This morning I spent 2 hours seawatching from the beach in Amagansett (Suffolk Co.). At first the visibility was quite poor due to excessive moisture in the air and a lot of spray being thrown up by the high surf, but fortunately the conditions improved considerable around 8:30 AM when the last bands of precipitation passed through and the sun came out.
The highlights were a strong west to east movement of COMMON LOONS (412), NORTHERN GANNETS (103) and SOOTY SHEARWATER (33). Sprinkled among these were a single RED-THROATED LOON, 3 MANX SHEARWATER, a single WILSON'S STORM-PETREL, a subadult LONG-TAILED JAEGER and a 1st-summer LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL. The jaeger was traveling W to E with 4 Common Terns offering a valuable size and shape comparison. Indicative of a subadult, it was dark headed, lacked tail streamers, and most importantly, lacked a visible flash on the upper side of the primaries whereas a small but obvious flash was visible on the underside. The flight dropped off markedly just before 10 AM, when the wind began to shift to the NW. Of local interest, an adult TRICOLORED HERON was on Little Reed Pond in Montauk. Angus Wilson New York City/Springs -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES 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://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
