Today's Paulagics pelagic trip out of Freeport (Nassau County), NY was an incredible success, and not just because of the amazingly good weather (including seas so glassy that birds were at times identifiable by just their reflection in the water).
Highlights were as follows: Razorbill- 279 Common Murre- 242 (Shattering the old New York State high count by several fold) Atlantic Puffin- 7 Dovekie- ~230 Alcid sp.- 30 Northern Fulmar- 2 Black-legged Kittiwake- ~25 (all were adults except for 1 juvenile/first winter bird) "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull- 1 (3rd or 4th cycle (very adult-like) bird) Lesser Black-backed Gull- 1 (adult) Red-necked Grebe- 5 offshore (3 different encounters, with 2, 1, and 2 individuals) Horned Grebe- 3 offshore There was also a brief encounter with a very distant bird that was most probably a large Stercorarius, while we were enjoying the groups of Dovekies enveloping the boat ~60 miles out, but given its distance, and direction of flight, we weren't able to get anything approaching a reasonable view of it, and it disappeared into the horizon not to be seen by us again. This was a great confluence of excellent weather, cooperative (and many) birds, and, as usual, a great crew at the Captain Lou Fleet. Immense thanks to Paul and Anita Guris at Paulagics for putting this splendid day together. Good Birding! -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. -- 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/ --