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| Worth searching for! This Arctic breeding bird is #1 on our target list. Sabine's Gull (SA'-BYNE, rhyming with Stab-Pine, NOT a French pronunciation) RFI: Sabine's Gull Pronunciation |
On Saturday September 29, 2012 we will again be taking our best shot at finding the gorgeous and elusive Sabine's Gull (and other seabirds, of course), in the Stellwagen/Provincetown MA area where it is more likely to pop-up than elsewhere on the East Coast, at that late September time of year (which is when it was seen the most during 2011). Sabine's Gulls are few-and-far-between on the East Coast, even in this area. Register for this trip (by emailing to robben99@gmail.com), and hope that LadyLuck is on our side this year. It is an exciting long-shot, and as we search for this Arctic gull we expect to also enjoy some good seabirds, windy Autumn weather, old friends, and the beautiful Stellwagen Bank (4 hour boat trip) & Outer Cape area (the eastern-most north-south "arm" of Cape Cod) !
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| The yellow dashed oval suggests our general search area for Sabine's Gull and other seabirds on 9/29/2012 |
The blue lines below show two preparatory boat trips Keith Mueller and I did on 8/30 and 9/9 this year (2012), trying to locate where a migrating Sabine's Gull(s) might be hanging around this year, but without success so far (and usually they dont stay any one place for long, unfortunately -- although one is hanging around a reservoir near Baltimore MD sept 8-12th!)... Hopefully our 9/29 increased focus around the Race Point areas will pay off!....
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| Our preparatory trips shown with two blue tracks on the water, on August 30 and Sept 9, 2012. No Sabine's Gull found on those trips, but we did have a pretty good collection of seabirds on the Sept 9th trip, as noted below.... |
Our trip results for September 9, 2012 listed here.....
Common Loon 17
Wilson Storm-Petrel 12
Cory Shearwater 18
Great Shearwater 23
Sooty Shearwater 0
Manx Shearwater 10
Red-necked Phalarope 30
Northern Gannet 128
Laughing Gull 120
Herring Gull 60
Greater Black-backed Gull 350
Common Tern 75
Roseate Tern 10
Foster's Tern 1
Black Tern 1
Jaeger spp 1
Pomarine Jaeger 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Minke Whale 2
Hump-backed Whale 12
Common Dolphin 20
Ocean Sunfish 5
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| Excellent and calm weather on September 9th 2012, but we found no Sabine's Gull around Stellwagen Bank, so far. |
By the way, as you have probably used at one time or another, one excellent reference for all 700+ bird species which breed in North America is "The Birds of North America Online" which you can try or subscribe to for one month at a time, for $5. Here is a sample, a part of the first page about Sabine's Gull, and there are 16 more detailed article pages also about this species, as you can see from the left side panel, including a page on Distribution, plus several photographs, and a long bibliography of references...
Try it for a month and you will love the amount of information it has on 700+ species which breed in North America.
