Hi all, Anne Swaim, Larry Trachtenberg and I birded Montauk for a few hours today. At about noon, we saw a lone BLACK VULTURE fly low over the Montauk Point SP parking lot.
I haven't spent much time seawatching at Montauk Point, but it seemed that there was a very large number of scoters and eiders flying with the wind past the point today. We estimated perhaps 50 birds per second on average, and the stream was going strong both when we arrived and when we left two hours later. If you do the math, that's 360,000 birds in just that two hour period, and the species composition was roughly 50% Black Scoter, 20% White-winged, 20% Surf, and 10% Common Eider. I've posted a short video that I digiscoped with my phone (http://flic.kr/p/95sWsF), but it doesn't do the spectacle much justice. Is this a typical occurrence for Montauk, or perhaps related to the recent storm? Also of note, a few RAZORBILLS could be seen flying with all the scoters. A group of about a dozen AMERICAN PIPITS were hanging around the point too. Good birding, Benjamin Van Doren White Plains, NY -- 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/ --
