[nysbirds-l] Birding Hermine on Long Island, 5 Sep
I’m writing this summary to tie together a number of overlapping but incomplete conversations with many people over the past several days, and to draw a few conclusions from what we observed. I’ll remember Hermine most for how much she inconvenienced us with her timing! It seemed like it took forever for the storm to arrive, and by the time things became interesting, I was facing early morning drives to work on Staten Island on Tuesday and today. Still her prolonged gyrations offshore were probably responsible for some notable and memorable bird records. First, it’s important to note that the overall pattern exemplified by Hermine is very commonplace here: a middling tropical cyclone approaching from the south, producing easterly winds and heavy surf on the LI shore, then passing off to the east. Taken broadly, these events are very characteristic of the Labor Day period here. One can generally expect to see increased occurrence of species such as American Golden-Plover, Buff-breasted Sandpiper (and other long-distance migrant sandpipers), Lesser Black-backed Gull, and Caspian and Black Terns in these situations—presumably because they are reluctant to continue their long flights under these conditions and arriving migrants therefore accumulate along our ocean inlets. This phenomenon was a very conspicuous consequence of Hermine, probably due especially to the unusual duration of the obstacle she posed to southbound migration. Another feature of these periods of easterly winds is a pronounced movement of common seabirds, especially Common Terns and Laughing Gulls, but also things like Northern Gannet and Cory’s Shearwater, flying west to east along the LI shoreline as storms approach from the south. I’ve never seen a fully satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon, but I’m aware of two conjectures. One is that “birds always fly into the wind.” This makes sense not only in its almost absurd simplicity, but also to the extent that some species might simply be compensating for being drifted east to west overnight. The other hypothesis is my own and posits that the local seabirds know exactly where they are and also where the local shorelines are, and they respond to approaching storms by fleeing to the east to avoid being driven ashore by hurricanes. (This is potentially consistent with the previous explanation, which could be the proximate cue underlying this ultimate cause.) Part of my reasoning in support of this explanation is the marked disparity in groundings of various pelagic species during real hurricane strikes (which Hermine categorically was NOT), wherein locally rare species of distant origin are paradoxically found inland far more frequently than the their common kin inhabiting the nearby shelf waters (e.g., Leach’s vs. Wilson’s Storm-Petrels and many others). It is really remarkable that our commonest shelf-inhabiting seabirds (Cory’s, Great, and Manx Shearwaters, etc.) are almost never recorded inland, whereas a number of tropical and Gulf Stream Species are actually predictably regular inland after strong storms. Hermine was not a strong storm here and did not come close to striking us, but it was very interesting to see the classic pre-storm procession of Gannets, Cory’s Shearwaters, Laughing Gulls, and Common Terns streaming eastward as she approached. Furthermore, we could actually discern when this changed on Monday. Whereas the flight was still very pronounced from west to east during the morning, it shifted the other way in the early afternoon. The wind also shifted at this time, losing its easterly component and going almost during north, presumably as the storm center shifted somewhat to the north and east. Birding with Patricia Lindsay, Pete Morris and Taylor Sturm, my overall impression was that Hermine was a very good example of Labor Day easterly winds: we encountered lots of White-rumped Sandpipers (and other interesting shorebirds), Lesser Black-backed Gulls (including a very early juvenile), and Black Terns, as well as notable near-shore movements of Cory’s and Manx Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, and Parasitic Jaegers—all species expected to be present in the region already but harder to detect under normal conditions. In view of all of this, Black-capped Petrel was not expected, but perhaps the unusually long duration of the powerful winds as Hermine lingered over the Gulf Stream tired or disoriented some of the birds residing there. Below are links to our checklists from Monday. It was a very interesting and rewarding day but definitely slow at times. More than once, after hitting a slow period, we vacillated between focusing on seabirds vs. shorebirds, only to encounter new surprises that shifted our expectations. Shai Mitra Bay Shore http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31453098 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31453339 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31453442
[nysbirds-l] Birding Hermine on Long Island, 5 Sep
I’m writing this summary to tie together a number of overlapping but incomplete conversations with many people over the past several days, and to draw a few conclusions from what we observed. I’ll remember Hermine most for how much she inconvenienced us with her timing! It seemed like it took forever for the storm to arrive, and by the time things became interesting, I was facing early morning drives to work on Staten Island on Tuesday and today. Still her prolonged gyrations offshore were probably responsible for some notable and memorable bird records. First, it’s important to note that the overall pattern exemplified by Hermine is very commonplace here: a middling tropical cyclone approaching from the south, producing easterly winds and heavy surf on the LI shore, then passing off to the east. Taken broadly, these events are very characteristic of the Labor Day period here. One can generally expect to see increased occurrence of species such as American Golden-Plover, Buff-breasted Sandpiper (and other long-distance migrant sandpipers), Lesser Black-backed Gull, and Caspian and Black Terns in these situations—presumably because they are reluctant to continue their long flights under these conditions and arriving migrants therefore accumulate along our ocean inlets. This phenomenon was a very conspicuous consequence of Hermine, probably due especially to the unusual duration of the obstacle she posed to southbound migration. Another feature of these periods of easterly winds is a pronounced movement of common seabirds, especially Common Terns and Laughing Gulls, but also things like Northern Gannet and Cory’s Shearwater, flying west to east along the LI shoreline as storms approach from the south. I’ve never seen a fully satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon, but I’m aware of two conjectures. One is that “birds always fly into the wind.” This makes sense not only in its almost absurd simplicity, but also to the extent that some species might simply be compensating for being drifted east to west overnight. The other hypothesis is my own and posits that the local seabirds know exactly where they are and also where the local shorelines are, and they respond to approaching storms by fleeing to the east to avoid being driven ashore by hurricanes. (This is potentially consistent with the previous explanation, which could be the proximate cue underlying this ultimate cause.) Part of my reasoning in support of this explanation is the marked disparity in groundings of various pelagic species during real hurricane strikes (which Hermine categorically was NOT), wherein locally rare species of distant origin are paradoxically found inland far more frequently than the their common kin inhabiting the nearby shelf waters (e.g., Leach’s vs. Wilson’s Storm-Petrels and many others). It is really remarkable that our commonest shelf-inhabiting seabirds (Cory’s, Great, and Manx Shearwaters, etc.) are almost never recorded inland, whereas a number of tropical and Gulf Stream Species are actually predictably regular inland after strong storms. Hermine was not a strong storm here and did not come close to striking us, but it was very interesting to see the classic pre-storm procession of Gannets, Cory’s Shearwaters, Laughing Gulls, and Common Terns streaming eastward as she approached. Furthermore, we could actually discern when this changed on Monday. Whereas the flight was still very pronounced from west to east during the morning, it shifted the other way in the early afternoon. The wind also shifted at this time, losing its easterly component and going almost during north, presumably as the storm center shifted somewhat to the north and east. Birding with Patricia Lindsay, Pete Morris and Taylor Sturm, my overall impression was that Hermine was a very good example of Labor Day easterly winds: we encountered lots of White-rumped Sandpipers (and other interesting shorebirds), Lesser Black-backed Gulls (including a very early juvenile), and Black Terns, as well as notable near-shore movements of Cory’s and Manx Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, and Parasitic Jaegers—all species expected to be present in the region already but harder to detect under normal conditions. In view of all of this, Black-capped Petrel was not expected, but perhaps the unusually long duration of the powerful winds as Hermine lingered over the Gulf Stream tired or disoriented some of the birds residing there. Below are links to our checklists from Monday. It was a very interesting and rewarding day but definitely slow at times. More than once, after hitting a slow period, we vacillated between focusing on seabirds vs. shorebirds, only to encounter new surprises that shifted our expectations. Shai Mitra Bay Shore http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31453098 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31453339 http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31453442
