Hi Peter and all, It's great to see more data concerning last winter's remarkable southward flight of Razorbills and its aftermath.
Regarding the westward spring migration of White-winged Scoters (and also of Red-necked Grebes and Oldsquaws), this is a curious and incompletely understood phenomenon, but it was discerned by the old time gunners during the late 19th Century. See p. 285 here: http://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v008n03/p0279-p0290.pdf More recently Dick Ferren and others have logged many days of spring seawatches documenting these flights, so this is a good reminder for us to record flight direction. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Peter Max Polshek [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 12:45 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [nysbirds-l] East Hampton, Main Beach: 16 April Sea Watch at Main Beach, East Hampton 7:20 AM - 9:30 AM Highlight: Razorbill 99 Surf Scoter 245 White-winged Scoter 44 (almost all heading west; go figure?) Black Scoter 1074 Surf/Black Scoter 60 Long-tailed Duck 3 Red-breasted Merganser 5 Red-throated Loon 291 Common Loon 15 loon sp. 58 Horned Grebe 1 Northern Gannet 631 Double-crested Cormorant 4 Laughing Gull 3 Ring-billed Gull 4 Herring Gull 8 Great Black-backed Gull 20 Razorbill 99 (largest group=11; several groups=6; all heading east) -- NYSbirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- ________________________________ Washington Monthly<http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2012/features/americas_bestbangforthebuck_co039461.php> magazine ranks the College of Staten Island as one of "America's Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges" -- 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/ --
