Inspired by Pat Lindsay's success there yesterday, I spent ~1 hour (10:15-11:20) this morning watching the ocean off Field 2 at Robert Moses State Park. There was dense fog over the Great South Bay on my drive over (pea soup-thick at mid-span of the double bridge), but visibility over the ocean was greater than a mile. I didn't experience the numbers or diversity of seabirds seen by Pat yesterday (e.g. no Roseate or Black terns), but 2 SOOTY SHEARWATERS did pass, the second fairly close to shore, both moving east like those yesterday. Perhaps it was the light south wind and relatively calm ocean, but both shearwaters did not engage in the typical bounding, rollercoaster flight style (high arcs above the water followed by long glides back to the surface, with almost no flapping) I'm accustomed to in this species. Both birds stayed low over the water in mostly powered flight, doing as much (or more) flapping as gliding.
-- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
