Mid-October is too late for Sabine's Gull around Cape Cod. September is really the best month, with the 2011 peak apparently in late September.
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| This was our #1 target bird: Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini). Unfortunately none of these beautiful gulls were seen in Massachusetts after October 12th, but we did get to see lots of other excellent seabirds, as you can see in the trip report below.... |
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| One of the handsome Parasitic Jaegers seen around Provincetown, MA in October 2011. Photo by Keith Mueller. |
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| From... Oregon Birds: Parasitic Jaeger Note the single white flash under the wing in all plumages. |
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| Here is one of the many Parasitic Jaegers we did see on October 15th, just off Nauset/North Beach. Photo by Keith Mueller. |
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| Jaeger clearly showing the single unbroken (pomarine often shows double) white wing flashes on the underwing, as we saw (perhaps not this clearly) on numerous jaegers on October 15th. Public photos are used here to provide some of the close-up views which were hard for us to get in the field. |
HAS 2011 sea-birding trip to Outer Cape Cod, MA
Future HAS Field Trips Planned .
Recent HAS Trip Reports (http://www.hartfordaudubon.org/newsletter.htm)
Future HAS Field Trips Planned .
Recent HAS Trip Reports (http://www.hartfordaudubon.org/newsletter.htm)
2011 October 15-16
65 degrees F, clear, and very windy both days. Less than 10% cloud cover.
Winds SE late friday, then S, then SW, then W, then WNW by sunday afternoon, averaging 15-25knots.
Ocean temperature off cape cod about 62 F.
Provincetown low tide around 7am.
Provincetown low tide around 7am.
Waves 5-8 feet, and probably higher out around Stellwagen Bank.
Provincetown's Dolphin Fleet of boats would not go out either day, due to high wind and waves.
Therefore our Sunday whale/pelagic seabird boat ride did not happen.
Provincetown's Dolphin Fleet of boats would not go out either day, due to high wind and waves.
Therefore our Sunday whale/pelagic seabird boat ride did not happen.
15 people participated on first day. 6 people on second day.
By the way, less than 2 weeks later, on Oct 27th we already had 10+ inches of snow across New England!
By the way, less than 2 weeks later, on Oct 27th we already had 10+ inches of snow across New England!
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Northern Fulmar: Two seen distantly from Highland Light, Truro, MA on Oct 15, 2011. Note the stiff bowed wings, the short tail, the short tubenose bill, the stocky neck, the white in the wings, the gull-like coloring. Unfortunately we did not get as close as this photographer did.
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| Northern Fulmar distribution map. Yellow shows breeding areas. Blue is the rest of the year. Click to enlarge. From Wikipedia. |
LOCATIONS:
Nine main stops in Cape Cod (the first seven on october 15):
SATURDAY OCTOBER 15TH:
HC=Herring Cove Beach, Provincetown, MA (starting at 6:15am) with view of Cape Cod Bay.
R=Race Point Beach, Provincetown, MA with ocean view from the beach/dunes.
M=MacMillan Pier, Provincetown, MA
HL=Highland Light, Truro, MA with excellent ocean view from 125-foot high overlook.
F=First Encounter Beach, Wellfleet, MA with view of Cape Cod Bay.
N=Nauset/North Beach, Orleans, MA with ocean view from the beach/dunes.
C=Chatham Fish Pier, Chatham, MA
SUNDAY OCTOBER 16TH:
Whale/Pelagic trip cancelled by boat owner because of the very strong winds and rough ocean!
F2=First Encounter Beach (second visit, on sunday october 16th).
T=Tihonnet Street cranberry bog, Wareham, MA (this is in the SW part of Cape Cod).
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| Stylized comparison of Northern Fulmar, Cory's Shearwater, Great Shearwater, Sooty Shearwater, Manx Shearwater. All except Sooty were seen on Oct 15th. Thanks to Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies . |
BIRDS seen October 15-16, 2011:
(see location abbreviations above... HC, R, M, HL, F, N, C, F2, T)
Brant: 2 at F2
Common Eider: 100 at HC, 200 at M, 25 at F, 6 at N, 4 at C, 100 at F2,
scoter spp: 200 at M,
Surf Scoter: 10 at HC,
White-winged Scoter: 40 at HC, 6 at F, 30 at N, 15 at F2,
Black Scoter: 4 at HC, 5 at N,
Red-breasted Merganser: 25 at HC,
Common Loon: 2 at R
NORTHERN FULMAR: 2 (lt) at HL, including one shearing around a distant fishing boat.
CORY'S SHEARWATER: 5 at HL,
GREAT SHEARWATER: 20 at HC, 20 a R, 200 at HL, 1 at F2,
SOOTY SHEARWATER: zero
MANX SHEARWATER: 20 at HC, 3 at HL,
NORTHERN GANNET: several thousand at HC, 80 at M, 100 at M, 200 at HL, 100 at N, 100 at F2,
BROWN BOOBY: zero (we tried and failed several times at M).
Double-crested Cormorant: 1000 at M, 200 at C,
Great Cormorant: 25 at M (including 1 adult).
Great Blue Heron: 1 at F2,
Turkey Vulture: 1 at HL,
Harrier: 1 at F,
SANDHILL CRANE: 5 at T (this was in Wareham, in SW Cape Cod, on Sunday).
Black-bellied Plover: 50 at HC, 1 at F, 5 at N, 5 at C, 10 at F2,
Semipalmated Plover: 2 at HC, 20 at F2,
American Oystercatcher: 29 at C,
Greater Yellowlegs: 1 at F, 2 at F2,
Ruddy Turnstone: 2 at C, 2 at M,
Sanderling: 100 at HC, 10 at N, 25 at C, 20 at F2,
Dunlin: 2 at HC, 20 at C,
hybrid gull: 1 at C.... Probably a hybrid Herring x Great Black-backed hybrid.
Laughing Gull: 200 at HC, yes at F, 10 at N, yes at F2,
Ring-billed Gull: yes at F, yes at F2,
Herring Gull: 500 at HC, yes at F, 100 at N, yes at F2, yes everywhere.
Great Black-backed Gull: 1,000 at HC, yes at F, 50 at N, yes at F2, yes everywhere.
SABINE'S GULL: zero (we searched non-stop near&far and failed at every location visited).
Common Tern: 200 at HC, 300 at R, 25 at M, 10 at N, 20 at F2 (and thousands seen in the distance over Billingsgate Island),
Forster's Tern: 40 at R,
PARASITIC JAEGER: 40 at R, 6 at M, 1 at N, 3 at F2 (1 dark morph).... most jaegers seen were certain or highly probable parasitics.
RAZORBILL: 2 at M,
American Crow: 4 at F,
Tree Swallow: 100 at HC, 300 at HL,
Song Sparrow: 3 at HL, 2 at F,
Total of 37 species.
This trip focused all its limited time and energy on seabirds, e.g., "road-side birds" and those around the motel were not counted for this list.
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Thanks to all, for your contributions to this trip!
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| Great Shearwaters, similar to the birds we saw, gliding on their stiff and slightly bowed wings. |
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| Great Shearwater distribution map. Breeds in South Atlantic on Tristan da Cunha, Gough Island, Inaccessible Island and Nightingale Island. It is one of the few species to migrate from breeding grounds in the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. Migration follows a clockwise circular route around both Atlantic Oceans. Thanks to OBIS-SEAMAP |
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| Guy Tudor's Great Shearwater in Life Magazine on September 28, 1959. In this famous issue of Life Magazine... “Wonders of Bird Migration” (Life Magazine, 1959) – Artwork by Guy Tudor |
So where do these Great Shearwaters breed during November thru February (summer in the South Atlantic)? Mostly on four islands: Nightingale Island, Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha (Tristan da Cunha - Wikipedia), and Gough Island (aka Diego Alvarez, and shown in the photo below from Gaggins_Point on Gough Island)... All these islands are in the far South Atlantic, six days west of Cape Town by ship (the only way to get there -- unless you are a seabird).
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| Gough Island, six days from the nearest civilization by ship (the only way to get there) and the "summertime" home of the Great Shearwater. Click to enlarge, and Esc key to return. |
One-paragraph trip report as posted to CTbirds and MASSbirds...
Subject: Sabines NO.... Fulmar, Corys, Manx, Jaegers, Razorbills YES.
From: Thomas Robben <robben99 AT gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:39:22 -0400
HAS Cape Cod seabirding field trip Oct 15th:
The Hartford Audubon Society field trip to Cape Cod had a pretty good windy
day for seabirds on October 15th, including several hour-long seawatches
from Herring Cove, Race Point, Highland Light, First Encounter Beach, and
Nauset Beach. Highlights included 2 Northern Fulmars (at Highland Light), 5
Cory's Shearwaters (at Highland Light), 23 Manx Shearwaters, a large number
of Great Shearwaters (most around a boat passing Highland Light), almost
50 jaegers (most identifiable as Parasitic and most at Race Point), 2
Razorbills, and several thousand Northern Gannets in a 6:30am feeding blitz
off Herring Cove Beach. It appears that many of the terns which were around
Provincetown and Nauset Beach one week earlier had left. We looked intensely
for any Sabine's Gull(s), but to no avail, especially since our planned
Sunday boat trip was cancelled by the wind and waves. Details on this trip
will be provided next week.
Tom Robben and Keith Mueller
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This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for
the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut.
For Keith Mueller's more detailed photo-trip-report on all this, please go to .....
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| Looking down from Highland Light's cliff 125 feet over the ocean, this is the boat which passed closest to us, trailing lots of gulls and shearwaters (easier to ID by the way they fly, rather than in distant still photos), and possibly several additional Fulmars seen in other photos of the wake of this boat. You can click on this or any image to expand it. Photo by Keith Mueller 2011/10/15. |
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| My favorite.... the beautiful Highland Light overlook, 125 feet high, towering above the Atlantic Ocean, with seals, seabirds and a few hardy fishing boats below. |
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| Green stickpins indicate our actual stops on October 15, 2011. Blue stickpins were all the potential/candidate stops, depending on the weather, the birds, etc. Choice of actual stops was made during the day, based on conditions. Click on map to enlarge it. ESC to go back. Click here to view the full map within Google Maps... CapeCod2011Oct15 |
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| Our team around 9am at Race Point Beach, Provincetown, MA watching jaegers and shearwaters on the ocean. Keith is fourth from the left, and scanning way-out in hopes of finding Edward Sabine's gorgeous gull! Carl Ekroth is on the far right, looking back at me, telling me to find the darn gull and stop taking group-photos! (-: |
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| Praying on my knees (and searching doggedly & non-stop) for Sabine's Gull at every seawatch all day |
We searched intensively all day October 15th for Sabine's Gull, but failed to find one. Hopefully next year, especially if we go several weeks earlier, and if the winds permit our boat to get out on the nearby ocean.
Please remember to check-out Keith Mueller's detailed & outstanding photo-trip-report by clicking on ....
