Mid June presents some interesting and unexpected opportunities for birding on Long Island. An uptick in landbird vagrancy around the time of the solstice is a well recognized (if poorly understood) pattern nowadays, but who would surmise, by checking range maps or reading the old books, that Northern Gannets and Lesser Black-backed Gulls would be more numerous on LI in June than in January?
Bobby Berlingeri recorded 375 Northern Gannets off of Tobay Beach, Nassau County, last weekend, and other observers have been recording triple-digit tallies from Fire Island, Moriches, and Shinnecock Inlets. Bobby also saw at least four Wilson's Storm-petrels from Tobay yesterday (13 June), inspiring Pat and me, with the help of John Gluth, finally to connect with five of these birds at Cupsogue last night--the latest date Pat and I have gone before recording the species in at least a decade. As I'm writing this, Ken Feustel just called with a report of 17 WISPs at Robert Moses SP--the most I've heard of by far this season. In other seawatching news, Pat saw a Parasitic Jaeger from Cupsogue on Saturday afternoon (12 June), and Pat and John Gluth saw a Manx Shearwater last night (I was scoping the bayside at the time). The pattern emerging from this season's seawatches, at least so far, is low density but average to good diversity. Like Angus Wilson further east, Pat and I saw a Royal Tern over the ocean Sunday morning, at Robert Moses SP, and like Angus, a few dopey ducks can be found all along the LI shore: a male Surf Scoter at RMSP yesterday, two Common Eiders at Fire Island Inlet thru at least Friday, and two more Eiders recorded by Doug Futuyma at Shinnecock Inlet last week. Andrew Baksh has been keeping tabs on American Coot, Greater Scaup, and Blue-winged Teal lingering at Jamaica Bay (the teal might be breeding there). I photographed two First Summer Lesser Black-backed Gulls at Democrat Pt on Friday evening (not together, but among loafing flocks about a mile apart), and one of these had moved to RMSP parking Field 2 by the time I returned to my car. Yesterday, Pat and I found an adult-like LBBG at Pikes Beach, then noticed it was accompanied by not one but two First Summer individuals. Although the presence of loafing immature LBBGs at this season has become increasingly familiar, I believe this was the first white-headed, completely yellow-billed individual I've ever seen during June on LI. June is certainly the season for loafing one- and two-year-old charadriiforms on LI. Pat and I connected with our first First Summer Least Terns of the season on Saturday (one each at Mecox Bay and on the north shore of East Hampton, the latter accompanied by at least two Second Summer individuals), and First Summer Common Terns are now regular at Cupsogue, following arrival of the season's first on 2 June (there were two there, not necessarily the same birds, each day this weekend). In other tern news, small numbers of Roseate Terns continue to be conspicuous around Fire Island and Moriches Inlets, and Luke Ormand, Anthony Graves and John Turner have found at least two pairs breeding among Common Tern colonies in the latter area. I saw a Gull-billed Tern at Jam Bay on Thursday and Andrew saw the same or another there on Friday; this species is often very difficult to find at the height of the breeding season. White-rumped Sandpipers are still migrating heavily through Long Island: Andrew Baksh tallied 10+ at Jam Bay on Thursday and helped Jim Cullen, Sam Jannazzo and me tally up about a dozen adults (and one gray First Summer bird) at Cupsogue on Saturday. As the northbound flocks of brightly plumaged shorebirds move on, they've been replaced by smaller numbers of dull-plumaged non-breeders: two Dunlin, 47 SB Dowitchers, 25 Red Knots, three Black-bellied Plovers, etc. at Cupsogue this weekend. In addition to the 47 First Summer SB Dows yesterday were two breeding plumaged birds of the prevailing eastern subspecies griseus and one spanking adult of the scarcer Prairie-breeding subspecies hendersoni--nicely photographed by John Gluth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgluth_brb/ Hendersoni has been regarded as genuinely rare even a little to north of LI was thought to be just a scarce southbound migrant July-August here until close attention began yielding a handful of May and June records over the last few years. John's flickr site also shows an afflicted Red Knot with tumor-like growths on its head and throat--one of two such Knots at Cupsogue yesterday. A similarly afflicted White-rumped Sandpiper was photographed in Rhode Island on Saturday, and this phenomenon is well known--although again poorly understood--in our region during June. Pat's and my LI/NYC quarterly report for summer 2006 discusses the matter in some detail at: http://www.nybirds.org/KBsearch/y2006v56n4/y2006v56n4rgn10.pdf# --and I've posted photos of yesterday's Knots at: http://picasaweb.google.com/tixbirdz/LongIslandMiscellany2010# I'll finish this overly long post with a couple of observations of breeding (or potentially breeding landbirds). Juliette Goulet, Danielle Wilde, and I found a Field Sparrow and two American Redstarts on territory at Fort Tilden, Queens, on Thursday--noteworthy for the barrier beach, and Pat and I saw a pair of Yellow-throated Vireos carrying food in East Hampton's Northwest Woods on Saturday. Shai Mitra Bay Shore Think green before you print this email. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
