Spent the late morning checking the ocean between East Hampton and Montauk for beached Dovekie without luck. The surf was pretty strong making it challenging seeing birds that might be close to shore. Anyway, it is looking like there are birds coming inshore (and ashore) all along the coast of the New York Bite. In addition to the reports from eastern Long Island, one came ashore at Sandy Hook, NJ (27 Dec) and two were reported off the lighthouse at Point Judith RI (26 Dec). So it's worth checking inlets or simply walking the south facing beaches.
There were a lot of birds moving around off Montauk Point in the early afternoon. A 1-hour count from the bluffs at Camp Hero (12:50-1:50 pm) mainly looking E and SE produced the following counts: Common Loon - 62 Red-throated Loon - *295* *RAZORBILL - 25* (perhaps the highest count of the winter so far) *BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE - 29* (only 6 1st-winters) Atlantic Gannet - 500++ (predominantly ads.) Atlantic Brant - 20 (in two flocks making a beeline for the north end of Block Island) Common Eider - 300+ Black Scoter - 250+ Surf Scoter - 100+ White-winged Scoter - 150+ Those interested in seeing winter alcids and kittiwakes up-close should consider joining us on the 17 Jan pelagic out of Freeport (Nassau Co., Long Island). This 8-hour trip is being specially tailored to explore the shelf waters east and west of Jones Inlet, including 'Murre Alley'; a relatively inshore area that has been extraordinarily productive for *COMMON MURRE*, *THICK-BILLED MURRE* and *RAZORBILL* during our early Feb trips (2006: 20,1,20, respectively; 2007: 7,0,14). We believe these totals could be much higher if we spend more time in the productive areas rather than just cutting across them in an effort to get out to the deeper water and temperature breaks. On these past trips we've done very well for Dovekie (max 9,000!) and Puffin, however both species are generally found much further offshore. We don't plan to travel that far on this trip but who knows what we'll find on the day. The vessel we will be using is one of the most stable I've been on off the east coast and this is an ideal trip for anyone hesitant about venturing offshore during the colder months. For details just Google: See Life Paulagics. -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES Archives: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
