Hampton Bays by mid-morning.  Shinecock Inlet was unpleasant but I did get out of the car and scanned the gulls in the rain, adding a Lesser Black-backed Gull to the year-list.  I got soaked though so decided to do some car birding along Dune Road in the hope of seeing a recently reported Snowy Owl or American Bittern.  The Owl was a no-show but I did get the Bittern near Triton Lane where it was feeding in a ditch, inches from the road, and flushed before I could get a photo.  Still, this bird isn't going anywhere, it'll be around all Winter, so I'm sure I'll see it again.

Field Sparrow - EPCAL, Suffolk County, NY

Given the weather, I decided to head inland so ran up to the Calverton area in search of sparrows for the year-list.  Got a good haul of those, with Field, American Tree and White-crowned Sparrows quickly joining the list.  I then went over to McKay Lake where I relocated a Golden-crowned Kinglet I'd seen in November and got a real bonus when the continuing, but elusive, Common Gallinule put in an appearance.  This bird showed up in the Fall, seems to have a broken wing, but somehow has managed to cling on, spending its time with a single Mallard on this shallow pond.  Have to feel a bit sorry for it, but I hope it manages to survive the Winter somehow, seems to be a plucky little chap.

Feeling better about my quick haul of year-birds and now that the weather seemed to be improving, I decided to head back down to the barrier beach and this time worked my way out to Cupsogue County Park.  It's a long, slow, drive through the beach houses to get there, and the speed limits are rigorously enforced by the quaintly named 'Bay Constables' who must make a good amount of revenue off visitors breaking the 25-mile-an-hour limit (yes, they still ticket even in the Winter and I saw one poor soul contributing to the town budget as I drove out).  When you get there though, Cupsogue is a pretty neat place.  The location if famous as a Seal haul-out with up to 60 Harbor Seals and occasionally other species coming out of the water to loaf and socialize at low tide.  Now that the weather had brightened up, there were actually quite a few locals taking a Saturday walk to see the seals, but I had birds on my mind, found a high vantage point and started a big circle-scan across the whole bay area.  First up shorebirds, where I picked out 5 Red Knot among the hundreds of Dunlin and Sanderlings.  Then I checked the duck, picked up my first Belted Kingfisher of the year and, after walking a little further down the road, got what I came here for - a flock of 33 Snow Buntings.  All good stuff, but running out of time, I had to head back to the house, so reluctantly left and started to work my way back East.

As I got to my turn at the Ponquogue Bridge, on a whim I decided to go a little further and check the dunes to the East.  Finding nothing of note I turned to go home, but just as I started back, a curious lump stood out on top of a Dune.  No question what this was .... my first Snowy Owl of the season!  A couple of quick shots from the car, and back home.  Despite the cold, wet, start to the day it actually turned out to be a really nice day of birding.

Snowy Owl - Ponquogue Beach, Suffolk County, NY

Sunday, January 17 - Montauk

Up early and out to Montauk Point to meet Menachem Goldstein (another of the seemingly infinite number of Cornell University undergraduate birders) for some sea-watching.  I couldn't stay long but we covered the Point area fairly thoroughly, picking up quite a few Razorbills, several thousand assorted sea-duck, the continuing drake King Eider, and Menachem's lifer Black-legged Kittiwake.  Then on to the West Jetty at Montauk Inlet (stopping briefly for 4 Snow Geese in keeping with the snow theme) in the hope of more 'white birds', in this case White-winged Gulls.  The Inlet didn't disappoint, and we soon had good views of a 1st-cycle Glaucous Gull with a 1st-cycle Iceland Gull for a close comparison,  There were also two 'Kumlien's' Iceland Gull in the same group of birds along with some Bonaparte's Gulls and a 1st-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull.  Eight species of gulls at Montauk ... Winter is definitely coming.

Adult 'Kumlien's' Iceland Gull (bottom left) and 1st-cycle Iceland Gull (right).  Almost all of our Iceland Gulls are 'Kumlien's' but you can't really tell with the 1st-cycle birds so we just call them 'Iceland Gulls''- Same species - Montauk Inlet, Suffolk County, NY

'Kumlien's' Iceland Gull - one of two at Montauk Inlet, Suffolk County, NY 

Glaucous Gull - Montauk Inlet, Suffolk County, NY

With time running out, and dinner plans back in the City, we decided to make one last stop to see if the Virginia Rails found during the Christmas Bird Count at Big Reed's Pond were still willing to make a little noise.  A quick hike into the pond until we found some likely habitat, and I played a couple of blasts of 'tape" (I know, I know, but in this case where multiple Rails are wintering at the pond and calling to each other anyway, I don't think there's any harm done) which started two of the rails clicking and grunting back to us, and each other, from the cat-tails.  That was enough for the year-list so we let them be and, after stopping and failing once again to see the Napeague Snowy Owl, I called it a day.

As a postscript, the snow did in fact come that afternoon and coated East Hampton and the City with a light covering.  The ride back to the City was a bit interesting too, in that I narrowly missed a multiple car collision when some oblivious driver plowed into the rear-end of another (while texting?) and started a chain reaction involving at least 5 cars in the lane next to me.  Ah the joys on Winter ....

Happy New Year (List)!

Three (half) days of birding Suffolk County to start 2016 ....

So this year I will bird more, I will take more photographs, and I will blog more.  I also plan to lose weight, quit smoking, drink less, and be a better person.  Perhaps there's a chance that some of these will stick past the first week of January ....

Friday, January 1st - Montauk

I love starting my year list in Montauk, and I love to start it sea-watching.  I must have started year lists at the same spot, freezing behind the concession stand, peering through my scope, on at least five occasions.  It's a great way to connect with nature and the elements and, if you can ignore the crowds of Korean Christians who gather at the Point for a Sunrise service of some sort, a proper outdoors experience.

This year, the sea-watching was quite good.  Hundred of Red-throated and Common Loons and a good mix of perhaps 5,000 sea-duck of 6 species.  I even managed 65 Razorbills my "annual" Dovekie, getting good scope views of one on the water.  Just when I thought it could get any better, I saw a puff of 'smoke' over the water and, swinging my scope around quickly, saw a large back and a pointed dorsal fin arch through the water.  Too big for a Bottlenose Dolphin, plus they done't blow.  No question what this was - a Minke Whale!  Only my second ever from land at Montauk.  It really did start the year off very well.

As the temperature started to climb, gloves came off, and I really started to enjoy a very good day of birding at Montauk.  Next on the 'good bird' list was an Ash-throated Flycatcher, a scarce Western wanderer that had been found by the folks doing the Christmas Bird Count the week before and had stuck around long enough for me to see it fairly easily.

Ash-throate Flycatcher - Fort Hill Cemetery, Montauk, Suffolk County, NY

 While I was there though, I got some disquieting news - someone was reporting a Black Guillemot from the Point.  This is my nemesis bird at Montauk, despite all the hundreds of hours of sea-watching there, I have never seen one.  And they NEVER stick around!  By the time I got the email an hour had passed and so I was sure that I'd missed this one too, but while I was debating whether to backtrack and try for the Guillemot, another email came in - drake King Eider at the Point!  Oh boy, I should probably have stayed put at the point rather than running around chasing passerines.  So back in the car and over the Point for round two of sea-watching.

By the time I got there, there was of course no sign of the Guillemot (I'm cursed with this species on my local patch), so I joined up with some other birders and kept scanning, picking up a nice consolation prize when a drake Harlequin Duck came into view.  Once regular at Montauk, they've been scarce there of late so I was happy that I'd come back and found it.  Then, while the other birders were looking for the Harlequin, I finished my scan and bam - drake King Eider.  Such a spiffy bird, and another one not guaranteed at Montauk every year.  This one I did manage to get everyone onto - lots of smiles all around.

Happy with the ducks and feeling like I could head off again, some other birders told me about a nearby Lark Sparrow (another unusual Western wanderer) that I hadn't even heard about.  This bird was truly co-operative though and gave crippling views close to the road.  All in all I was very happy with my new year list and headed back to Northwest Harbor fully satisfied with a good start to the year.

Lark Sparrow - Deep Hollow Ranch, Montauk, Suffolk County, NY

Saturday, January 2nd - Montauk / East Hampton

My plan for the second had been to head back West along Long Island to look for a Tufted Duck and other waterfowl that had been reported during the week but, given how good Montauk was the day before, and still hoping to catch up with the Guillemot, I decided to go back to the point.  I met up with Isaac Grant at the Concession at 8am and started the whole sea-watch thing again.  And what a difference a day makes - no Dovekie, no King Eider, no Harlequin, no Ash-Throated Flycatcher, no Lark Sparrow, and needless to say, no Guillemot!

Razorbill and Iceland Gull - Lake Montauk Inlet, Suffolk County, NY

 We really couldn't come up with anything all that good.  All the basic birds were there but none of the goodies from the day before.  The only new species we added all morning was an Iceland Gull that I'd somehow overlooked the day before.  It wasn't a bad morning, it just paled when compared to the mega list of birds that I'd assembled on Friday.  Nothing really seemed to be cooperating very much.

To add insult injury, the gloves were definitely back on today as the temperature had dropped and the wind had increased somewhat.  Not the best weather to be looking for flycatchers and indeed passerines of any sort were few and far between.

I even tried twice to see the Snowy Owl reported at Hick's Island but couldn't find it.  The only consolations were some Tundra Swans and a Greater White-fronted Goose at Hook Pond.

In the end I gave up early and went back home feeling like I should have stuck with the original plan.

Sunday, January 3rd - Western Suffolk County

Decided to stay local this morning and so just worked the Northwest Woods and Sammy's Beach near the house.  There weren't an awful lot of birds to be seen, although first of season Common Goldeneye and Brown Creeper were welcome, but it was a very pleasant morning to walk in the woods and I enjoyed the quiet time.  I had dinner plans in the City though, so I had to make a move and decided to try to do a quick stop for some good birds that had been seen in Western Suffolk County during the week.  I had the dogs in the car with me so I couldn't stop long but I figured I had perhaps a half an hour to spare so I could maybe make one, perhaps two stops if the birds cooperated.

First stop was Capri Lake where a TUFTED DUCK had been hanging out with a mixed Scaup flock. Finding the pond was fairly easily and as I parked I met up with Joe Giunta and crew and headed over to the lake.  As we walked up to the pond though a birder who was leaving had bad news - all the scaup, and presumably the tufted duck, had just flown off the lake.  Seeing as I was there already, we decided to check the lake anyway and maybe get some year birds and it was a good job that we did because the first bird we saw, floating in the middle of the lake with six Lesser Scaup, was the TUFTED DUCK.  Nice bird, and only two minutes spent so I had time for a one more stop.

Long-billed Dowitchers - Santapogue Creek, Suffolk County, NY

Next stop was a quick hit to get a group of over-wintering Long-billed Dowitchers at Santapogue Creek.  Long-billed Dowitchers are surprisingly difficult in coastal New York, outnumbered thousands to one by Short-billed Dowitchers in migration they show up only in very limited numbers in Spring and Summer.  On the other hand they are much kore likely to show up late in the Fall and sometimes even overwinter, this flock having been present since November.  Although it took me a few minutes to find the site, the birds were easy to see and while I was there Menachim Goldstein gave me directions to a nearby Dickcissel.  Did I have time for one more stop?  Why not ...

Dickcissel - Southards Lake Park, Suffolk County, NY

That bird also surrendered quickly and was quite tame, almost oblivious to the hikers and cyclists passing quiet close to it.  Another 3 minutes on-site, and done.

So three stops in a half hour, three good species, and off back to the city.  A really good start to the new year and some nice species for my 'home' county.  On to new things ...

Late March Cabin Fever

Just itching for Spring .... and recovering from Gull-issues

I keep meaning to do a blog post, truly I do, it's just that I haven't really had much to blog about nature-wise so far this year.  To date 2015 has been dominated by work (yes, I do work) and snow, and neither of those things has really been very conducive to looking at nature or nature blogging.  Even my travel - Montreal, London, Wales, Washington DC) has not really been very outdoor oriented so far, and I just haven't seen a lot of stuff worth reporting.

This week, it snowed again, but at least there's something about a late March snow storm that makes you feel like the worst may now be over and that Winter might be finally behind us.  For whatever reason, I was really feeling the cabin fever today, a sure sign that Spring is coming and that my nature addiction is close to kicking back in again after a dormant Winter.  Looking forward to putting Winter away and getting out there once again.

 The 2015 birding year actually started out relatively well for me and I managed to grab some free time and get out a few times locally in the first few weeks of the year.  Some good birds quickly joined the list - Couch's Kingbird in the West Village, Cassin's Kingbird in Brooklyn, Harlequin Ducks at Montauk, a drake King Eider and Iceland Gulls at Shinecock, Tundra Swans in East Hampton, and a Cackling Goose near Riverhead.  I even managed to get a State Bird when I chased down a THICK-BILLED MURRE in Montauk Harbor (NYS #381).

Thick-billed Murre - lousy shot but it was a state bird!

I soon started to get that slipping feeling though.  Others were going out birding more, and finding great birds, and I simply wasn't keeping up, not with the time I had available to me to get out into the field.  For a brief while I fought the rot, chased the Pink-footed Goose (dipped) near Riverhead, the Barnacle Geese (dipped) near Calverton, and the GYRFALCON (yes!) near Wallkill, but eventually I had to recognize that this is just not going to be a big year list year for me in New York.
As of today, I've seen only 110 species this year in New York State, while the more serious guys are already in the 160s.  I've missed way too many Winter birds to be able to catch up - no Snowy Owls, no Glaucous Gulls,  no Barrow's Goldeneye, etc.  I'll just have to enjoy what I see and not worry about year-lisiting this year.

Harequin Ducks (above) and Common Redpoll (below) good January birds
out on the East End this year.

The bird that really killed my year-list this year was actually a gull.  A Common Gull no less!  Well technically a Mew Gull (although that's currently the same species as Common Gull), and actually not at all common here, thousands of miles away from the Pacific NorthWest where it makes it's home.  The bird was found by Shane Blodgett and showed up, as rare gulls are prone to doing, in a shopping mall parking lot in Brooklyn.  Many birders got to see it the first week or so it was there (while I wasn't able to travel) and then it fell into an infuriating pattern of vanishing for days or weeks before suddenly and unexpectedly popping up again in the same area.  I really wanted to see this bird which would have been a new species for New York State for me, and it also happens to be a species I've tried for and missed previously.  So I decided to devote a few hours to a search......

Herring Gull, MEW GULL, and Ring-billed Gull - photo: Shane Blodgett (used with permission)

And so I ended up spending the better part of five (5!) days standing, freezing, in parking lots in Brooklyn (and not the trendy bits of Brooklyn), looking at gulls.  Every couple of hours a little old Russian lady might come by, empty a bag of stale bread, and start a mad swirl of activity as hundreds of gulls, dozens of Rock Pigeons, and even a few Brown Rats squabbled over the feast, but most of the time Mew Gull 'watching' involved just standing around in the cold, periodically checking hundreds of Ring-billed gulls to see if 'the bird' had flown in.  After each session I swore I would give up on this gull and go look for other things, and then a few days later someone would see the damned bird, and I'd give it one more try.  In total, this single bird took more than 50% of the free time I had for birding in the first quarter of 2015.  And no ... I did not see the bird.

Iceland Gull - people often reported seeing the Mew Gull with
this Iceland Gull.  It was stubbornly solo while I was there though

And so, as we roll in to Spring I'm ready to put the Mew Gull behind me and move on. I almost gave it one last try this Saturday after a sighting was reported on Friday.  In the end I was saved my Shane though, he emailed me to say that he'd seen photos of the Friday sighting and that the bird was just a dark Ring-billed Gull.  Even though I'd already sworn that I wouldn't try again, Shane new that I probably would (and he was right - I am that stubborn).  But now I'm letting it go, and moving on, and getting excited for Spring.


Postscript:  I finished writing this blog post, went out to brunch with Kelvin and had a mimosa or two(enough to ensure that I could no longer drive for the day).  After brunch I checked my emails and, total predictably, Andrew Baksh posted that he and Angus Wilson had been watching the Mew Gull in Brooklyn for the past couple of hours.  After a week or so absence, the bird had literally reappeared while I was writing this post.  I give up ....

California - Orcas, Albatrosses and Condors

A rare weekend off - chasing some Bucket List critters in California

Just back from California and somewhere between tech stuff in San Francisco, wine stuff in Napa, and a visit to LA, I managed to squeeze in some birding in Monterey County.

I haven't done a Debbie Shearwater Pelagic Trip since the 90's but booked a couple for the weekend.  Had hoped to do both but, given the schedule, I had to choose one and given the locations, opted for an 'old school' Monterey trip - not likely to produce lifers, but most likely to produce nostalgic memories (these things get important when you're a worn-out old world-lister).

Joined the crew at 7am and met Debbie (who didn't remember me from the old days), Brian Sullivan (on board bird expert and eBird grandee), and a crew of birders some newbies, some pelagic veterans.  The weather was perfect with flat seas, almost no wind, and overcast skies - given my tendency to hurl chum in the smallest of waves I was really excited for a nice, low key, pelagic sampler.  Definitely looked like it was going to be a great trip, and it was.

Black-vented Shearwaters - lots of these in the Sooty Shearwater flocks ...

Once out of the docks, and past a nice selection of Shore (rock) birds, including Black Turnstone, Wandering Tattler, Surfbird and Black Oystercatcher, we soon headed out into the bay.  Shearwaters were everywhere, in staggering numbers.   Apparently the anchovies are recovering and there were vast flocks of shearwaters  chowing down within sight of land.  This place is just truly awesome in terms of the biomass of interesting things.

As we worked out way out we spent several hours pushing the shearwater flocks around.  The trip the day before had had a Flesh-footed Shearwater (good bird) so Debbie was keen to spend time kicking the shearwaters around to see what was there.  There were tens of thousands of Sooty Shearwaters, thousands of Black-vented Shearwaters, lots of Pink-footed Shearwaters and even a few Manx Shearwaters (newly breeding in the Pacific?).  We also had a brief look at a bird that felt good for STREAKED SHEARWATER, but not seen by all and none of us got good photos.  Definitely a Shearwater day on a Shearwater Journey.

Pink-footed Shearwater

Shearwaters aside, we did get a good mix of other pelagic species.  A Scripts's Murrelet was the class act among many Cassin's and Rhinoceros Auklets and lots of Common Murres.  A good smattering of Red-necked Phalaropes, Sabine's Gulls, and single Northern Fulmar (please split these Pacific Birds - so obviously not the same species) also added some interest.

The world's rattiest Northern Fulmar

There were also Elegant and Common Terns, a nice mix of Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers and a few gulls to look at.  Never a dull moment for an East Coast birder on a West Coast pelagic.

What was missing though was Storm-Petrels.  A single Black-Storm Petrel, not seen by me, was the only Storm-Petrel record on the trip.  Each and every trip is different ... the joy and the frustration of pelagic birding.

One of the best things about West Coast pelagics though is the presence of LOTS of sea mammals.  

Dall's Porpoise

 We had 8 species of Sea-mammal on this trip: Sea-Otter, California Sea-Lion, Northern Fur-Seal, Harbor Seal, Humpback Whale, Harbor Porpoise, Dall's Porpoise, and ORCA!

A family of 6-8 Orcas came by while we were watching the Murrelet and we were able to follow them for maybe a half and hour.  Truly awesome to finally see Orcas - a bucket list species and a check mark ....

Black-footed Albatross over Orcas (pretty cool) ....

As usual (for me at least on a West Coast Pelagic) the star bird was am "East Cost" bird (although to be fair, a West Coast race, and potential split).  The shout went out from the bow that there was a "Booby flying towards the boat" and soon we had a Brown Booby in the chum slick and later found it's roosting log and got some good shots.  There have been several Brown Boobies in New York over the last few weeks - none of which I got organized to chase - so the irony of seeing one in California wasn't lost on me.  Nice bird and a state bird for me.  I've now seen them in three states, eventually I'll get one in New York ...

Black-footed Albatross

So with no plans for Sunday, we decided to look for Condors - California Condor is technically still extinct in the wild and how often to you get to chase extinct species?  A quick morning trip to Pinnacles National Park drew a blank (although I did get my life Yellow-billed Magpies nearby).  So an afternoon trip to the Ventana Inn in Big Sur became my last hope for this species on this trip.  When we got to the restaurant (and Condor stake-out) the waitress informed me that there had been a juvenile Condor seen that morning, and that "we never see Condors here".  Half way through lunch through I spotted a distant juvenile condor and then a closer adult - perhaps the waitresses need bins?     Short-ribs, beer and Condors ... not a bad way to spend an hour or two .... but unfortunately my camera was having problems so no photos.  Still, a good reason to go back to a beautiful spot and no complaints on my part.  Perfect weekend break ... maybe I'll even bump into a Lawrence's Goldfinch one day ....