RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Paul R Sweet]

This from colleague in NC.

202 birds were picked up in Brunswick County (southernmost county in NC) 
between 13 June and 3 July.  The bulk of the birds brought to area rehabbers 
came in between 17-19 June.  Almost all died shortly after arrival.  I know 
other rehabbers on the coast also received many birds around 16 June or so, but 
I haven't been in touch with them for further details.

Ebird also shows high counts on NC coast for the 18th of June. For example 155 
at Fort Macon State Park.

From: Michael Schrimpf [mailto:michael.schri...@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2017 9:30 AM
To: Paul R Sweet 
Cc: Tshrike19 ; NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu; john_stan...@fws.gov
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and 
Starving - The New York Times

Interesting...I'm curious how the timing of the NC wreck compared to the one in 
NY - was it also within a day or two, and was it close to Jun 18th?

In thinking about this, and in speaking with Joe when he was writing the NY 
Times article, I brought up the need for good baseline data. Based on the 
scattered reports of wrecks over the years, it seems that Great Shearwaters 
washing ashore in noticeable numbers is not that unusual on the East Coast - 
but there are several questions we can't answer without more data:

1) Is this a normal amount of mortality for the northward migration?

2) If so, are there reasons why sometimes the birds are closer to the coast, 
allowing us to detect the weak individuals as they hit the beaches?

3) If this is higher than normal mortality, do these periodic wrecks coincide 
with oceanographic patterns, either locally or remotely?

4) For comparison, what is the rate of beached Great Shearwaters when we don't 
see them coming ashore in a large pulse?


The data in the Haman et al. paper I linked to in a previous thread give us a 
good starting point, but they only refer to 'wrecks', and only go up to 2011, 
so any patterns in the last few years are a mystery.

We could start answering these questions if we had a system of regular beach 
monitoring up and down the Eastern Seaboard - a program like that exists in the 
West (the 
COASST
 program), which I interacted with closely while I was doing my master's work 
at the University of Washington. A similar program used to exist here 
(SEANET),
 but has since been put on hold due to lack of funding/interest. I contacted 
the director, Julie Ellis, who told me that John Stanton at USFWS (cc'ed) is 
hoping to continue SEANET. If there's anyone out there interested in helping 
with that effort, it would go a long way towards collecting some of these data.


Cheers,
Michael




On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 3:33 PM, Paul R Sweet 
> wrote:
As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North 
Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One rehabber 
there took in 80 birds.

From: 
bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu
 
[mailto:bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu]
 On Behalf Of Tshrike19
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
To: NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving 
- The New York Times

Hi All,

As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system that set 
up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a strong and 
persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system resulted in 
strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west (I was there at 
the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate seabirds inshore 
where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as also mentioned, there 
is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the charter and head boat captains 
I've chatted with (in NJ though) have mentioned the abundance of sand eels 
offshore, with fluke being caught on some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand 
eels on deck and some of the charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand 
eels.It's probable that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore 
due to food availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them 
inshore.   If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are 
starving is a question though, and we can only speculate as to 

RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Paul R Sweet]

This from colleague in NC.

202 birds were picked up in Brunswick County (southernmost county in NC) 
between 13 June and 3 July.  The bulk of the birds brought to area rehabbers 
came in between 17-19 June.  Almost all died shortly after arrival.  I know 
other rehabbers on the coast also received many birds around 16 June or so, but 
I haven't been in touch with them for further details.

Ebird also shows high counts on NC coast for the 18th of June. For example 155 
at Fort Macon State Park.

From: Michael Schrimpf [mailto:michael.schri...@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2017 9:30 AM
To: Paul R Sweet 
Cc: Tshrike19 ; NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu; john_stan...@fws.gov
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and 
Starving - The New York Times

Interesting...I'm curious how the timing of the NC wreck compared to the one in 
NY - was it also within a day or two, and was it close to Jun 18th?

In thinking about this, and in speaking with Joe when he was writing the NY 
Times article, I brought up the need for good baseline data. Based on the 
scattered reports of wrecks over the years, it seems that Great Shearwaters 
washing ashore in noticeable numbers is not that unusual on the East Coast - 
but there are several questions we can't answer without more data:

1) Is this a normal amount of mortality for the northward migration?

2) If so, are there reasons why sometimes the birds are closer to the coast, 
allowing us to detect the weak individuals as they hit the beaches?

3) If this is higher than normal mortality, do these periodic wrecks coincide 
with oceanographic patterns, either locally or remotely?

4) For comparison, what is the rate of beached Great Shearwaters when we don't 
see them coming ashore in a large pulse?


The data in the Haman et al. paper I linked to in a previous thread give us a 
good starting point, but they only refer to 'wrecks', and only go up to 2011, 
so any patterns in the last few years are a mystery.

We could start answering these questions if we had a system of regular beach 
monitoring up and down the Eastern Seaboard - a program like that exists in the 
West (the 
COASST
 program), which I interacted with closely while I was doing my master's work 
at the University of Washington. A similar program used to exist here 
(SEANET),
 but has since been put on hold due to lack of funding/interest. I contacted 
the director, Julie Ellis, who told me that John Stanton at USFWS (cc'ed) is 
hoping to continue SEANET. If there's anyone out there interested in helping 
with that effort, it would go a long way towards collecting some of these data.


Cheers,
Michael




On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 3:33 PM, Paul R Sweet 
mailto:sw...@amnh.org>> wrote:
As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North 
Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One rehabber 
there took in 80 birds.

From: 
bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu
 
[mailto:bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu]
 On Behalf Of Tshrike19
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
To: NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving 
- The New York Times

Hi All,

As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system that set 
up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a strong and 
persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system resulted in 
strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west (I was there at 
the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate seabirds inshore 
where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as also mentioned, there 
is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the charter and head boat captains 
I've chatted with (in NJ though) have mentioned the abundance of sand eels 
offshore, with fluke being caught on some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand 
eels on deck and some of the charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand 
eels.It's probable that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore 
due to food availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them 
inshore.   If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are 
starving is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be 
causing this.   Perhaps some of these 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Michael Schrimpf]

Interesting...I'm curious how the timing of the NC wreck compared to the
one in NY - was it also within a day or two, and was it close to Jun 18th?

In thinking about this, and in speaking with Joe when he was writing the NY
Times article, I brought up the need for good baseline data. Based on the
scattered reports of wrecks over the years, it seems that Great Shearwaters
washing ashore in noticeable numbers is not that unusual on the East Coast
- but there are several questions we can't answer without more data:

1) Is this a normal amount of mortality for the northward migration?

2) If so, are there reasons why sometimes the birds are closer to the
coast, allowing us to detect the weak individuals as they hit the beaches?

3) If this is higher than normal mortality, do these periodic wrecks
coincide with oceanographic patterns, either locally or remotely?

4) For comparison, what is the rate of beached Great Shearwaters when we
don't see them coming ashore in a large pulse?


The data in the Haman et al. paper I linked to in a previous thread give us
a good starting point, but they only refer to 'wrecks', and only go up to
2011, so any patterns in the last few years are a mystery.

We could start answering these questions if we had a system of regular
beach monitoring up and down the Eastern Seaboard - a program like that
exists in the West (the COASST 
program), which I interacted with closely while I was doing my master's
work at the University of Washington. A similar program used to exist here (
SEANET ), but has since been put on hold due
to lack of funding/interest. I contacted the director, Julie Ellis, who
told me that John Stanton at USFWS (cc'ed) is hoping to continue SEANET. If
there's anyone out there interested in helping with that effort, it would
go a long way towards collecting some of these data.


Cheers,
Michael




On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 3:33 PM, Paul R Sweet  wrote:

> As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North
> Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One
> rehabber there took in 80 birds.
>
>
>
> *From:* bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:
> bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu] *On Behalf Of *Tshrike19
> *Sent:* Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
> *To:* NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
> *Subject:* [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and
> Starving - The New York Times
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system
> that set up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a
> strong and persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system
> resulted in strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west
> (I was there at the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate
> seabirds inshore where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as
> also mentioned, there is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the
> charter and head boat captains I've chatted with (in NJ though) have
> mentioned the abundance of sand eels offshore, with fluke being caught on
> some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand eels on deck and some of the
> charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand eels.It's probable
> that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore due to food
> availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them inshore.
> If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are starving
> is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be causing
> this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad shape
> already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus,
> toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were
> finding dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be
> able to provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of
> year birds, if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual
> concentration off long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of
> dead birds (with an onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A
> fact of nature is that seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been
> happening long before we were around.
>
>
>
> tom brown
>
>
>
> Tshrike19
> tshrik...@aol.com
>
> --
>
> *NYSbirds-L List Info:*
>
> Welcome and Basics
> 
>
> Rules and Information
> 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Michael Schrimpf]

Interesting...I'm curious how the timing of the NC wreck compared to the
one in NY - was it also within a day or two, and was it close to Jun 18th?

In thinking about this, and in speaking with Joe when he was writing the NY
Times article, I brought up the need for good baseline data. Based on the
scattered reports of wrecks over the years, it seems that Great Shearwaters
washing ashore in noticeable numbers is not that unusual on the East Coast
- but there are several questions we can't answer without more data:

1) Is this a normal amount of mortality for the northward migration?

2) If so, are there reasons why sometimes the birds are closer to the
coast, allowing us to detect the weak individuals as they hit the beaches?

3) If this is higher than normal mortality, do these periodic wrecks
coincide with oceanographic patterns, either locally or remotely?

4) For comparison, what is the rate of beached Great Shearwaters when we
don't see them coming ashore in a large pulse?


The data in the Haman et al. paper I linked to in a previous thread give us
a good starting point, but they only refer to 'wrecks', and only go up to
2011, so any patterns in the last few years are a mystery.

We could start answering these questions if we had a system of regular
beach monitoring up and down the Eastern Seaboard - a program like that
exists in the West (the COASST 
program), which I interacted with closely while I was doing my master's
work at the University of Washington. A similar program used to exist here (
SEANET ), but has since been put on hold due
to lack of funding/interest. I contacted the director, Julie Ellis, who
told me that John Stanton at USFWS (cc'ed) is hoping to continue SEANET. If
there's anyone out there interested in helping with that effort, it would
go a long way towards collecting some of these data.


Cheers,
Michael




On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 3:33 PM, Paul R Sweet  wrote:

> As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North
> Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One
> rehabber there took in 80 birds.
>
>
>
> *From:* bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu [mailto:
> bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu] *On Behalf Of *Tshrike19
> *Sent:* Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
> *To:* NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
> *Subject:* [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and
> Starving - The New York Times
>
>
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system
> that set up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a
> strong and persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system
> resulted in strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west
> (I was there at the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate
> seabirds inshore where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as
> also mentioned, there is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the
> charter and head boat captains I've chatted with (in NJ though) have
> mentioned the abundance of sand eels offshore, with fluke being caught on
> some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand eels on deck and some of the
> charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand eels.It's probable
> that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore due to food
> availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them inshore.
> If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are starving
> is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be causing
> this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad shape
> already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus,
> toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were
> finding dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be
> able to provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of
> year birds, if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual
> concentration off long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of
> dead birds (with an onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A
> fact of nature is that seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been
> happening long before we were around.
>
>
>
> tom brown
>
>
>
> Tshrike19
> tshrik...@aol.com
>
> --
>
> *NYSbirds-L List Info:*
>
> Welcome and Basics
> 
>
> Rules and Information
> 

RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Paul R Sweet]

As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North 
Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One rehabber 
there took in 80 birds.

From: bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu 
[mailto:bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Tshrike19
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
To: NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving 
- The New York Times

Hi All,

As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system that set 
up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a strong and 
persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system resulted in 
strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west (I was there at 
the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate seabirds inshore 
where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as also mentioned, there 
is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the charter and head boat captains 
I've chatted with (in NJ though) have mentioned the abundance of sand eels 
offshore, with fluke being caught on some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand 
eels on deck and some of the charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand 
eels.It's probable that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore 
due to food availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them 
inshore.   If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are 
starving is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be 
causing this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad 
shape already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus, 
toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were finding 
dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be able to 
provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of year birds, 
if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual concentration off 
long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of dead birds (with an 
onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A fact of nature is that 
seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been happening long before we 
were around.

tom brown

Tshrike19
tshrik...@aol.com
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RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Paul R Sweet]

As a post-script to the Great Shearwater story, a colleague from the North 
Carolina Museum informed me that the wreck extended to that state. One rehabber 
there took in 80 birds.

From: bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu 
[mailto:bounce-121663379-11471...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of Tshrike19
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2017 1:49 PM
To: NYSBirds-L@cornell.edu
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving 
- The New York Times

Hi All,

As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system that set 
up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a strong and 
persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system resulted in 
strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west (I was there at 
the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate seabirds inshore 
where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as also mentioned, there 
is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the charter and head boat captains 
I've chatted with (in NJ though) have mentioned the abundance of sand eels 
offshore, with fluke being caught on some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand 
eels on deck and some of the charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand 
eels.It's probable that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore 
due to food availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them 
inshore.   If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are 
starving is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be 
causing this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad 
shape already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus, 
toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were finding 
dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be able to 
provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of year birds, 
if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual concentration off 
long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of dead birds (with an 
onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A fact of nature is that 
seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been happening long before we 
were around.

tom brown

Tshrike19
tshrik...@aol.com
--
NYSbirds-L List Info:
Welcome and 
Basics
Rules and 
Information
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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[nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Tshrike19]

Hi All,
 
As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system that set 
up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a strong and 
persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system resulted in 
strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west (I was there at 
the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate seabirds inshore 
where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as also mentioned, there 
is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the charter and head boat captains 
I've chatted with (in NJ though) have mentioned the abundance of sand eels 
offshore, with fluke being caught on some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand 
eels on deck and some of the charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand 
eels.It's probable that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore 
due to food availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them 
inshore.   If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are 
starving is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be 
causing this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad 
shape already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus, 
toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were finding 
dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be able to 
provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of year birds, 
if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual concentration off 
long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of dead birds (with an 
onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A fact of nature is that 
seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been happening long before we 
were around.

tom brown
 
Tshrike19
tshrik...@aol.com


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ARCHIVES:
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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[nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Tshrike19]

Hi All,
 
As Derek mentioned in a previous post, the coastal low pressure system that set 
up from the night of the 6/17 through the 19th, resulted in a strong and 
persistent onshore wind, as well as strong gusts.  This system resulted in 
strong southeast flow from new England all the way to key west (I was there at 
the time), these conditions can certainly help concentrate seabirds inshore 
where they are typically more scarce.   In addition, as also mentioned, there 
is an abundance of bait offshore.  Many of the charter and head boat captains 
I've chatted with (in NJ though) have mentioned the abundance of sand eels 
offshore, with fluke being caught on some of the Montauk boats spitting up sand 
eels on deck and some of the charters going for tuna seeing bait balls of sand 
eels.It's probable that large numbers of Shearwaters were already offshore 
due to food availability with the weather system helping to concentrate them 
inshore.   If so much food is available offshore, why does it appear many are 
starving is a question though, and we can only speculate as to what may be 
causing this.   Perhaps some of these birds arrived in the NY Bight in bad 
shape already and didn't have the energy to actively forage (sick from a virus, 
toxin load from algae??).  Was anyone able to age the birds they were finding 
dead, or will the folks who are receiving the dead shearwaters be able to 
provide an age breakdown?  Mortality tends to be high in first of year birds, 
if there was a high percentage of young birds in this unusual concentration off 
long Island it wouldn't be unusual finding a number of dead birds (with an 
onshore wind to bring the dead and dying to shore).   A fact of nature is that 
seabirds sometimes wreck in large numbers, it's been happening long before we 
were around.

tom brown
 
Tshrike19
tshrik...@aol.com


--

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ARCHIVES:
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Derek Rogers]

An important piece of information to consider when recalling the 18 June 
shearwater flight is food availability within offshore LI waters. Many birds 
were already here prior to the 18 June flight and the moderate coastal 
depression is what likely drove a significant number of these individuals into 
the beaches. 
 
I suspect the same would likely happen now if we were to experience another 
weather event with moderate to strong southeast winds because the huge numbers 
of shearwaters continue to feed off Long Island out to 30 nautical miles and 
beyond.
 
Casual observations from before and after the large inshore shearwater flight 
on 18 June indicate improved abundance and quality of food relative to recent 
years. I've spoken with a handful of offshore fishermen who, without being 
provoked and unaware of the 18 June flight, referenced "a lot more birds than 
usual." This coincided with "a lot more bait than usual," mostly sand eels. 
There have also been lots of baleen whales, presumably attracted to this food.
 
Some personal shearwater observations from three combined combined offshore 
outings on 4 June, 22 June, and 5 July include the following.
 
-463 Cory's Shearwater
-703 Great Shearwater 
-535 Cory's/Great Shearwater 
-142 Sooty Shearwater
-8 Manx Shearwater
 
These Cory's and Great Shearwater totals seem larger than normal and of course 
provide only a narrow snapshot of what offshore NY looks like. On all 3 
outings, rafts of Cory's, Great and Sooty Shearwaters were found feeding and 
sitting on the surface as close as 2.5 nm from the beach, which is why I 
wouldn't have been surprised if another moderate wind/weather event produced 
big seawatch numbers of large shearwaters. Along with these bird sightings, 
we've been detecting masses of bait from 8 nm out to approx. 30 nm and further 
south at the continental shelf break. And I'm still getting text messages from 
offshore fishermen finding huge numbers of birds out to 30 nm. 
 
Just like our terrestrial migrants, seabirds are also faced with rapidly 
changing environmental conditions along their migratory pathway, it's just more 
difficult for land-based observers to monitor. So perhaps several hundred 
(probably more like thousand) dead Great Shearwaters, isn't so significant in 
an area where they regularly pass through and are currently congregating in 
mass. After all, their estimated population is in the millions. The fact that 
Cory's are also present in large numbers but to my knowledge few, if any, 
Cory's specimens were recovered is interesting. One possibility, as suggested 
by others, is that Great Shearwaters have had a tougher time finding food near 
their departure grounds in the South Atlantic and were thus weaker (or more 
prone to disease) when they arrived in our waters. Cory's Shearwaters have a 
different point of origin and shorter migration.
 
Best,
 
Derek Rogers
Sayville

> On Jul 16, 2017, at 10:56 AM, Hugh McGuinness  wrote:
> 
> To play Devil's Advocate for a second: Great Shearwater is regular from 
> mid-May to late August off Suffolk County, so their occurrence in Nassau is 
> not really that surprising, and might be explained by something like the 
> improved quality of feeding offshore from Nassau, for which there is some 
> recent evidence. I agree that the shearwater kill requires an explanation, 
> but I remain unconvinced that the birds were significantly off course.
> 
> Hugh
> 
>> On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 8:24 AM, Shaibal Mitra  
>> wrote:
>> Hi Dick and all,
>> 
>> I think it's fair to say that the multi-hundreds of Great Shearwaters 
>> observed from the Nassau County shoreline on 18 June were off course. The 
>> species is entirely absent from this area for years at a time (I'd never 
>> previously seen even one from shore in Nassau in over twenty years), and the 
>> sum total of records over all time is vastly lower the numbers seen in just 
>> a few hours. Thus, their extreme concentration in a small area where they 
>> are ordinarily completely absent requires explanation. The fact that they 
>> were starving explains why many birds died, but alone it doesn't account for 
>> why they were bunched up in the New York Bight, rather than dispersing over 
>> a broader area of nearby waters they typically inhabit. All else equal, in 
>> the absence of food, one would expect widely foraging pelagic birds either 
>> to spread out randomly, or possibly to orient directly for traditionally 
>> productive areas, such as Block Canyon, Georges Bank, etc.--if they could. 
>> Food shortage alone doesn't account for the unprecedented densities inshore 
>> in the New York Bight, unless they were actively seeking food in this 
>> unusual area, with seems very unlikely. I think they were starving, tried to 
>> keep moving, and wound up following a path of least resistance that brought 
>> them to where we encountered them.
>> 
>> Shai Mitra
>> Bay Shore
>> 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Derek Rogers]

An important piece of information to consider when recalling the 18 June 
shearwater flight is food availability within offshore LI waters. Many birds 
were already here prior to the 18 June flight and the moderate coastal 
depression is what likely drove a significant number of these individuals into 
the beaches. 
 
I suspect the same would likely happen now if we were to experience another 
weather event with moderate to strong southeast winds because the huge numbers 
of shearwaters continue to feed off Long Island out to 30 nautical miles and 
beyond.
 
Casual observations from before and after the large inshore shearwater flight 
on 18 June indicate improved abundance and quality of food relative to recent 
years. I've spoken with a handful of offshore fishermen who, without being 
provoked and unaware of the 18 June flight, referenced "a lot more birds than 
usual." This coincided with "a lot more bait than usual," mostly sand eels. 
There have also been lots of baleen whales, presumably attracted to this food.
 
Some personal shearwater observations from three combined combined offshore 
outings on 4 June, 22 June, and 5 July include the following.
 
-463 Cory's Shearwater
-703 Great Shearwater 
-535 Cory's/Great Shearwater 
-142 Sooty Shearwater
-8 Manx Shearwater
 
These Cory's and Great Shearwater totals seem larger than normal and of course 
provide only a narrow snapshot of what offshore NY looks like. On all 3 
outings, rafts of Cory's, Great and Sooty Shearwaters were found feeding and 
sitting on the surface as close as 2.5 nm from the beach, which is why I 
wouldn't have been surprised if another moderate wind/weather event produced 
big seawatch numbers of large shearwaters. Along with these bird sightings, 
we've been detecting masses of bait from 8 nm out to approx. 30 nm and further 
south at the continental shelf break. And I'm still getting text messages from 
offshore fishermen finding huge numbers of birds out to 30 nm. 
 
Just like our terrestrial migrants, seabirds are also faced with rapidly 
changing environmental conditions along their migratory pathway, it's just more 
difficult for land-based observers to monitor. So perhaps several hundred 
(probably more like thousand) dead Great Shearwaters, isn't so significant in 
an area where they regularly pass through and are currently congregating in 
mass. After all, their estimated population is in the millions. The fact that 
Cory's are also present in large numbers but to my knowledge few, if any, 
Cory's specimens were recovered is interesting. One possibility, as suggested 
by others, is that Great Shearwaters have had a tougher time finding food near 
their departure grounds in the South Atlantic and were thus weaker (or more 
prone to disease) when they arrived in our waters. Cory's Shearwaters have a 
different point of origin and shorter migration.
 
Best,
 
Derek Rogers
Sayville

> On Jul 16, 2017, at 10:56 AM, Hugh McGuinness  wrote:
> 
> To play Devil's Advocate for a second: Great Shearwater is regular from 
> mid-May to late August off Suffolk County, so their occurrence in Nassau is 
> not really that surprising, and might be explained by something like the 
> improved quality of feeding offshore from Nassau, for which there is some 
> recent evidence. I agree that the shearwater kill requires an explanation, 
> but I remain unconvinced that the birds were significantly off course.
> 
> Hugh
> 
>> On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 8:24 AM, Shaibal Mitra  
>> wrote:
>> Hi Dick and all,
>> 
>> I think it's fair to say that the multi-hundreds of Great Shearwaters 
>> observed from the Nassau County shoreline on 18 June were off course. The 
>> species is entirely absent from this area for years at a time (I'd never 
>> previously seen even one from shore in Nassau in over twenty years), and the 
>> sum total of records over all time is vastly lower the numbers seen in just 
>> a few hours. Thus, their extreme concentration in a small area where they 
>> are ordinarily completely absent requires explanation. The fact that they 
>> were starving explains why many birds died, but alone it doesn't account for 
>> why they were bunched up in the New York Bight, rather than dispersing over 
>> a broader area of nearby waters they typically inhabit. All else equal, in 
>> the absence of food, one would expect widely foraging pelagic birds either 
>> to spread out randomly, or possibly to orient directly for traditionally 
>> productive areas, such as Block Canyon, Georges Bank, etc.--if they could. 
>> Food shortage alone doesn't account for the unprecedented densities inshore 
>> in the New York Bight, unless they were actively seeking food in this 
>> unusual area, with seems very unlikely. I think they were starving, tried to 
>> keep moving, and wound up following a path of least resistance that brought 
>> them to where we encountered them.
>> 
>> Shai Mitra
>> Bay Shore
>> 
>> From: 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Hugh McGuinness]

To play Devil's Advocate for a second: Great Shearwater is regular from
mid-May to late August off Suffolk County, so their occurrence in Nassau is
not really that surprising, and might be explained by something like the
improved quality of feeding offshore from Nassau, for which there is some
recent evidence. I agree that the shearwater kill requires an explanation,
but I remain unconvinced that the birds were significantly off course.

Hugh

On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 8:24 AM, Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> Hi Dick and all,
>
> I think it's fair to say that the multi-hundreds of Great Shearwaters
> observed from the Nassau County shoreline on 18 June were off course. The
> species is entirely absent from this area for years at a time (I'd never
> previously seen even one from shore in Nassau in over twenty years), and
> the sum total of records over all time is vastly lower the numbers seen in
> just a few hours. Thus, their extreme concentration in a small area where
> they are ordinarily completely absent requires explanation. The fact that
> they were starving explains why many birds died, but alone it doesn't
> account for why they were bunched up in the New York Bight, rather than
> dispersing over a broader area of nearby waters they typically inhabit. All
> else equal, in the absence of food, one would expect widely foraging
> pelagic birds either to spread out randomly, or possibly to orient directly
> for traditionally productive areas, such as Block Canyon, Georges Bank,
> etc.--if they could. Food shortage alone doesn't account for the
> unprecedented densities inshore in the New York Bight, unless they were
> actively seeking food in this unusual area, with seems very unlikely. I
> think they were starving, tried to keep moving, and wound up following a
> path of least resistance that brought them to where we encountered them.
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
> 
> From: bounce-121659418-3714...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-121659418-3714944@
> list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Richard Veit [rrvei...@gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 3:31 PM
> To: Ardith Bondi
> Cc: NYSBIRDS; eBirdsnyc
> Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and
> Starving - The New York Times
>
> i don't see any evidence of birds being "blown off course".  Starving,
> yes, and this seems likely due to shortage or lack of food, perhaps related
> to changing climate.  But wrecks of great shearwaters of roughly similar
> magnitude have been occurring episodically for years, perhaps moreso in
> Massachusetts than on long island
>
> On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 12:12 PM, Ardith Bondi  > wrote:
> --
>
> 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/
>
> --
>
>


-- 
Hugh McGuinness
Washington, D.C.

--

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/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Hugh McGuinness]

To play Devil's Advocate for a second: Great Shearwater is regular from
mid-May to late August off Suffolk County, so their occurrence in Nassau is
not really that surprising, and might be explained by something like the
improved quality of feeding offshore from Nassau, for which there is some
recent evidence. I agree that the shearwater kill requires an explanation,
but I remain unconvinced that the birds were significantly off course.

Hugh

On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 8:24 AM, Shaibal Mitra 
wrote:

> Hi Dick and all,
>
> I think it's fair to say that the multi-hundreds of Great Shearwaters
> observed from the Nassau County shoreline on 18 June were off course. The
> species is entirely absent from this area for years at a time (I'd never
> previously seen even one from shore in Nassau in over twenty years), and
> the sum total of records over all time is vastly lower the numbers seen in
> just a few hours. Thus, their extreme concentration in a small area where
> they are ordinarily completely absent requires explanation. The fact that
> they were starving explains why many birds died, but alone it doesn't
> account for why they were bunched up in the New York Bight, rather than
> dispersing over a broader area of nearby waters they typically inhabit. All
> else equal, in the absence of food, one would expect widely foraging
> pelagic birds either to spread out randomly, or possibly to orient directly
> for traditionally productive areas, such as Block Canyon, Georges Bank,
> etc.--if they could. Food shortage alone doesn't account for the
> unprecedented densities inshore in the New York Bight, unless they were
> actively seeking food in this unusual area, with seems very unlikely. I
> think they were starving, tried to keep moving, and wound up following a
> path of least resistance that brought them to where we encountered them.
>
> Shai Mitra
> Bay Shore
> 
> From: bounce-121659418-3714...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-121659418-3714944@
> list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Richard Veit [rrvei...@gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 3:31 PM
> To: Ardith Bondi
> Cc: NYSBIRDS; eBirdsnyc
> Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and
> Starving - The New York Times
>
> i don't see any evidence of birds being "blown off course".  Starving,
> yes, and this seems likely due to shortage or lack of food, perhaps related
> to changing climate.  But wrecks of great shearwaters of roughly similar
> magnitude have been occurring episodically for years, perhaps moreso in
> Massachusetts than on long island
>
> On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 12:12 PM, Ardith Bondi  > wrote:
> --
>
> 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/
>
> --
>
>


-- 
Hugh McGuinness
Washington, D.C.

--

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/

--

RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Dick and all,

I think it's fair to say that the multi-hundreds of Great Shearwaters observed 
from the Nassau County shoreline on 18 June were off course. The species is 
entirely absent from this area for years at a time (I'd never previously seen 
even one from shore in Nassau in over twenty years), and the sum total of 
records over all time is vastly lower the numbers seen in just a few hours. 
Thus, their extreme concentration in a small area where they are ordinarily 
completely absent requires explanation. The fact that they were starving 
explains why many birds died, but alone it doesn't account for why they were 
bunched up in the New York Bight, rather than dispersing over a broader area of 
nearby waters they typically inhabit. All else equal, in the absence of food, 
one would expect widely foraging pelagic birds either to spread out randomly, 
or possibly to orient directly for traditionally productive areas, such as 
Block Canyon, Georges Bank, etc.--if they could. Food shortage alone doesn't 
account for the unprecedented densities inshore in the New York Bight, unless 
they were actively seeking food in this unusual area, with seems very unlikely. 
I think they were starving, tried to keep moving, and wound up following a path 
of least resistance that brought them to where we encountered them. 

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-121659418-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-121659418-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Richard Veit 
[rrvei...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 3:31 PM
To: Ardith Bondi
Cc: NYSBIRDS; eBirdsnyc
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and 
Starving - The New York Times

i don't see any evidence of birds being "blown off course".  Starving, yes, and 
this seems likely due to shortage or lack of food, perhaps related to changing 
climate.  But wrecks of great shearwaters of roughly similar magnitude have 
been occurring episodically for years, perhaps moreso in Massachusetts than on 
long island

On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 12:12 PM, Ardith Bondi 
> wrote:
--

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/

--

RE: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Shaibal Mitra]

Hi Dick and all,

I think it's fair to say that the multi-hundreds of Great Shearwaters observed 
from the Nassau County shoreline on 18 June were off course. The species is 
entirely absent from this area for years at a time (I'd never previously seen 
even one from shore in Nassau in over twenty years), and the sum total of 
records over all time is vastly lower the numbers seen in just a few hours. 
Thus, their extreme concentration in a small area where they are ordinarily 
completely absent requires explanation. The fact that they were starving 
explains why many birds died, but alone it doesn't account for why they were 
bunched up in the New York Bight, rather than dispersing over a broader area of 
nearby waters they typically inhabit. All else equal, in the absence of food, 
one would expect widely foraging pelagic birds either to spread out randomly, 
or possibly to orient directly for traditionally productive areas, such as 
Block Canyon, Georges Bank, etc.--if they could. Food shortage alone doesn't 
account for the unprecedented densities inshore in the New York Bight, unless 
they were actively seeking food in this unusual area, with seems very unlikely. 
I think they were starving, tried to keep moving, and wound up following a path 
of least resistance that brought them to where we encountered them. 

Shai Mitra
Bay Shore

From: bounce-121659418-3714...@list.cornell.edu 
[bounce-121659418-3714...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Richard Veit 
[rrvei...@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 3:31 PM
To: Ardith Bondi
Cc: NYSBIRDS; eBirdsnyc
Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and 
Starving - The New York Times

i don't see any evidence of birds being "blown off course".  Starving, yes, and 
this seems likely due to shortage or lack of food, perhaps related to changing 
climate.  But wrecks of great shearwaters of roughly similar magnitude have 
been occurring episodically for years, perhaps moreso in Massachusetts than on 
long island

On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 12:12 PM, Ardith Bondi 
mailto:ard...@earthlink.net>> wrote:
--

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/

--

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Gus Keri]

Has any one looked into the possibility of viral infection? Viral infection can 
make birds thin and starved-looking and can affect large number of birds at 
once. 

New viruses are being seen every once in a while that scientists are not aware 
of, and these viruses are affecting all species including humans.

Gus



Sent using Zoho Mail






 On Sat, 15 Jul 2017 09:12:10 -0700 Ardith Bondi 
ard...@earthlink.net wrote 












https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-long-island.html?action=clickpgtype=Homepageversion=Moth-VisiblemoduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-2module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-regionWT.nav=inside-nyt-region
 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-long-island.html?action=clickpgtype=Homepageversion=Moth-VisiblemoduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-2module=inside-nyt-regionregion=inside-nyt-regionWT.nav=inside-nyt-region;
 

 

 

A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving 

LIDO BEACH, N.Y. — Joe Okoniewski has seen this before, just not on this 

scale. Each year Mr. 

Okoniewski, a wildlife pathologist with the New York State Department of 

Conservation, performs 

necropsies on small numbers of seabird specimens that wash up dead along 

the coastal parts of the state. 

The birds are usually lone adults or juveniles that strayed too close to 

shore. 

This summer Mr. Okoniewski has already examined more than 20 dead birds, 

while twice that many are 

awaiting necropsies. All are the same species of agile seabird called 

great shearwaters, and all washed up 

emaciated on Long Island beaches last month in a mass mortality event 

that scientists say is extraordinary 

for the region. 

Now Mr. Okoniewski and others are hoping the unusually large number of 

carcasses can provide clues 

into the mysterious lives of these birds, which are considered good 

indicators of the health of the world’s 

oceans. 

“The birds are extremely thin and anemic,” Mr. Okoniewski said. “The big 

mystery is: Why are they thin? 

On the surface it looks like you know what happened: They starved. But 

when you ask why, it becomes 

much more of a mystery.” 

Continue reading the main story 

The vast expanses of the ocean remain some of the most vital and 

hard-to-study environments on the 

planet. As scientists work to comprehend the scope of climate change, 

they often look to seabirds to tell 

stories from the world’s most inaccessible waters. Pelagic birds, which 

refers to seabirds that spend the 

majority of their lives at sea and rarely venture to the shore, traverse 

various regions and climates, are 

affected by extreme weather patterns and feed on prey exposed to carbon 

emissions — all while staying 

relatively observable above the water’s surface. 

Photo 

One of the seabirds found in Atlantic City, N.J. Hundreds of carcasses 

were found over the course of two weeks, from Montauk, N.Y., to as far south 

as Cape May, N.J. Credit Scott McConnell 

Greater shearwaters, which are long-winged birds the size of small sea 

gulls, nest on some of the world’s 

most remote islands in the south Atlantic, more than 1,500 miles from 

land, before migrating to the 

waters off New England and Newfoundland. 

“These birds really illustrate the connectivity of ecosystems around the 

world,” said Shai Mitra, a biologist 

at the College of Staten Island. 

Their sometimes-perilous journey takes them past Long Island each June, 

but only after they have fueled 

up at feeding grounds in the Caribbean. Living off fat reserves, they 

glide up the Gulf Stream, rarely 

venturing in sight of land. 

“They are sort of an enigma for us to understand them because they are 

so rarely seen,” said Paul Sweet, 

an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History who is 

preparing specimens of the birds and 

freezing them so that they are available for study in the future. 

Which is why it caused a stir within scientific circles in late June 

when an offshore weather system pushed 

an entire flock not just within sight of land, but also over the shores 

of Nickerson Beach in Nassau County. 

Birders flocked to Nickerson to get glimpses of hundreds of shearwaters 

unsuccessfully fighting wind and 

fog, like flapping flotsam. 

“Many of the birds were over land. Many were flying right on the 

shoreline,” said Isaac Grant, a birder 

from Staten Island. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Eventually, I 

stopped looking and started rescuing 

birds.” 

Hundreds of carcasses were found over the course of two weeks, from 

Montauk west to Brooklyn and as 

far south as Cape May, N.J. 

Steve Walter, a photographer from Brooklyn, arrived at Nickerson Beach 

to find straggling shearwaters 

battling the surf. He picked one up to protect it from the waves, 

“babysitting” it before rehabilitators 

arrived. 

“I never imagined myself holding a shearwater in my hands,” Mr. Walter said. 

Nearly all of the dozens of birds 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Gus Keri]

Has any one looked into the possibility of viral infection? Viral infection can 
make birds thin and starved-looking and can affect large number of birds at 
once. 

New viruses are being seen every once in a while that scientists are not aware 
of, and these viruses are affecting all species including humans.

Gus



Sent using Zoho Mail






 On Sat, 15 Jul 2017 09:12:10 -0700 Ardith Bondi 
ard...@earthlink.net wrote 












https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-long-island.html?action=clickpgtype=Homepageversion=Moth-VisiblemoduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-2module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-regionWT.nav=inside-nyt-region
 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-long-island.html?action=clickpgtype=Homepageversion=Moth-VisiblemoduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-2module=inside-nyt-regionregion=inside-nyt-regionWT.nav=inside-nyt-region;
 

 

 

A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving 

LIDO BEACH, N.Y. — Joe Okoniewski has seen this before, just not on this 

scale. Each year Mr. 

Okoniewski, a wildlife pathologist with the New York State Department of 

Conservation, performs 

necropsies on small numbers of seabird specimens that wash up dead along 

the coastal parts of the state. 

The birds are usually lone adults or juveniles that strayed too close to 

shore. 

This summer Mr. Okoniewski has already examined more than 20 dead birds, 

while twice that many are 

awaiting necropsies. All are the same species of agile seabird called 

great shearwaters, and all washed up 

emaciated on Long Island beaches last month in a mass mortality event 

that scientists say is extraordinary 

for the region. 

Now Mr. Okoniewski and others are hoping the unusually large number of 

carcasses can provide clues 

into the mysterious lives of these birds, which are considered good 

indicators of the health of the world’s 

oceans. 

“The birds are extremely thin and anemic,” Mr. Okoniewski said. “The big 

mystery is: Why are they thin? 

On the surface it looks like you know what happened: They starved. But 

when you ask why, it becomes 

much more of a mystery.” 

Continue reading the main story 

The vast expanses of the ocean remain some of the most vital and 

hard-to-study environments on the 

planet. As scientists work to comprehend the scope of climate change, 

they often look to seabirds to tell 

stories from the world’s most inaccessible waters. Pelagic birds, which 

refers to seabirds that spend the 

majority of their lives at sea and rarely venture to the shore, traverse 

various regions and climates, are 

affected by extreme weather patterns and feed on prey exposed to carbon 

emissions — all while staying 

relatively observable above the water’s surface. 

Photo 

One of the seabirds found in Atlantic City, N.J. Hundreds of carcasses 

were found over the course of two weeks, from Montauk, N.Y., to as far south 

as Cape May, N.J. Credit Scott McConnell 

Greater shearwaters, which are long-winged birds the size of small sea 

gulls, nest on some of the world’s 

most remote islands in the south Atlantic, more than 1,500 miles from 

land, before migrating to the 

waters off New England and Newfoundland. 

“These birds really illustrate the connectivity of ecosystems around the 

world,” said Shai Mitra, a biologist 

at the College of Staten Island. 

Their sometimes-perilous journey takes them past Long Island each June, 

but only after they have fueled 

up at feeding grounds in the Caribbean. Living off fat reserves, they 

glide up the Gulf Stream, rarely 

venturing in sight of land. 

“They are sort of an enigma for us to understand them because they are 

so rarely seen,” said Paul Sweet, 

an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History who is 

preparing specimens of the birds and 

freezing them so that they are available for study in the future. 

Which is why it caused a stir within scientific circles in late June 

when an offshore weather system pushed 

an entire flock not just within sight of land, but also over the shores 

of Nickerson Beach in Nassau County. 

Birders flocked to Nickerson to get glimpses of hundreds of shearwaters 

unsuccessfully fighting wind and 

fog, like flapping flotsam. 

“Many of the birds were over land. Many were flying right on the 

shoreline,” said Isaac Grant, a birder 

from Staten Island. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Eventually, I 

stopped looking and started rescuing 

birds.” 

Hundreds of carcasses were found over the course of two weeks, from 

Montauk west to Brooklyn and as 

far south as Cape May, N.J. 

Steve Walter, a photographer from Brooklyn, arrived at Nickerson Beach 

to find straggling shearwaters 

battling the surf. He picked one up to protect it from the waves, 

“babysitting” it before rehabilitators 

arrived. 

“I never imagined myself holding a shearwater in my hands,” Mr. Walter said. 

Nearly all of the dozens of birds 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Richard Veit]

i don't see any evidence of birds being "blown off course".  Starving, yes,
and this seems likely due to shortage or lack of food, perhaps related to
changing climate.  But wrecks of great shearwaters of roughly similar
magnitude have been occurring episodically for years, perhaps moreso in
Massachusetts than on long island

On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 12:12 PM, Ardith Bondi  wrote:

>
>
>
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-l
> ong-island.html?action=click=Homepage=Moth-Vi
> sible=inside-nyt-region-2=inside-nyt-region
> ®ion=inside-nyt-region=inside-nyt-region
>  long-island.html?action=click=Homepage=Moth-V
> isible=inside-nyt-region-2=inside-nyt-
> region=inside-nyt-region=inside-nyt-region>
>
> A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving
> LIDO BEACH, N.Y. — Joe Okoniewski has seen this before, just not on this
> scale. Each year Mr.
> Okoniewski, a wildlife pathologist with the New York State Department of
> Conservation, performs
> necropsies on small numbers of seabird specimens that wash up dead along
> the coastal parts of the state.
> The birds are usually lone adults or juveniles that strayed too close to
> shore.
> This summer Mr. Okoniewski has already examined more than 20 dead birds,
> while twice that many are
> awaiting necropsies. All are the same species of agile seabird called
> great shearwaters, and all washed up
> emaciated on Long Island beaches last month in a mass mortality event that
> scientists say is extraordinary
> for the region.
> Now Mr. Okoniewski and others are hoping the unusually large number of
> carcasses can provide clues
> into the mysterious lives of these birds, which are considered good
> indicators of the health of the world’s
> oceans.
> “The birds are extremely thin and anemic,” Mr. Okoniewski said. “The big
> mystery is: Why are they thin?
> On the surface it looks like you know what happened: They starved. But
> when you ask why, it becomes
> much more of a mystery.”
> Continue reading the main story
> The vast expanses of the ocean remain some of the most vital and
> hard-to-study environments on the
> planet. As scientists work to comprehend the scope of climate change, they
> often look to seabirds to tell
> stories from the world’s most inaccessible waters. Pelagic birds, which
> refers to seabirds that spend the
> majority of their lives at sea and rarely venture to the shore, traverse
> various regions and climates, are
> affected by extreme weather patterns and feed on prey exposed to carbon
> emissions — all while staying
> relatively observable above the water’s surface.
> Photo
> One of the seabirds found in Atlantic City, N.J. Hundreds of carcasses
> were found over the course of two weeks, from Montauk, N.Y., to as far south
> as Cape May, N.J. Credit Scott McConnell
> Greater shearwaters, which are long-winged birds the size of small sea
> gulls, nest on some of the world’s
> most remote islands in the south Atlantic, more than 1,500 miles from
> land, before migrating to the
> waters off New England and Newfoundland.
> “These birds really illustrate the connectivity of ecosystems around the
> world,” said Shai Mitra, a biologist
> at the College of Staten Island.
> Their sometimes-perilous journey takes them past Long Island each June,
> but only after they have fueled
> up at feeding grounds in the Caribbean. Living off fat reserves, they
> glide up the Gulf Stream, rarely
> venturing in sight of land.
> “They are sort of an enigma for us to understand them because they are so
> rarely seen,” said Paul Sweet,
> an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History who is
> preparing specimens of the birds and
> freezing them so that they are available for study in the future.
> Which is why it caused a stir within scientific circles in late June when
> an offshore weather system pushed
> an entire flock not just within sight of land, but also over the shores of
> Nickerson Beach in Nassau County.
> Birders flocked to Nickerson to get glimpses of hundreds of shearwaters
> unsuccessfully fighting wind and
> fog, like flapping flotsam.
> “Many of the birds were over land. Many were flying right on the
> shoreline,” said Isaac Grant, a birder
> from Staten Island. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Eventually, I
> stopped looking and started rescuing
> birds.”
> Hundreds of carcasses were found over the course of two weeks, from
> Montauk west to Brooklyn and as
> far south as Cape May, N.J.
> Steve Walter, a photographer from Brooklyn, arrived at Nickerson Beach to
> find straggling shearwaters
> battling the surf. He picked one up to protect it from the waves,
> “babysitting” it before rehabilitators
> arrived.
> “I never imagined myself holding a shearwater in my hands,” Mr. Walter
> said.
> Nearly all of the dozens of birds recovered by rescuers eventually died,
> and the bodies were sent to the
> state Department of 

Re: [nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Richard Veit]

i don't see any evidence of birds being "blown off course".  Starving, yes,
and this seems likely due to shortage or lack of food, perhaps related to
changing climate.  But wrecks of great shearwaters of roughly similar
magnitude have been occurring episodically for years, perhaps moreso in
Massachusetts than on long island

On Sat, Jul 15, 2017 at 12:12 PM, Ardith Bondi  wrote:

>
>
>
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-l
> ong-island.html?action=click=Homepage=Moth-Vi
> sible=inside-nyt-region-2=inside-nyt-region
> ®ion=inside-nyt-region=inside-nyt-region
>  long-island.html?action=click=Homepage=Moth-V
> isible=inside-nyt-region-2=inside-nyt-
> region=inside-nyt-region=inside-nyt-region>
>
> A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving
> LIDO BEACH, N.Y. — Joe Okoniewski has seen this before, just not on this
> scale. Each year Mr.
> Okoniewski, a wildlife pathologist with the New York State Department of
> Conservation, performs
> necropsies on small numbers of seabird specimens that wash up dead along
> the coastal parts of the state.
> The birds are usually lone adults or juveniles that strayed too close to
> shore.
> This summer Mr. Okoniewski has already examined more than 20 dead birds,
> while twice that many are
> awaiting necropsies. All are the same species of agile seabird called
> great shearwaters, and all washed up
> emaciated on Long Island beaches last month in a mass mortality event that
> scientists say is extraordinary
> for the region.
> Now Mr. Okoniewski and others are hoping the unusually large number of
> carcasses can provide clues
> into the mysterious lives of these birds, which are considered good
> indicators of the health of the world’s
> oceans.
> “The birds are extremely thin and anemic,” Mr. Okoniewski said. “The big
> mystery is: Why are they thin?
> On the surface it looks like you know what happened: They starved. But
> when you ask why, it becomes
> much more of a mystery.”
> Continue reading the main story
> The vast expanses of the ocean remain some of the most vital and
> hard-to-study environments on the
> planet. As scientists work to comprehend the scope of climate change, they
> often look to seabirds to tell
> stories from the world’s most inaccessible waters. Pelagic birds, which
> refers to seabirds that spend the
> majority of their lives at sea and rarely venture to the shore, traverse
> various regions and climates, are
> affected by extreme weather patterns and feed on prey exposed to carbon
> emissions — all while staying
> relatively observable above the water’s surface.
> Photo
> One of the seabirds found in Atlantic City, N.J. Hundreds of carcasses
> were found over the course of two weeks, from Montauk, N.Y., to as far south
> as Cape May, N.J. Credit Scott McConnell
> Greater shearwaters, which are long-winged birds the size of small sea
> gulls, nest on some of the world’s
> most remote islands in the south Atlantic, more than 1,500 miles from
> land, before migrating to the
> waters off New England and Newfoundland.
> “These birds really illustrate the connectivity of ecosystems around the
> world,” said Shai Mitra, a biologist
> at the College of Staten Island.
> Their sometimes-perilous journey takes them past Long Island each June,
> but only after they have fueled
> up at feeding grounds in the Caribbean. Living off fat reserves, they
> glide up the Gulf Stream, rarely
> venturing in sight of land.
> “They are sort of an enigma for us to understand them because they are so
> rarely seen,” said Paul Sweet,
> an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History who is
> preparing specimens of the birds and
> freezing them so that they are available for study in the future.
> Which is why it caused a stir within scientific circles in late June when
> an offshore weather system pushed
> an entire flock not just within sight of land, but also over the shores of
> Nickerson Beach in Nassau County.
> Birders flocked to Nickerson to get glimpses of hundreds of shearwaters
> unsuccessfully fighting wind and
> fog, like flapping flotsam.
> “Many of the birds were over land. Many were flying right on the
> shoreline,” said Isaac Grant, a birder
> from Staten Island. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Eventually, I
> stopped looking and started rescuing
> birds.”
> Hundreds of carcasses were found over the course of two weeks, from
> Montauk west to Brooklyn and as
> far south as Cape May, N.J.
> Steve Walter, a photographer from Brooklyn, arrived at Nickerson Beach to
> find straggling shearwaters
> battling the surf. He picked one up to protect it from the waves,
> “babysitting” it before rehabilitators
> arrived.
> “I never imagined myself holding a shearwater in my hands,” Mr. Walter
> said.
> Nearly all of the dozens of birds recovered by rescuers eventually died,
> and the bodies were sent to the
> state Department of Conservation, the Museum of 

[nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Ardith Bondi]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-long-island.html?action=click=Homepage=Moth-Visible=inside-nyt-region-2=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region=inside-nyt-region 

 



A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving
LIDO BEACH, N.Y. — Joe Okoniewski has seen this before, just not on this 
scale. Each year Mr.
Okoniewski, a wildlife pathologist with the New York State Department of 
Conservation, performs
necropsies on small numbers of seabird specimens that wash up dead along 
the coastal parts of the state.
The birds are usually lone adults or juveniles that strayed too close to 
shore.
This summer Mr. Okoniewski has already examined more than 20 dead birds, 
while twice that many are
awaiting necropsies. All are the same species of agile seabird called 
great shearwaters, and all washed up
emaciated on Long Island beaches last month in a mass mortality event 
that scientists say is extraordinary

for the region.
Now Mr. Okoniewski and others are hoping the unusually large number of 
carcasses can provide clues
into the mysterious lives of these birds, which are considered good 
indicators of the health of the world’s

oceans.
“The birds are extremely thin and anemic,” Mr. Okoniewski said. “The big 
mystery is: Why are they thin?
On the surface it looks like you know what happened: They starved. But 
when you ask why, it becomes

much more of a mystery.”
Continue reading the main story
The vast expanses of the ocean remain some of the most vital and 
hard-to-study environments on the
planet. As scientists work to comprehend the scope of climate change, 
they often look to seabirds to tell
stories from the world’s most inaccessible waters. Pelagic birds, which 
refers to seabirds that spend the
majority of their lives at sea and rarely venture to the shore, traverse 
various regions and climates, are
affected by extreme weather patterns and feed on prey exposed to carbon 
emissions — all while staying

relatively observable above the water’s surface.
Photo
One of the seabirds found in Atlantic City, N.J. Hundreds of carcasses 
were found over the course of two weeks, from Montauk, N.Y., to as far south

as Cape May, N.J. Credit Scott McConnell
Greater shearwaters, which are long-winged birds the size of small sea 
gulls, nest on some of the world’s
most remote islands in the south Atlantic, more than 1,500 miles from 
land, before migrating to the

waters off New England and Newfoundland.
“These birds really illustrate the connectivity of ecosystems around the 
world,” said Shai Mitra, a biologist

at the College of Staten Island.
Their sometimes-perilous journey takes them past Long Island each June, 
but only after they have fueled
up at feeding grounds in the Caribbean. Living off fat reserves, they 
glide up the Gulf Stream, rarely

venturing in sight of land.
“They are sort of an enigma for us to understand them because they are 
so rarely seen,” said Paul Sweet,
an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History who is 
preparing specimens of the birds and

freezing them so that they are available for study in the future.
Which is why it caused a stir within scientific circles in late June 
when an offshore weather system pushed
an entire flock not just within sight of land, but also over the shores 
of Nickerson Beach in Nassau County.
Birders flocked to Nickerson to get glimpses of hundreds of shearwaters 
unsuccessfully fighting wind and

fog, like flapping flotsam.
“Many of the birds were over land. Many were flying right on the 
shoreline,” said Isaac Grant, a birder
from Staten Island. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Eventually, I 
stopped looking and started rescuing

birds.”
Hundreds of carcasses were found over the course of two weeks, from 
Montauk west to Brooklyn and as

far south as Cape May, N.J.
Steve Walter, a photographer from Brooklyn, arrived at Nickerson Beach 
to find straggling shearwaters
battling the surf. He picked one up to protect it from the waves, 
“babysitting” it before rehabilitators

arrived.
“I never imagined myself holding a shearwater in my hands,” Mr. Walter said.
Nearly all of the dozens of birds recovered by rescuers eventually died, 
and the bodies were sent to the
state Department of Conservation, the Museum of Natural History or 
Cornell University’s Lab of

Ornithology.
Most of the victims were young birds, Mr. Okoniewski said. Though bits 
of plastic were found in some of
their stomachs, starvation, not plastic ingestion, remains the 
overarching cause of death, he concluded.
In years past, shearwaters have been found beached in large numbers in 
other parts of the United States.
The winds that forced the birds over land in and around New York City 
last month were relatively benign,

further deepening the mystery.
Why 

[nysbirds-l] Fwd: A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving - The New York Times

[Ardith Bondi]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/nyregion/seabird-deaths-long-island.html?action=click=Homepage=Moth-Visible=inside-nyt-region-2=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region=inside-nyt-region 

 



A Mystery of Seabirds, Blown Off Course and Starving
LIDO BEACH, N.Y. — Joe Okoniewski has seen this before, just not on this 
scale. Each year Mr.
Okoniewski, a wildlife pathologist with the New York State Department of 
Conservation, performs
necropsies on small numbers of seabird specimens that wash up dead along 
the coastal parts of the state.
The birds are usually lone adults or juveniles that strayed too close to 
shore.
This summer Mr. Okoniewski has already examined more than 20 dead birds, 
while twice that many are
awaiting necropsies. All are the same species of agile seabird called 
great shearwaters, and all washed up
emaciated on Long Island beaches last month in a mass mortality event 
that scientists say is extraordinary

for the region.
Now Mr. Okoniewski and others are hoping the unusually large number of 
carcasses can provide clues
into the mysterious lives of these birds, which are considered good 
indicators of the health of the world’s

oceans.
“The birds are extremely thin and anemic,” Mr. Okoniewski said. “The big 
mystery is: Why are they thin?
On the surface it looks like you know what happened: They starved. But 
when you ask why, it becomes

much more of a mystery.”
Continue reading the main story
The vast expanses of the ocean remain some of the most vital and 
hard-to-study environments on the
planet. As scientists work to comprehend the scope of climate change, 
they often look to seabirds to tell
stories from the world’s most inaccessible waters. Pelagic birds, which 
refers to seabirds that spend the
majority of their lives at sea and rarely venture to the shore, traverse 
various regions and climates, are
affected by extreme weather patterns and feed on prey exposed to carbon 
emissions — all while staying

relatively observable above the water’s surface.
Photo
One of the seabirds found in Atlantic City, N.J. Hundreds of carcasses 
were found over the course of two weeks, from Montauk, N.Y., to as far south

as Cape May, N.J. Credit Scott McConnell
Greater shearwaters, which are long-winged birds the size of small sea 
gulls, nest on some of the world’s
most remote islands in the south Atlantic, more than 1,500 miles from 
land, before migrating to the

waters off New England and Newfoundland.
“These birds really illustrate the connectivity of ecosystems around the 
world,” said Shai Mitra, a biologist

at the College of Staten Island.
Their sometimes-perilous journey takes them past Long Island each June, 
but only after they have fueled
up at feeding grounds in the Caribbean. Living off fat reserves, they 
glide up the Gulf Stream, rarely

venturing in sight of land.
“They are sort of an enigma for us to understand them because they are 
so rarely seen,” said Paul Sweet,
an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History who is 
preparing specimens of the birds and

freezing them so that they are available for study in the future.
Which is why it caused a stir within scientific circles in late June 
when an offshore weather system pushed
an entire flock not just within sight of land, but also over the shores 
of Nickerson Beach in Nassau County.
Birders flocked to Nickerson to get glimpses of hundreds of shearwaters 
unsuccessfully fighting wind and

fog, like flapping flotsam.
“Many of the birds were over land. Many were flying right on the 
shoreline,” said Isaac Grant, a birder
from Staten Island. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Eventually, I 
stopped looking and started rescuing

birds.”
Hundreds of carcasses were found over the course of two weeks, from 
Montauk west to Brooklyn and as

far south as Cape May, N.J.
Steve Walter, a photographer from Brooklyn, arrived at Nickerson Beach 
to find straggling shearwaters
battling the surf. He picked one up to protect it from the waves, 
“babysitting” it before rehabilitators

arrived.
“I never imagined myself holding a shearwater in my hands,” Mr. Walter said.
Nearly all of the dozens of birds recovered by rescuers eventually died, 
and the bodies were sent to the
state Department of Conservation, the Museum of Natural History or 
Cornell University’s Lab of

Ornithology.
Most of the victims were young birds, Mr. Okoniewski said. Though bits 
of plastic were found in some of
their stomachs, starvation, not plastic ingestion, remains the 
overarching cause of death, he concluded.
In years past, shearwaters have been found beached in large numbers in 
other parts of the United States.
The winds that forced the birds over land in and around New York City 
last month were relatively benign,

further deepening the mystery.
Why