This morning Patricia Lindsay and I found one dead Great Shearwater and four dead Sooty Shearwaters along ca. two miles of beachfront at Democrat Point, southwestern Suffolk County. Mentioning this to others in our circle, I learned second-hand of reports today of many dead shearwaters along the beach in the Montauk area. If you are visiting the beaches over the next few days, please take a few minutes to check the wrack line for these birds. If unsure of the identification, please take a photo and feel free to contact me. If the bird is in fresh condition (checking the eyes is an easy way to tell), consider salvaging it for Paul Sweet at the American Museum of Natural History. If you cover some ground searching, be sure to measure or estimate the distance covered.
Many on this list will remember June 2017, when there was a spectacular inshore movement of Great Shearwaters along the whole Long Island coast, including much further west than usual, followed by the discovery of large numbers of dead birds. We also saw living Great and Cory's Shearwaters this morning, our first of the year. Shai Mitra Bay Shore -- 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/ --