The following are more or less complete numbers for this morning's tag-team seawatching effort at Robert Moses SP, 7:00-11:30. Ken Feustel began the effort and was joined soon by Bobby Kurtz and Pat Lindsay; when Ken left, the other two were joined by Seth and Corey, and then by Tom and Gail; I got there disgracefully late (having been chained to my desk for the first few hours), but in time to see >200 Sooty Shearwaters and the two birds requiring annotation below.
31 Common Loon 1 Red-throated Loon 13 Northern Gannet 716 Sooty Shearwater 21 Cory's Shearwater one apparent Cape Verde Shearwater (strongly resembling Cory's in structure and overall plumage: languid flapping style, wings broader than in Great, wrists held forward during glides, gray-brown nape and upper back, and vaguely defined U-shaped white line on rump; BUT distinctly dark-capped, bill slim and only vaguely pale-based) 5 Great Shearwater 2 Manx Shearwater 78 Wilson's Storm-Petrel 8 Parasitic Jaeger 1 Long-tailed Jaeger (adult seen in direct comparison with Parasitic) 5 Laughing Gull 2 Black Tern 5 Roseate Tern 8 Black-bellied Plover Later in the day, Pat and I, along with Tom and Gail and Joan Quinlan, headed out to Cupsogue. In another instance of tag-team birding, we got out on the flats as John Gluth and Jim Cullen were finishing up. They had already seen a Black Tern (now gone) and four Arctic Terns, at least three of which were still present when we arrived. We worked the terns on the rising tide, and were visited by a breeding-plumaged Royal Tern (our first of season). I eventually saw seven Arctic Terns: four adult-like and three first-summer. I think I obtained identifiable photos of all of these, which I'll compare carefully with Michael McBrien's shots from yesterday and others. At a minimum, two adult-like birds and two first-summer birds from today were distinct from those Michael saw yesterday. To put this remarkable season in some perspective, before this year, my earliest date for a first-summer bird was 6 June, and my largest tally of adult-like birds for any one summer was just three! Seawatching at Cupsogue was slow from 4:15 to 6:00, under brisk southwest winds, but revealed at least 20 Sooty Shearwaters and a Mola mola. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________________ From: bounce-61037211-11143...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-61037211-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Seth Ausubel [sausu...@nyc.rr.com] Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 10:48 AM To: post NYSbirds Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Robert Moses State Park Sea Watch (Suffolk Co.) Corey Finger and I are just leaving Robert Moses State Park now. It was a truly outstanding seabird flight. Birding with Pat Lindsay, Shai Mitra, Bob Kurtz, Tom Burke and Gail Benson, we added the following to Ken's totals: 360 Sooty Shearwaters, 17 Cory's Shearwaters, 1 Great Shearwater, 1 Manx Shearwater, 35 Wilson's Storm-Petrels, 6 Parasitic Jaegers, 1 adult LONG-TAILED JAEGER, 1 Black Tern and 2 Roseate Terns. Also a handful of Gannets. Seth Ausubel Forest Hills, NY Sent from my iPhone On Jun 2, 2012, at 9:11 AM, ken feustel <feus...@optonline.net> wrote: > There is a good movement of seabirds going on this morning at RMSP Field 2. > In forty-five minutes of observation, starting at 7:00AM, I observed 225 > Sooty Shearwaters, 5 Great Shearwaters, 4 Wilson's Storm Petrels and small > numbers of Common Loons and Northern Gannets. > > Ken Feustel > > -- > > 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/ > > -- -- 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/ -- ________________________________ Change is in the Air - Smoking in Designated Areas Only in effect.<http://www.csi.cuny.edu/tobaccofree> Tobacco-Free Campus as of July 1, 2012. -- 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/ --
