The See Life Paulagics trip out of Freeport, NY was able to take advantage of a window in between weather systems and get offshore yesterday. Despite bumpy conditions on the way back we managed to locate many of the target species this time of year. Unofficial totals of some of the highlights are as follows;
Razorbill 37 Common Murre 8 Dovekie 87 Iceland Gull 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull 4 Black-legged Kittiwake 8 Peregrine Falcon (offshore making passes at gulls). We managed to keep gulls behind the boat for the entire trip and at one point we strategically made a pass near a trawler while aggressively chumming and managed to pull over 200 large gulls to us. It was an impressive sight to watch them come at once! All 7 of the gull species we encountered spent time behind the boat and allowed opportunities for photography. Within the gull scrum in the wake there were a few gulls in the Herring/Thayer's/Iceland complex that were showing interesting and contradictory field marks. Many photographs were obtained and we'll be evaluating these over the coming days. We'll report back soon. A big thanks goes out to the crew of the boat, the leaders and most of all, to the trip participants who made it possible. Looking forward to seeing you on the next one! Sean Sime Brooklyn, NY -- 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/ --
