Watching from Amagansett (Suffolk Co.) this morning I caught the tail end of a decent waterbird flight along the oceanfront with hundreds of scoter and loons plus a good showing of gannets. In prior flights, the vast majority of gannets have been full adults heading for their nesting colonies in Quebec, New Brunswick and beyond but today roughly a third were subadults. A highlight was my first PARASITIC JAEGER of the season, a nice light-morph adult powering eastward low over the water. There was also a clear movement of LAUGHING GULLS, which are still scarce out here, along with some Rough-winged and Barn Swallows moving east along the dunes.
The birds of the day however were 5 BOAT-TAILED GRACKLES (3 males and 2 females) in a marsh along the edge of Napeague Harbor. One of the males was displaying vigorously, singing both in flight and from the tops of small bushes, and frequently chasing the two females. Although a familiar sight in coastal saltmarshes along the south shore of Long Island, this species is very rare east of Shinnecock Bay and this is the first time I've seen more than single birds east of the canal. It will be interesting to see if the Boat-tails linger in the area, potentially extending the known breeding range 25 miles or so eastwards. Cheers, Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA -- 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/ --
