I thought I would cross post this here given the rarity of Long-tailed Jaeger in July in Upstate New York.
This evening, Jessie, Jim, Liz, and Sam Barry and I went around Braddock Bay by boat. While we were cruising around and noticed a distant bird that was being harassed by gulls. My first impression when the bird was about a mile off was that this was something like a Peregrine Falcon, Black Tern, Bridled Tern or Sooty Tern, but none really made sense and the bird was too far away for me with binoculars. Jessie motored up and we temporarily lost the bird, but soon refound it and realized it was a LONG-TAILED JAEGER. We ened up having the best views I've had of a subadult Long-tailed Jaeger in the interior with the bird approaching within about 40 meters. It was very similar to an adult Long-tailed, but with black and white barring on the underwing (visible at close range) and perhaps, a slightly shorter tail than an adult (still long). The noticeable contrast between grayish upperparts including upperwing coverts and the dark flight feathers; two white primary shafts were diagnostic. Very pale underparts with an indistinct grayish wash, darker undertail coverts and belly. The bird was being harassed a couple times by Ring-billed Gulls (including when we first found it). At one point, it took off RAPIDLY and chased a couple of Forster's Terns, before flying off to the northwest past west spit where we lost it. For reasons I don't quite recall, I thought it would be good to leave my camera at home. Luckily Sam Barry had a camera and even with a landscape lens was able to get a couple images that I believe are diagnostic (and show how close this bird was). I uploaded the photos that Sam took to my Flickr feed for others to be able to see this bird. Note shape, small head, small bill, paler upperwing, limited white primary shafts, long tail, extensive pale underparts. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinicola/ Thank you, Sam, for letting me post the photos here. I suspect there is a slim chance that this bird would return to the bay tomorrow -- or at least a better chance of refinding this bird than an active migrant later in summer. This bird would have been easy to see from shore. Best, Chris Wood & Jessie Barry Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu -- 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/[email protected]/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/ --
