The last few days have featured a very strong high pressure system south of Newfoundland and a prolonged easterly flow toward the Mid Atlantic Coast which then curves to southerly up the coast from the Bahamas to the New England coast. The placement of this high pressure system and its strength is anomalous for this time of year owing to the southward displacement the jet stream for June. There has been an easterly wind anomaly of between 25 and 30 mph that is strongest from well offshore right to Long Island. This could explain some of what you have observed.
On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 10:59 AM, Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu> wrote: > As we were leaving, we saw Pete Morris arriving, and we couldn't resist > joining Doug and him for some more effort. > > Compiling observations for the day yields the following remarkable numbers > for Robert Moses SP yesterday: > > Great Shearwater 669 > Cory's Shearwater 48 > Manx Shearwater 8 > Sooty Shearwater 9 > Wilson's Sturm-Petrel 6 > Northern Gannet 5 > Parasitic Jaeger 1 > Black Scoter 4 > > To put the Great Shearwater total in perspective, my previous high count > from land on Long Island over 21+ years was 45, on 23 June 2001, at > Democrat Point. The general pattern is for Great to be vastly outnumbered > by Sooties during good early season flights, then by Cory's on good days > later. In fact, in my Long Island seawatching experience, the overall > frequency and abundance of Great from land has generally been very similar > to that of the perceived-as-rare Manx: one or a few single-digit counts per > year, versus many more and larger counts of Sooty and Cory's. > > We await more data from other areas, but it is already obvious that the > numbers of Greats from the Jones Inlet area were far in excess of any > counts there in recent memory, and it appears that numbers from further > east on the island were unexpectedly low (usually they increase steadily > eastward). The occurrence of exhausted birds (including the Brown Booby) > suggests a prolonged storm far offshore during prior days that was > positioned in such a way as to trap birds in the New York Bight (if > weather-savvy folks could check on this, I'd appreciate it). Locally at > least, the wind speeds were never in the range that would cause shearwaters > any difficulties. > > Shai Mitra > Bay Shore > ________________________________________ > > Following up on Steve's report and after hearing about the Jones Beach > flight, Shai and i returned to Robert Moses and put in another hour > (4:22-5:22). Spectacular views on many birds as they passed by close to > shore. > Great Shearwater 177 > Cory's Shearwater. 5 > Manx Shearwater. 4 > Sooty Shearwater. 1 > Parasitic Jaeger. 1 > Black Scoter. 4 > No. Gannet 2 > > Doug Futuyma just arrived to take up the vigil here. > > Patricia Lindsay > Bay Shore > Sent from my iPhone > ________________________________________ > From: bounce-121607595-11143...@list.cornell.edu [ > bounce-121607595-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Steve Walter [ > swalte...@verizon.net] > Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2017 4:40 PM > To: nysbird...@list.cornell.edu > Subject: [nysbirds-l] Robert Moses S.P. Sea Watching 6/18 > > I spent the morning sea watching at Robert Moses State Park Field 2 from > about 6:30 (not seriously until the fog eased around 8:30) to 12:30 (when > the fog thickened again). Also joining in the effort were (until about > 10:30) Brent Bomkamp, Pat Palladino, and Taylor Sturm, and (from about 11 > to 12) Pat Lindsay, Shai Mitra, and Peter Morris. Actually, I have to give > them more credit than that, as they picked out a lot more birds than I did. > But I think I did a decent job of being the scribe. So here is what I > scribed. > > Great Shearwater – 119 > Cory’s Shearwater – 23 > Sooty Shearwater – 1 > Shearwater sp. – 21 (most earlier on when denser fog added to the ID > difficulty; Brent thought one may have been a Manx, but too difficult to > confirm). > Wilson’s Sturm-Petrel – 6 > > One amusing sequence involved two Great Shearwaters, closer in than > expected, and a swimmer, further out than expected. The shearwaters slowed > down to investigate the swimmer, with the second one actually landing very > close to him. It flapped its wings at him (or something like that) a bit > before moving on. > > Afterwards in the parking lot, a few Larus fuscus americanus (well, they > might be in a few thousand years). > > I didn’t know about the Brown Booby until I was already at Robert Moses. > As I’ve mentioned before, I get the reports off the archives. I don’t know > how well that always works. I’m pretty sure I checked last night and the > booby reports hadn’t made it to the archives yet. I know that when I looked > this morning, it was obvious why I choose not to get the e-mails. I see a > lot of reports of things like Yellow Warbler getting in the way of the > reports I really need. Why? Okay, Steve, be nice, stop your rant right > there. > > > Steve Walter > Bayside, NY > http://stevewalternature.com (currently featuring the Henslow’s Sparrow) > > > -- > > NYSbirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L > 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > > -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
