================
================
================
Subject: 12/10 Western Kingbird, Orleans
From: Ryan Schain <ryanschain AT gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:28:48 -0500
Massbird,
I inadvertently posted the location of this bird as 600 South Orleans Road
(Rt. 39). What it should have read was the field across from 600
Orleans-Chatham Road (Rt. 28).
Ryan Schain
Marshall Iliff and I just now had a Western Kingbird in Orleans. It is in
the field directly across from 600 South Orleans Road. It would be best to
park at the town landing just south of the above address and walk up along
the shoulder. The bird is in a private yard, but can easily be seen from
the road, and is allowing excellent scope views.
Ryan Schain
Boston
ryanschain AT gmail.com
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 12/8
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:22:14 -0500
This morning's NW gales produced a nice but rather wild and frenetic
seabird flight at First Encounter Beach in Eastham. It was one of those
mornings when birds were flying in both directions, and birds that were
flying with the wind were really rocketing. Viewing was not easy, and
counting was even more difficult and tenuous than usual. But there was
plenty to look at and it was tough to head for work at 8:30. Highlights
(0645 - 0830 hrs.; Mostly Cloudy, NW wind AT 20-35+mph, Seas rough, Tide
high):
2 N. Fulmars
11 Cory's Shearwaters (very uncertain number: could have been as few a
half a dozen seen repeatedly or as many as 15+, but as many as 4 in view
at once and one or more in view pretty much throughout the time I was
there; most very close to shore. My first ever in December!)
3 Great Shearwaters
850 N. Gannets (some very high directly over the parking lot)
460 Black-legged Kittiwakes (95+% ad.; most passing at close range,
including a couple of flocks of 80-100 birds)
75 Bonaparte's Gulls
18 Pomarine Jaegers (one flock of 9 birds)
14 jaeger sp.
11 Dovekies
80 Razorbills
500 lg. alcid sp. (probably many more on the horizon)
Complete list at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9296408
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: RE: Mid/upper cape - Guillemot, razorbills, fox sparrows, etc
From: tom hannigan <tjhannigan AT hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 23:05:29 +0000
Hi Peter,
Thanks to you I got to see the Black Guillemot at the Canal today. It was
feeding right along the shore at the Sandwich Tourist office. Also viewed
Common Loons, Red breasted Merganser, and about 6 Razorbills.
Tom Hannigan
Seekonk, MA
Subject: Seawatch @ Corporation Beach, Dennis, Dec 8, 2011
From: Matt Malin <hossfeldt AT yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 14:08:44 -0800 (PST)
This morning I went to Corporation Beach in Dennis to do a seawatch after the
storm cleared to see what might be blown in.� I was joined by Ed Hoopes after 8
AM.� It will be interesting to see what�may have been�seen at First Encounter
if Blair Nikula watched from there today.� eBird list below.
�
Matt Malin
Mashpee, MA
hossfeldt (at) yahoo (dot) com
Corporation Beach, Dennis, Barnstable, US-MA
Dec 8, 2011 7:00 AM - 10:25 AM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments:� � Sea watch 0700-0950 and 1005-1025.� Personal list, joined by Ed
Hoopes from 815-1025.� Rising tide to high ~ 930, noticed the switch in the
tide after 1005, not crashing as much, bird activity of high volume species
signifigantly decreased after 1000.� Most birds flying�E to W�in strong NW/WNW
winds (15-25). Temp 40-45F, mostly sunny, clear, bluebird morning.
23 species (+2 other taxa)
Brant� 90
Common Eider� 50
White-winged Scoter� 6
Black Scoter� 30
scoter sp.� 15
Long-tailed Duck� 95
Red-breasted Merganser� 20
Red-throated Loon� 4
Common Loon� 1
Horned Grebe� 3
Cory's Shearwater� 1� � All milk-chocolate brown shearwater above with dark
leading edge of primaries underneath, white on rest of underbody.� Lazy,
soaring flight low over the water.� Flying west.� Seen well by both Ed and I.
Northern Gannet� 375
Merlin� 1� � Swooped in on SAND(40)/DUNL(20) flock after 1000 in flats between
parking lot and breakwater, appeared to have talons in water chasing shorebirds
Sanderling� 82
Purple Sandpiper� 3
Dunlin� 20
Bonaparte's Gull� 305� � Flocks streaming by from 5-35 birds.� High count
during 900-950 hour.
Ring-billed Gull� 10
Herring Gull� 50
Great Black-backed Gull� 16
Dovekie� 1� � Seen with TB Murre, flying west
Thick-billed Murre� 1� � Seen with Dovekie, flying west
Razorbill� 275
large alcid sp.� 25
Black Guillemot� 1� � Adult, winter plumage, flying west
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3
(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach, Willets, WEKI 12/8
From: Alan Kneidel <akneidel AT gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 16:56:10 -0500
I spent some time birding out on the Cape this morning, seeking to take
advantage of the new air mass. I spent 830 to 1010 at First Encounter
Beach, scoping through an open car window amid an assault of spray and
sand. As anticipated, the bay was a churning cauldron of fun. Tons of birds
swirling about... many too far out to ID. Here are the positively
identified.
Brant - 15
Common Eider - 105
White-winged Scoter - 3
Long-tailed Duck - 35
Bufflehead - 1 female
Red-breasted Merganser - 1
Red-throated Loon - 1
Common Loon - 1
NORTHERN FULMAR - 1
CORY'S SHEARWATER - 4
GREAT SHEARWATER - 1
Northern Gannet - 150+
Peregrine Falcon - 1 - far out over water
Black-legged Kittiwake - 500+
Bonaparte's Gull - 1
Herring Gull - x
Greater Black-backed Gull - x
Pomarine Jaeger - 4
Jaeger sp - 6
DOVEKIE - 7 - flying singly or in pairs
Razorbill - 100s
There were 2 WILLETS roosting with some gulls on Jacknife Beach on Route 28
headed towards Chatham.
The WESTERN KINGBIRD was still present in Manomet at the same location as
of mid-afternoon today.
Alan Kneidel
Manomet, MA
================
Subject: East Gloucester, Wed., 7 Dec. 2011.
From: Richard Heil <rsheil AT comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:57:57 -0500
WEDNESDAY, 7 DECEMBER 2011:
EAST GLOUCESTER, MA (1245-1300 hrs.)
Weather: Overcast, rain, NE 10-20 mph, 45 F.
Richard S. Heil
Fifteen minutes scoping offshore from the south end of Atlantic Road
during lunch:
Red-necked Grebe (2)
Great Shearwater (5) : following fishing boat relatively close to shore.
Great Cormorant (7)
Black-legged Kittiwake (3 ads.)
Bonaparte's Gull (10+)
Herring Gull (1000+)
Kumlien's Gull (2): 1 ad., 1-1W.
Great Black-backed Gull (400)
Razorbill (1)
Black Guillemot (1)
Richard S. Heil
S. Peabody, MA
rsheil AT comcast.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/?saved=1
================
Subject: Mid/upper cape - Guillemot, razorbills, fox sparrows, etc
From: Peter Crosson <pcrosson AT emeraldphysicians.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2011 12:33:45 -0500
Hi all, I birded several locations in the Upper/Mid Cape today. Highlight was a
BLACK GUILLEMOT in the Cape Cod Canal, a juvenile I believe. This is a lifer
for me! Also had at least 30 RAZORBILLS in the canal, many extremely close to
shore. Other nice birds included female black and surf scoters at close range,
2 great cormorants, but surprisingly no harlequin ducks seen.
At Horizon's Beach more razorbills were seen. At the old fish hatchery, I had a
WILSON'S SNIPE, 2 swamp sparrows, and 5 golden-crowned kinglets.
On Navigation Rd in West Barnstable I had a mini-flock of 3 FOX SPARROWS in a
thicket near the end of the road. At Mill Pond in W. Barnstable was a large
variety of waterfowl, including 1 N. PINTAIL, 35+ ring-necked ducks, 1
GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 1 AM. COOT, 4 hooded mergansers and 50+ american wigeons.
At Marstons Mills airport the only highlight was a late eastern towhee. Finally
at Mill Pond in MM I had the continuing EURASIAN WIGEON, 1 GREEN-WINGED TEAL
and
2 hooded mergansers.
Some pictures of the guillemot, razorbills and snipe are at
www.flickr.com/petercrosson.
Good birding!
Peter Crosson
Osterville, MA
================
Subject: Guillemot, razorbills - Sandwich
From: Peter Crosson <pcrosson AT emeraldphysicians.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2011 08:24:34 -0500
Birders, this AM I had a black guillemot and 30+ razorbills in the Cape Cod
canal. The guillemot was seen at the breakwater.
Peter Crosson
Osterville, MA
================
Subject: Razorbills (etc.) up close
From: Al Curtis <killdeer89 AT comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:01:02 -0500
I stopped at Wellfleet Harbor late this afternoon (12/5) just as the
sunset was putting on a spectacular show and got ridiculously
close looks at 8 Razorbills, a Common Loon, and a Red-throated Loon.
I have seen COLO fairly close before but I've never been this close
to a RTLO. It was basically looking straight down from the dock into
the bird's eyes. Awesome!
Al Curtis
Harwich, MA
Subject: mid-Cape Monday
From: birder526 AT comcast.net
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2011 01:40:56 +0000 (UTC)
Hi Massbirders,
Today Mike Dettrey and I were joined by 6 birders to bird Corporation and W.
Dennis beaches and Dennis ponds in between. Highlights only are listed below:
Corporation Beach:
Long-tailed Duck
Horned Grebe
Red-Necked Grebe
Common Loon
all 3 scoters
Red-breasted Merganser
Gannet
Common Eider
Gray seal
1 - dragonfly sp. (Skimmer sized)
Scargo Lake:
Greater Scaup
Hooded Merganser
Bufflehead
Bonaparte's Gull
Follins Pond:
Common Loon
Bufflehead
Black Duck
Bass River:
~100 Bufflehead
Black Duck
Swan River:
Bufflehead
Great Blue Heron
Belted Kingfisher
Swan Pond:
Great Blue Heron (2)
Belted Kingfisher
Double-crested Cormorant
In thickets by Swan Pond:
1 - Towhee
Song Sparrow
Goldfinch
Coopers Hawk flew by as we departed
W. Dennis Beach:
Brant
Common Eider
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Black Duck
Mockingbird
After the group left, Michael, Wil Sprauve and I visited Sesuit Harbor:
7 - Razorbill
Long-tailed Duck
Black Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Common EIder
Fort Hill (2pm - 3pm)
No Ash-throated Flycatcher
Good birding,
Diane
Diane Silverstein
Cape Cod, MA
birder526 AT comcast.net
================
Subject: Cape Cod 4 Dec -- Brown Booby, Pacific Loon, Ash-throated, 7 warblers
From: Marshall Iliff <miliff AT aol.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 18:05:39 -0500
Massbird,
I had a nice day on Cape Cod yesterday. If I get to count Yellow-breasted
Chat as a warbler (it isn't one), then my warbler total for the day was 7
species. Four of those were outside of the 10 most likely December
warblers, so I was pleased. This certainly is shaping up to be an
exceptional year for late lingerers.
Below are the highlights:
High Head, 7:30 -- One immature Northern Shrike teed up. Photos:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282800
MacMillan Wharf, Provincetown, 7:45-8:30 -- Continuing Brown Booby and
dozens of alcids, with many right around the pier. I had maybe 55
Razorbills (1 or so right around pier), one Thick-billed Murre
(photographed poorly by me, but exceptionally well by Dorian Anderson), and
two distant Black Guillemots. An impressively late date for a tropical
seabird! Full list: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282800
Herring Cove, 8:40-9:40 -- Hundreds of birds, including 43 Red-necked
Grebes, actively feeding kittiwakes 3 late Common Terns (second Dec record
and second latest in eBird), and a Pacific Loon:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282802
Race Point -- Late Great Shearwater, several Dovekies, and good numbers of
kittiwakes and Razorbills:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282799
Nauset Beach -- Late Great Shearwater.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282803)
Coast Guard Beach Lighthouse, 12:30 -- A surprise Prairie Warbler, one of
few December records for Massachusetts. See more details and photos here:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282798
Fort Hill, 12:55-14:30 -- Continuing Ash-throated Flycatcher, along with a
single flock including Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Ovenbird
opposite the lower thicket. Photos and complete list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282797
Hoolidge Hill Lane, Barnstable, 15:00-15:30 -- Black-throated Green
Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Palm Warbler.
See list and photos: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282796
Best,
Marshall Iliff
================
Subject: King Eider + P'Town birds - 12/4-12/5
From: Alan Kneidel <akneidel AT gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:03:43 -0500
Howdy folks,
Here are a few sightings of note the past few days... all being from the
Outer Cape except for the first.
KING EIDER - 1 male - 12/4 - continuing bird on Atlantic Avenue in
Gloucester, seen directly out from the Elks Club. A fair number of BLACK
GUILLEMOTS easily seen in the area as well.
12/5 - MacMillan Wharf - Provincetown
BROWN BOOBY - 1 imm - seen at 1 pm flying along the breakwater
THICK-BILLED MURRE - 3
RAZORBILL - 30+
PURPLE SANDPIPER - 1
LONG-TAILED DUCK - 6
HARLEQUIN DUCK - 3 males
RED-NECKED GREBE etc etc
12/5 - Herring Cove Beach - Provincetown
ICELAND(Kumlien's) GULL - 1 1st year on beach in front of parking lot
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE - 4
12/5 - Pilgrim Lake - Truro
BARROW'S GOLDENEYE - 1 drake, among a few Commons, along with usual #s of
bufflehead and scaup.
As you might expect, not a good day of alcid flight, just the bare minimum
of Razorbills.. no Dovekies all day. Lots of RBME on the move.
--
Alan Kneidel
================
Subject: First Encounter alcids
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:19:00 -0500
There was a nice flight of alcids past First Encounter Beach in Eastham
this morning, despite just a light NNE wind and relatively pleasant
conditions. Although I counted over 1,500 alcids, I could pick out only
two species (Razorbill & Dovekie) and there was little else moving (no
late shearwaters or jaegers). Highlights (0650 - 0830 hrs.; Mostly
Cloudy; NNE wind AT 10-15mph):
21 Red-throated Loons
150 N. Gannets
1 Merlin
2 Black-legged Kittiwakes
105 Bonaparte's Gulls (85+% ad.)
90 Dovekies
600 Razorbills
845 lg. alcid sp.
Complete list at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9259695
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: 11/26 - Cape Cod: TB Murre, BH Gull, B Goldeneye +
From: Alexander Burdo <alexanderburdo AT mac.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:19:17 -0500
I spent the day birding a number of spots along the entire length of the Cape
with Dave Hursh. Highlights included:
Provincetown, MacMillan Wharf:
1 Thick-billed Murre -- seen twice on two separate visits. The first visit only
seen for around ten minutes with Razorbills, then disappeared. We were able to
relocate it, however, a half hour later and ended up getting some rather nice
views right near the pier. Patience, above all else, is key when looking for
this bird.
22 Razorbill -- The most I've ever seen here. Many birds present in the harbor
with others outside the breakwater
3 Common Tern
1 Laughing Gull
1 Peregrine Falcon -- Perched on P'town library
1 Brown Booby -- continues. First seen flying way outside the breakwater
silhouetted. Seen a half an hour later sitting on the breakwater, preening.
8 Red-necked Grebe -- some right next to the wharf
Provincetown, Race Point:
2 Red-necked Grebe
12 Black-legged Kittiwake -- all adults; some very close to shore.
8 Bonaparte's Gull
22 Razorbill
Hyannis, Ocean Avenue Beach
1 Harlequin Duck -- 1st yr male. I believe this bird was previously reported by
Evan Dalton. Seen swimming next to the jetty and among the Brant just yards
from shore
1 Black-headed Gull -- Awesome looks at this continuing bird, just yards off
the beach. Made two passes before continuing west.
Mashpee, Ashumet Pond
1 Barrow's Goldeneye -- previously reported male continues
1 Pied-billed Grebe
Photos of the BH Gull, TB Murre, BBooby, Razorbills, BGoldeneye, Harley here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdshots-birdlister/
Alex Burdo
Fairfield, CT
================
Subject: Summer Tanager and paranoid homeowner, Manomet Point area...
From: "Mark Faherty" <mfaherty AT massaudubon.org>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:34:48 -0500
Thanks to a heads up from Ian, I went up to Manomet Point and walked the
neighborhood beyond to look for the WESTERN KINGBIRD this afternoon. I found
the kingbird on a wire over Skunk Hollow after about 10 minutes.The area looks
like a classic rarity magnet for this time of year and I can't believe I've
never walked back there before. After seeing the kingbird, I continued up Skunk
Hollow (great name, by the way) to Osprey Lane, where I saw a young/female
SUMMER TANAGER fly from the woods across Osprey Lane to a feeder filled with
cheap mixed bird seed. It stayed a couple of minutes then disappeared. I came
back with a camera 20 minutes later but it didn't appear again. What did appear
was a cop. The lady in the house with the feeders had apparently called the
police when she saw me loitering around. The cop was nice and seemed mildly
annoyed at the woman, saying something along the lines of "some people think
they own the whole area". Since people may be birding this area, !
I wanted to get the word out about Lady Hospitality there. We're talking about
a one block area of a small neighborhood that held a Western Kingbird, a Summer
Tanager, two Chats, and a Dickcissel on the same late November day, so it would
be good to stay on the good side of the natives.
I can also add 2 Harlequin Ducks and 5 Purple Sandpipers to Ian's list. The
HADU were in front of the last couple of houses on the left before you get to
the point.
Mark Faherty
Wellfleet/Manomet
===========================
Subject: Barrow's Goldeneye---Castle Island
From: "Whit Manter" <whit_manter AT comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:21:00 -0500
While walking around Pleasure Bay at Castle Island looking back at the Fort for
Marshal's snowy owl, I decided to look over a group of 11 goldeneye in the bay.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a male and female Barrow's in the flock.
This was at 10AM Saturday.
Subject: Re: Probable Painted Bunting - Eastham
From: Ryan Schain <ryanschain AT gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:02:52 -0500
Eric, Massbird
Definitely a Painted Bunting, nice job Eric!
I looked for this bird along with several others for almost 3 hours with
negative results, although the chat was still there. Also present was a
Baltimore Oriole and at least four American Bitterns standing together near
the edge of the marsh escaping the extra high tide.
Good birding,
Ryan Schain
Boston
ryanschain AT gmail.com
================
Subject: Probable Painted Bunting - Eastham
From: "Eric" <elabato AT verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:37:46 -0500
Kirk Marshall and I went birding on the outer Cape today. Our first stop was
the Fort Hill Area in Eastham. I was looking for the Chat Ryan Schain posted
yesterday and I pished a few times at the thicket next to the lower parking
lot. A small bird (about the size of a junco) flew out and perched in the open
for a few seconds. It had a bright green back, pale yellow underparts, a narrow
eye ring and a small finch type bill. I got a few photo before it flew into the
brush in the field.
I could not relocate it. I believe it is a female painted bunting. I ran into
Ryan Schain at Wellfleet Sanctuary later on and showed him a photo and he
thought it was a Painted Bunting. He went to try to relocate it.
Here are links to 2 of the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95367895 AT N00/6407895913/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95367895 AT N00/6407895431/in/photostream/
If somebody could confirm the ID I would appreciate it.
The Ash-throated Flycatcher was also present along the trail that leads out of
the lower lot. Another bird of note was a Baltimore Oriole at the parking lot
for the Beech Forest in Provincetown.
Eric Labato
Malden, Ma
elabato AT verizon.net
================
Subject: 11/25 Chatham and Eastham: King Eider and others
From: Ryan Schain <ryanschain AT gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:33:56 -0500
Massbird,
I birded from dawn to dusk today, starting in Eastham and ending in
Chatham. It was a nice day, with 89 species and many highlights, including
awesome looks at a female King Eider. I first had the bird flying south
only 20 feet off the beach, and was unable to tell if it landed near the
rocks at the south end or kept going towards the town pier. Highlights from
the most productive spots are below.
Chatham Light (two visits during the day)
1 KING EIDER - female bird seen and photographed well flying south just off
the beach, first female I've seen in MA
2000+ Common Eider
295 Red-throated Loons
4 Great Shearwater
1 Common Tern
2 Dovekie
457 Razorbill
Fort Hill, Eastham
1 Yellow-breasted Chat - Thicket right at the lower lot
4 Palm Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Fox Sparrow
7 Eastern Meadowlarks
1 Wilson's Snipe
Cow Yard Road, Chatham
143 (!) Red Knots - sweet numbers for November!
450 Dunlin
116 Black-bellied Plover
150 Sanderling
1 Ruddy Turnstone
First Encounter Beach, Eastham
1 Pomarine Jaeger
19 Dovekie
573 Razorbill
Photos of the King Eider, chat, and others can be seen here for those
interested -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryser915/sets/72157628152894893/detail/
Good birding,
Ryan Schain
Boston
ryanschain AT gmail.com
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 11/24
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:53:03 -0500
Wednesday's storm, such as it was, produced a pretty good seabird show
at First Encounter Beach in Eastham Thanksgiving (11/24) morning.
Highlights (0635 - 0910; N winds AT 15-25mph; accompanied for most of the
time by Peter & Jeremiah Trimble.):
19 Cory's Shearwaters
30 Great Shearwaters
125 lg. shearwater sp. (all apparently Cory's/Great; somewhat
surprisingly, no fulmars seen)
1300 N. Gannets
900 Black-legged Kittiwakes
500 Bonaparte's Gulls
1 BLACK-HEADED GULL (ad., in a flock of Bonaparte's)
1 LITTLE GULL (1w, with Bonaparte's; seen by the Trimbles)
3 Pomarine Jaegers
6 jaeger sp.
10 Dovekies
4 Thick-billed Murres
210 Razorbills
160 lg. alcid sp.
2 Black Guillemots
50 Snow Buntings
The full list is at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9188369
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Cape Cod ,Thanksgiving week
From: Mark Taylor <birdnorth AT hughes.net>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:55:06 -0500
Hello Massbirders,
Spent Tues.-Fri. (22-25) on the cape with Orleans as our base. Some highlights
of the trip.
11/22 Fort Hill, Chatham
ASH-TROATED FLYCATCHER ( found the bird around 3:00 p.m. working the scrubs
around the small cattail pond near the shore trail, then followed the bird
counter clockwise around the field edge where we lost contact around the Red
Maple Swamp trail. Got a photo of the bird.
Palm Warbler
Seaside Sparrow
11/23 Paine's Creek, Brewster
Lesser Black-backed Gull (w/adult)
11/24 Great Island, Wellfleet
Ruddy Turnstone (2)
Snow Bunting (10)
Pine Warbler (3)
11/25 Nauset Beach, Orleans
Northern Gannet (300+, feeding frenzy close to shore at high tide)
Black-legged Kittiwake (100+)
Razorbill (200+ same location, just a few large breakers out)
*Shipwreck remains (chunk of wooden ship hull exposed or washed up by storm)
Mark Taylor
Northfield, MA
birdnorth AT hughes.net
================
Subject: Outer Cape 11/21
From: Jason Forbes <jason AT brewsterslinnet.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:00:28 -0500
I spent most of Monday morning on the outer Cape. Herring Cove was very busy,
but otherwise there wasn't much around.
Highlights from Herring Cove from 7:00-8:00. There was enough in close that I
barely looked far out:
White-winged Scoter - hundreds, only a handful of other scoters
Red-breasted Merganser - thousands, flock stretched the length of the parking
lot. They got up and flew a few hundred yards a couple times, and approached
cloud-like levels
Red-throated Loon - about 50, good numbers both on the water and flying
Red-necked Grebe - 5+
Northern Gannet -
large shearwater sp - 1 too far out to ID but probably a Great
Bonaparte's Gull - quite a few moving around 7:00, tailed off pretty quickly
Common Tern - 4+ with the Bonaparte's
Razorbill - several hundred flying by, couldn't find anything else with them
(most were in pretty close)
Black-bellied Plover - 11
sandpiper sp - 10 (probably Dunlin)
Plus lesser numbers of eider, Common Loon, Sanderling, etc. Lots of gulls on
the beach were scattered before I scanned them by someone who dropped two dogs
off at one end and drove to pick them up at the other end.
A quick stop at MacMillan Wharf just after 6:30 failed to turn up the Brown
Booby. Cormorant numbers on the breakwater were down about 90% from Sunday (I
counted over 400 then, and barely 40 today). Also, adding to Sunday's reports
was a Thick-billed Murre picked up by Wayne Petersen.
Race Point was too windy, but there was a nice procession of gannets almost
over the beach.
Fort Hill was quiet. I heard that the Ash-throated Flycatcher was seen early, I
couldn't find it. There was a Sharp-shinned Hawk hanging around a few feet down
the Red Maple Swamp trail, but the only other sighting of note was a Great Blue
Heron on the boardwalk.
A few photos from Sunday (alcids and stuff):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewsterslinnet/sets/72157628089219649/
Jason
--
Jason Forbes
Waltham, MA
jason AT brewsterslinnet.com
www.brewsterslinnet.com
================
================
================
Subject: 12/10 Western Kingbird, Orleans
From: Ryan Schain <ryanschain AT gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:28:48 -0500
Massbird,
I inadvertently posted the location of this bird as 600 South Orleans Road
(Rt. 39). What it should have read was the field across from 600
Orleans-Chatham Road (Rt. 28).
Ryan Schain
Marshall Iliff and I just now had a Western Kingbird in Orleans. It is in
the field directly across from 600 South Orleans Road. It would be best to
park at the town landing just south of the above address and walk up along
the shoulder. The bird is in a private yard, but can easily be seen from
the road, and is allowing excellent scope views.
Ryan Schain
Boston
ryanschain AT gmail.com
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 12/8
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:22:14 -0500
This morning's NW gales produced a nice but rather wild and frenetic
seabird flight at First Encounter Beach in Eastham. It was one of those
mornings when birds were flying in both directions, and birds that were
flying with the wind were really rocketing. Viewing was not easy, and
counting was even more difficult and tenuous than usual. But there was
plenty to look at and it was tough to head for work at 8:30. Highlights
(0645 - 0830 hrs.; Mostly Cloudy, NW wind AT 20-35+mph, Seas rough, Tide
high):
2 N. Fulmars
11 Cory's Shearwaters (very uncertain number: could have been as few a
half a dozen seen repeatedly or as many as 15+, but as many as 4 in view
at once and one or more in view pretty much throughout the time I was
there; most very close to shore. My first ever in December!)
3 Great Shearwaters
850 N. Gannets (some very high directly over the parking lot)
460 Black-legged Kittiwakes (95+% ad.; most passing at close range,
including a couple of flocks of 80-100 birds)
75 Bonaparte's Gulls
18 Pomarine Jaegers (one flock of 9 birds)
14 jaeger sp.
11 Dovekies
80 Razorbills
500 lg. alcid sp. (probably many more on the horizon)
Complete list at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9296408
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: RE: Mid/upper cape - Guillemot, razorbills, fox sparrows, etc
From: tom hannigan <tjhannigan AT hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 23:05:29 +0000
Hi Peter,
Thanks to you I got to see the Black Guillemot at the Canal today. It was
feeding right along the shore at the Sandwich Tourist office. Also viewed
Common Loons, Red breasted Merganser, and about 6 Razorbills.
Tom Hannigan
Seekonk, MA
Subject: Seawatch @ Corporation Beach, Dennis, Dec 8, 2011
From: Matt Malin <hossfeldt AT yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 14:08:44 -0800 (PST)
This morning I went to Corporation Beach in Dennis to do a seawatch after the
storm cleared to see what might be blown in.� I was joined by Ed Hoopes after 8
AM.� It will be interesting to see what�may have been�seen at First Encounter
if Blair Nikula watched from there today.� eBird list below.
�
Matt Malin
Mashpee, MA
hossfeldt (at) yahoo (dot) com
Corporation Beach, Dennis, Barnstable, US-MA
Dec 8, 2011 7:00 AM - 10:25 AM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments:� � Sea watch 0700-0950 and 1005-1025.� Personal list, joined by Ed
Hoopes from 815-1025.� Rising tide to high ~ 930, noticed the switch in the
tide after 1005, not crashing as much, bird activity of high volume species
signifigantly decreased after 1000.� Most birds flying�E to W�in strong NW/WNW
winds (15-25). Temp 40-45F, mostly sunny, clear, bluebird morning.
23 species (+2 other taxa)
Brant� 90
Common Eider� 50
White-winged Scoter� 6
Black Scoter� 30
scoter sp.� 15
Long-tailed Duck� 95
Red-breasted Merganser� 20
Red-throated Loon� 4
Common Loon� 1
Horned Grebe� 3
Cory's Shearwater� 1� � All milk-chocolate brown shearwater above with dark
leading edge of primaries underneath, white on rest of underbody.� Lazy,
soaring flight low over the water.� Flying west.� Seen well by both Ed and I.
Northern Gannet� 375
Merlin� 1� � Swooped in on SAND(40)/DUNL(20) flock after 1000 in flats between
parking lot and breakwater, appeared to have talons in water chasing shorebirds
Sanderling� 82
Purple Sandpiper� 3
Dunlin� 20
Bonaparte's Gull� 305� � Flocks streaming by from 5-35 birds.� High count
during 900-950 hour.
Ring-billed Gull� 10
Herring Gull� 50
Great Black-backed Gull� 16
Dovekie� 1� � Seen with TB Murre, flying west
Thick-billed Murre� 1� � Seen with Dovekie, flying west
Razorbill� 275
large alcid sp.� 25
Black Guillemot� 1� � Adult, winter plumage, flying west
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3
(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach, Willets, WEKI 12/8
From: Alan Kneidel <akneidel AT gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 16:56:10 -0500
I spent some time birding out on the Cape this morning, seeking to take
advantage of the new air mass. I spent 830 to 1010 at First Encounter
Beach, scoping through an open car window amid an assault of spray and
sand. As anticipated, the bay was a churning cauldron of fun. Tons of birds
swirling about... many too far out to ID. Here are the positively
identified.
Brant - 15
Common Eider - 105
White-winged Scoter - 3
Long-tailed Duck - 35
Bufflehead - 1 female
Red-breasted Merganser - 1
Red-throated Loon - 1
Common Loon - 1
NORTHERN FULMAR - 1
CORY'S SHEARWATER - 4
GREAT SHEARWATER - 1
Northern Gannet - 150+
Peregrine Falcon - 1 - far out over water
Black-legged Kittiwake - 500+
Bonaparte's Gull - 1
Herring Gull - x
Greater Black-backed Gull - x
Pomarine Jaeger - 4
Jaeger sp - 6
DOVEKIE - 7 - flying singly or in pairs
Razorbill - 100s
There were 2 WILLETS roosting with some gulls on Jacknife Beach on Route 28
headed towards Chatham.
The WESTERN KINGBIRD was still present in Manomet at the same location as
of mid-afternoon today.
Alan Kneidel
Manomet, MA
================
Subject: East Gloucester, Wed., 7 Dec. 2011.
From: Richard Heil <rsheil AT comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:57:57 -0500
WEDNESDAY, 7 DECEMBER 2011:
EAST GLOUCESTER, MA (1245-1300 hrs.)
Weather: Overcast, rain, NE 10-20 mph, 45 F.
Richard S. Heil
Fifteen minutes scoping offshore from the south end of Atlantic Road
during lunch:
Red-necked Grebe (2)
Great Shearwater (5) : following fishing boat relatively close to shore.
Great Cormorant (7)
Black-legged Kittiwake (3 ads.)
Bonaparte's Gull (10+)
Herring Gull (1000+)
Kumlien's Gull (2): 1 ad., 1-1W.
Great Black-backed Gull (400)
Razorbill (1)
Black Guillemot (1)
Richard S. Heil
S. Peabody, MA
rsheil AT comcast.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/?saved=1
================
Subject: Mid/upper cape - Guillemot, razorbills, fox sparrows, etc
From: Peter Crosson <pcrosson AT emeraldphysicians.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2011 12:33:45 -0500
Hi all, I birded several locations in the Upper/Mid Cape today. Highlight was a
BLACK GUILLEMOT in the Cape Cod Canal, a juvenile I believe. This is a lifer
for me! Also had at least 30 RAZORBILLS in the canal, many extremely close to
shore. Other nice birds included female black and surf scoters at close range,
2 great cormorants, but surprisingly no harlequin ducks seen.
At Horizon's Beach more razorbills were seen. At the old fish hatchery, I had a
WILSON'S SNIPE, 2 swamp sparrows, and 5 golden-crowned kinglets.
On Navigation Rd in West Barnstable I had a mini-flock of 3 FOX SPARROWS in a
thicket near the end of the road. At Mill Pond in W. Barnstable was a large
variety of waterfowl, including 1 N. PINTAIL, 35+ ring-necked ducks, 1
GREEN-WINGED TEAL, 1 AM. COOT, 4 hooded mergansers and 50+ american wigeons.
At Marstons Mills airport the only highlight was a late eastern towhee. Finally
at Mill Pond in MM I had the continuing EURASIAN WIGEON, 1 GREEN-WINGED TEAL
and
2 hooded mergansers.
Some pictures of the guillemot, razorbills and snipe are at
www.flickr.com/petercrosson.
Good birding!
Peter Crosson
Osterville, MA
================
Subject: Guillemot, razorbills - Sandwich
From: Peter Crosson <pcrosson AT emeraldphysicians.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2011 08:24:34 -0500
Birders, this AM I had a black guillemot and 30+ razorbills in the Cape Cod
canal. The guillemot was seen at the breakwater.
Peter Crosson
Osterville, MA
================
Subject: Razorbills (etc.) up close
From: Al Curtis <killdeer89 AT comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:01:02 -0500
I stopped at Wellfleet Harbor late this afternoon (12/5) just as the
sunset was putting on a spectacular show and got ridiculously
close looks at 8 Razorbills, a Common Loon, and a Red-throated Loon.
I have seen COLO fairly close before but I've never been this close
to a RTLO. It was basically looking straight down from the dock into
the bird's eyes. Awesome!
Al Curtis
Harwich, MA
Subject: mid-Cape Monday
From: birder526 AT comcast.net
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2011 01:40:56 +0000 (UTC)
Hi Massbirders,
Today Mike Dettrey and I were joined by 6 birders to bird Corporation and W.
Dennis beaches and Dennis ponds in between. Highlights only are listed below:
Corporation Beach:
Long-tailed Duck
Horned Grebe
Red-Necked Grebe
Common Loon
all 3 scoters
Red-breasted Merganser
Gannet
Common Eider
Gray seal
1 - dragonfly sp. (Skimmer sized)
Scargo Lake:
Greater Scaup
Hooded Merganser
Bufflehead
Bonaparte's Gull
Follins Pond:
Common Loon
Bufflehead
Black Duck
Bass River:
~100 Bufflehead
Black Duck
Swan River:
Bufflehead
Great Blue Heron
Belted Kingfisher
Swan Pond:
Great Blue Heron (2)
Belted Kingfisher
Double-crested Cormorant
In thickets by Swan Pond:
1 - Towhee
Song Sparrow
Goldfinch
Coopers Hawk flew by as we departed
W. Dennis Beach:
Brant
Common Eider
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Black Duck
Mockingbird
After the group left, Michael, Wil Sprauve and I visited Sesuit Harbor:
7 - Razorbill
Long-tailed Duck
Black Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Common EIder
Fort Hill (2pm - 3pm)
No Ash-throated Flycatcher
Good birding,
Diane
Diane Silverstein
Cape Cod, MA
birder526 AT comcast.net
================
Subject: Cape Cod 4 Dec -- Brown Booby, Pacific Loon, Ash-throated, 7 warblers
From: Marshall Iliff <miliff AT aol.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 18:05:39 -0500
Massbird,
I had a nice day on Cape Cod yesterday. If I get to count Yellow-breasted
Chat as a warbler (it isn't one), then my warbler total for the day was 7
species. Four of those were outside of the 10 most likely December
warblers, so I was pleased. This certainly is shaping up to be an
exceptional year for late lingerers.
Below are the highlights:
High Head, 7:30 -- One immature Northern Shrike teed up. Photos:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282800
MacMillan Wharf, Provincetown, 7:45-8:30 -- Continuing Brown Booby and
dozens of alcids, with many right around the pier. I had maybe 55
Razorbills (1 or so right around pier), one Thick-billed Murre
(photographed poorly by me, but exceptionally well by Dorian Anderson), and
two distant Black Guillemots. An impressively late date for a tropical
seabird! Full list: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282800
Herring Cove, 8:40-9:40 -- Hundreds of birds, including 43 Red-necked
Grebes, actively feeding kittiwakes 3 late Common Terns (second Dec record
and second latest in eBird), and a Pacific Loon:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282802
Race Point -- Late Great Shearwater, several Dovekies, and good numbers of
kittiwakes and Razorbills:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282799
Nauset Beach -- Late Great Shearwater.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282803)
Coast Guard Beach Lighthouse, 12:30 -- A surprise Prairie Warbler, one of
few December records for Massachusetts. See more details and photos here:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282798
Fort Hill, 12:55-14:30 -- Continuing Ash-throated Flycatcher, along with a
single flock including Baltimore Oriole, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Ovenbird
opposite the lower thicket. Photos and complete list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282797
Hoolidge Hill Lane, Barnstable, 15:00-15:30 -- Black-throated Green
Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Palm Warbler.
See list and photos: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9282796
Best,
Marshall Iliff
================
Subject: King Eider + P'Town birds - 12/4-12/5
From: Alan Kneidel <akneidel AT gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:03:43 -0500
Howdy folks,
Here are a few sightings of note the past few days... all being from the
Outer Cape except for the first.
KING EIDER - 1 male - 12/4 - continuing bird on Atlantic Avenue in
Gloucester, seen directly out from the Elks Club. A fair number of BLACK
GUILLEMOTS easily seen in the area as well.
12/5 - MacMillan Wharf - Provincetown
BROWN BOOBY - 1 imm - seen at 1 pm flying along the breakwater
THICK-BILLED MURRE - 3
RAZORBILL - 30+
PURPLE SANDPIPER - 1
LONG-TAILED DUCK - 6
HARLEQUIN DUCK - 3 males
RED-NECKED GREBE etc etc
12/5 - Herring Cove Beach - Provincetown
ICELAND(Kumlien's) GULL - 1 1st year on beach in front of parking lot
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE - 4
12/5 - Pilgrim Lake - Truro
BARROW'S GOLDENEYE - 1 drake, among a few Commons, along with usual #s of
bufflehead and scaup.
As you might expect, not a good day of alcid flight, just the bare minimum
of Razorbills.. no Dovekies all day. Lots of RBME on the move.
--
Alan Kneidel
================
Subject: First Encounter alcids
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:19:00 -0500
There was a nice flight of alcids past First Encounter Beach in Eastham
this morning, despite just a light NNE wind and relatively pleasant
conditions. Although I counted over 1,500 alcids, I could pick out only
two species (Razorbill & Dovekie) and there was little else moving (no
late shearwaters or jaegers). Highlights (0650 - 0830 hrs.; Mostly
Cloudy; NNE wind AT 10-15mph):
21 Red-throated Loons
150 N. Gannets
1 Merlin
2 Black-legged Kittiwakes
105 Bonaparte's Gulls (85+% ad.)
90 Dovekies
600 Razorbills
845 lg. alcid sp.
Complete list at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9259695
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: 11/26 - Cape Cod: TB Murre, BH Gull, B Goldeneye +
From: Alexander Burdo <alexanderburdo AT mac.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 22:19:17 -0500
I spent the day birding a number of spots along the entire length of the Cape
with Dave Hursh. Highlights included:
Provincetown, MacMillan Wharf:
1 Thick-billed Murre -- seen twice on two separate visits. The first visit only
seen for around ten minutes with Razorbills, then disappeared. We were able to
relocate it, however, a half hour later and ended up getting some rather nice
views right near the pier. Patience, above all else, is key when looking for
this bird.
22 Razorbill -- The most I've ever seen here. Many birds present in the harbor
with others outside the breakwater
3 Common Tern
1 Laughing Gull
1 Peregrine Falcon -- Perched on P'town library
1 Brown Booby -- continues. First seen flying way outside the breakwater
silhouetted. Seen a half an hour later sitting on the breakwater, preening.
8 Red-necked Grebe -- some right next to the wharf
Provincetown, Race Point:
2 Red-necked Grebe
12 Black-legged Kittiwake -- all adults; some very close to shore.
8 Bonaparte's Gull
22 Razorbill
Hyannis, Ocean Avenue Beach
1 Harlequin Duck -- 1st yr male. I believe this bird was previously reported by
Evan Dalton. Seen swimming next to the jetty and among the Brant just yards
from shore
1 Black-headed Gull -- Awesome looks at this continuing bird, just yards off
the beach. Made two passes before continuing west.
Mashpee, Ashumet Pond
1 Barrow's Goldeneye -- previously reported male continues
1 Pied-billed Grebe
Photos of the BH Gull, TB Murre, BBooby, Razorbills, BGoldeneye, Harley here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdshots-birdlister/
Alex Burdo
Fairfield, CT
================
Subject: Summer Tanager and paranoid homeowner, Manomet Point area...
From: "Mark Faherty" <mfaherty AT massaudubon.org>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:34:48 -0500
Thanks to a heads up from Ian, I went up to Manomet Point and walked the
neighborhood beyond to look for the WESTERN KINGBIRD this afternoon. I found
the kingbird on a wire over Skunk Hollow after about 10 minutes.The area looks
like a classic rarity magnet for this time of year and I can't believe I've
never walked back there before. After seeing the kingbird, I continued up Skunk
Hollow (great name, by the way) to Osprey Lane, where I saw a young/female
SUMMER TANAGER fly from the woods across Osprey Lane to a feeder filled with
cheap mixed bird seed. It stayed a couple of minutes then disappeared. I came
back with a camera 20 minutes later but it didn't appear again. What did appear
was a cop. The lady in the house with the feeders had apparently called the
police when she saw me loitering around. The cop was nice and seemed mildly
annoyed at the woman, saying something along the lines of "some people think
they own the whole area". Since people may be birding this area, !
I wanted to get the word out about Lady Hospitality there. We're talking about
a one block area of a small neighborhood that held a Western Kingbird, a Summer
Tanager, two Chats, and a Dickcissel on the same late November day, so it would
be good to stay on the good side of the natives.
I can also add 2 Harlequin Ducks and 5 Purple Sandpipers to Ian's list. The
HADU were in front of the last couple of houses on the left before you get to
the point.
Mark Faherty
Wellfleet/Manomet
===========================
Subject: Barrow's Goldeneye---Castle Island
From: "Whit Manter" <whit_manter AT comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:21:00 -0500
While walking around Pleasure Bay at Castle Island looking back at the Fort for
Marshal's snowy owl, I decided to look over a group of 11 goldeneye in the bay.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a male and female Barrow's in the flock.
This was at 10AM Saturday.
Subject: Re: Probable Painted Bunting - Eastham
From: Ryan Schain <ryanschain AT gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:02:52 -0500
Eric, Massbird
Definitely a Painted Bunting, nice job Eric!
I looked for this bird along with several others for almost 3 hours with
negative results, although the chat was still there. Also present was a
Baltimore Oriole and at least four American Bitterns standing together near
the edge of the marsh escaping the extra high tide.
Good birding,
Ryan Schain
Boston
ryanschain AT gmail.com
================
Subject: Probable Painted Bunting - Eastham
From: "Eric" <elabato AT verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:37:46 -0500
Kirk Marshall and I went birding on the outer Cape today. Our first stop was
the Fort Hill Area in Eastham. I was looking for the Chat Ryan Schain posted
yesterday and I pished a few times at the thicket next to the lower parking
lot. A small bird (about the size of a junco) flew out and perched in the open
for a few seconds. It had a bright green back, pale yellow underparts, a narrow
eye ring and a small finch type bill. I got a few photo before it flew into the
brush in the field.
I could not relocate it. I believe it is a female painted bunting. I ran into
Ryan Schain at Wellfleet Sanctuary later on and showed him a photo and he
thought it was a Painted Bunting. He went to try to relocate it.
Here are links to 2 of the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95367895 AT N00/6407895913/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95367895 AT N00/6407895431/in/photostream/
If somebody could confirm the ID I would appreciate it.
The Ash-throated Flycatcher was also present along the trail that leads out of
the lower lot. Another bird of note was a Baltimore Oriole at the parking lot
for the Beech Forest in Provincetown.
Eric Labato
Malden, Ma
elabato AT verizon.net
================
Subject: 11/25 Chatham and Eastham: King Eider and others
From: Ryan Schain <ryanschain AT gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:33:56 -0500
Massbird,
I birded from dawn to dusk today, starting in Eastham and ending in
Chatham. It was a nice day, with 89 species and many highlights, including
awesome looks at a female King Eider. I first had the bird flying south
only 20 feet off the beach, and was unable to tell if it landed near the
rocks at the south end or kept going towards the town pier. Highlights from
the most productive spots are below.
Chatham Light (two visits during the day)
1 KING EIDER - female bird seen and photographed well flying south just off
the beach, first female I've seen in MA
2000+ Common Eider
295 Red-throated Loons
4 Great Shearwater
1 Common Tern
2 Dovekie
457 Razorbill
Fort Hill, Eastham
1 Yellow-breasted Chat - Thicket right at the lower lot
4 Palm Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Fox Sparrow
7 Eastern Meadowlarks
1 Wilson's Snipe
Cow Yard Road, Chatham
143 (!) Red Knots - sweet numbers for November!
450 Dunlin
116 Black-bellied Plover
150 Sanderling
1 Ruddy Turnstone
First Encounter Beach, Eastham
1 Pomarine Jaeger
19 Dovekie
573 Razorbill
Photos of the King Eider, chat, and others can be seen here for those
interested -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryser915/sets/72157628152894893/detail/
Good birding,
Ryan Schain
Boston
ryanschain AT gmail.com
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 11/24
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:53:03 -0500
Wednesday's storm, such as it was, produced a pretty good seabird show
at First Encounter Beach in Eastham Thanksgiving (11/24) morning.
Highlights (0635 - 0910; N winds AT 15-25mph; accompanied for most of the
time by Peter & Jeremiah Trimble.):
19 Cory's Shearwaters
30 Great Shearwaters
125 lg. shearwater sp. (all apparently Cory's/Great; somewhat
surprisingly, no fulmars seen)
1300 N. Gannets
900 Black-legged Kittiwakes
500 Bonaparte's Gulls
1 BLACK-HEADED GULL (ad., in a flock of Bonaparte's)
1 LITTLE GULL (1w, with Bonaparte's; seen by the Trimbles)
3 Pomarine Jaegers
6 jaeger sp.
10 Dovekies
4 Thick-billed Murres
210 Razorbills
160 lg. alcid sp.
2 Black Guillemots
50 Snow Buntings
The full list is at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9188369
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Cape Cod ,Thanksgiving week
From: Mark Taylor <birdnorth AT hughes.net>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:55:06 -0500
Hello Massbirders,
Spent Tues.-Fri. (22-25) on the cape with Orleans as our base. Some highlights
of the trip.
11/22 Fort Hill, Chatham
ASH-TROATED FLYCATCHER ( found the bird around 3:00 p.m. working the scrubs
around the small cattail pond near the shore trail, then followed the bird
counter clockwise around the field edge where we lost contact around the Red
Maple Swamp trail. Got a photo of the bird.
Palm Warbler
Seaside Sparrow
11/23 Paine's Creek, Brewster
Lesser Black-backed Gull (w/adult)
11/24 Great Island, Wellfleet
Ruddy Turnstone (2)
Snow Bunting (10)
Pine Warbler (3)
11/25 Nauset Beach, Orleans
Northern Gannet (300+, feeding frenzy close to shore at high tide)
Black-legged Kittiwake (100+)
Razorbill (200+ same location, just a few large breakers out)
*Shipwreck remains (chunk of wooden ship hull exposed or washed up by storm)
Mark Taylor
Northfield, MA
birdnorth AT hughes.net
================
Subject: Outer Cape 11/21
From: Jason Forbes <jason AT brewsterslinnet.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:00:28 -0500
I spent most of Monday morning on the outer Cape. Herring Cove was very busy,
but otherwise there wasn't much around.
Highlights from Herring Cove from 7:00-8:00. There was enough in close that I
barely looked far out:
White-winged Scoter - hundreds, only a handful of other scoters
Red-breasted Merganser - thousands, flock stretched the length of the parking
lot. They got up and flew a few hundred yards a couple times, and approached
cloud-like levels
Red-throated Loon - about 50, good numbers both on the water and flying
Red-necked Grebe - 5+
Northern Gannet -
large shearwater sp - 1 too far out to ID but probably a Great
Bonaparte's Gull - quite a few moving around 7:00, tailed off pretty quickly
Common Tern - 4+ with the Bonaparte's
Razorbill - several hundred flying by, couldn't find anything else with them
(most were in pretty close)
Black-bellied Plover - 11
sandpiper sp - 10 (probably Dunlin)
Plus lesser numbers of eider, Common Loon, Sanderling, etc. Lots of gulls on
the beach were scattered before I scanned them by someone who dropped two dogs
off at one end and drove to pick them up at the other end.
A quick stop at MacMillan Wharf just after 6:30 failed to turn up the Brown
Booby. Cormorant numbers on the breakwater were down about 90% from Sunday (I
counted over 400 then, and barely 40 today). Also, adding to Sunday's reports
was a Thick-billed Murre picked up by Wayne Petersen.
Race Point was too windy, but there was a nice procession of gannets almost
over the beach.
Fort Hill was quiet. I heard that the Ash-throated Flycatcher was seen early, I
couldn't find it. There was a Sharp-shinned Hawk hanging around a few feet down
the Red Maple Swamp trail, but the only other sighting of note was a Great Blue
Heron on the boardwalk.
A few photos from Sunday (alcids and stuff):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brewsterslinnet/sets/72157628089219649/
Jason
--
Jason Forbes
Waltham, MA
jason AT brewsterslinnet.com
www.brewsterslinnet.com
================
Subject: Cape Cod Birds, Brown Booby--NO; 9 species of gull!
From: Evan Dalton <evanndalton AT gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:44:37 -0500
This morning Alan Kneidel, Laura Koloski and I headed out to Race
Point in Provincetown to do some Cape Cod birding. Winds were
extremely high, but so was the temperature, allowing us to spend much
of the day seawatching. We dipped on the Brown Boobie that has been
present off MacMillan's Wharf, but were able to compile 9 species of
gull among other treats. Highlights below.
Race Point,
Razorbill - 40+ small to large flocks kept moving by, mostly headed West.
Bonaparte's Gull - 45 weren't able to pick annoy other small gulls out
of the mix
Northern Gannet - 75+
Herring Cove,
Lesser-black Backed Gull - 1 mixed in with several large flocks of
mixed gulls a little bit South of the lighthouse
Black-legged Kittiwake - 2 standing onshore; tiny legs made them look
rather awkward
Macmillan's Wharf,
Laughing Gull - 1
Iceland Gull - 1 1w nestled in on the breakwater
Ruddy Turnstone - 2 also on the breakwater
Kalmus Beach SP, Hyannis Port,
Snow Bunting - 8
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Ocean Ave, Hyannis Port,
Black-headed Gull - 1 loafing around between two breakwaters where
water flows under the street
Harlequin Duck - 1f. walking around and swimming in the same current as the
BHGU
pics AT https://picasaweb.google.com/103086119686147432485/NewEnglandBird
Mill Pond, Marstons Mills,
Eurasian Wigeon - 1m
Crane Wildlife Management Area, Falmouth MA,
Great Horned Owl - 1
Northern Bobwhite - 2 calling back and forth at dusk
All in all, a great day.
-Evan Dalton
Belchertown, MA
evanndaltonATgmail.com
============================
Subject: Black-headed Gull Hyannis
From: m.goetschkes AT comcast.net
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:35:35 +0000 (UTC)
Hello Massbirders,
Highlights from this weekend birding:
Saturday's highlight was a 6 mile hike looking for a SNOWY OWL that we ended up
seeing south of the 3rd crossover.
Sunday started with the BLACK-HEADED GULL seen at Keyes Memorial Beach in
Hyannis.
Race Point and Hatch's Harbor in Provincetown and produced hundreds of r-b
mergansers, tens of razorbills, loons, a few common and Forster's terns, a
parasitic jaeger and kittiwakes. The gannet show was spectacular.
MacMillan Wharf had 12 close Razorbills, 3 Ruddy Turnstones, a few Laughing
Gulls, 1 Iceland Gull (thanks to Evan Dalton and friends) and 1 common tern. We
could not find the Brown Booby among the hundreds of DC and Great Cormorants
lining the breakwater.
Photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24246528 AT N05/sets/72157628073339393/
Best Regards,
Margo Goetschkes & Steve Grinley
Cambridge, MA
================
Subject: First Encounter seabirds - 11/18
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2011 21:08:28 -0500
This morning's NW winds produced another modest seabird show at First
Encounter Beach in Eastham Highlights from just over an hour (0625 -
0730 hrs.) included 20 Cory's Shearwaters, 11 Great Shearwaters, 25 lg.
shearwater sp., 650 N. Gannets, 20 Black-legged Kittiwakes, 120
Bonaparte's Gulls, 1 Pomarine Jaeger (ad), 1 jaeger sp., and 9 lg. alcid sp.
Complete list at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S9135891
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Fort Hill and Provincetown
From: David Clapp <declapp AT comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:15:20 -0500
Today (Wednesday the 16th) Fran and I spent the day further out the Cape from
our Brewster residence.
At about 9:30 am we located the Ash-throated Flycatcher near the intersection
of the Red Maple and Skiff Trails (along the field edge) at Fort Hill. It then
moved along the edge of the field further north to the far side. (Park in the
lot on your left as you first arrive at the grasslands).
Then we walked out to Hatch's Harbor and had some nice, but not spectacular,
birds.
Hatch's Harbor Walk
Ring-necked Pheasant (in parking lot)
American Bittern (on right side of raised trail three-fourths of the way out)
Peregrine Falcon (perched on stump/stick/post in marsh to the south)
Pine Warblers (2) (first third)
Brown Creeper (1) (first third)
Herring Cove had lots of scoter, eider, gannets, loons, and mergansers. The
highlight was the dozen or so Red-necked Grebes scattered along the shoreline;
very close to the beach.
David Clapp
Brewster, MA
================
Subject: probable WAGTAIL (Citrine?) at Race Point Beach! -- need help relocating!!!!!
From: Marshall Iliff <miliff AT aol.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 09:16:25 -0500
Massbird,
Jeremiah Trimble just text messaged me a photo of a bird he had flying over
Race Point Beach. Without any idea what it was, I immediately thought it
was a wagtail. Then I noticed he had described the call as 'tsewee,
tseeuu', which matched the call of Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Western Yellow
Wagatil, or Citrine Wagtail. Indeed the photo, and their views in the
field, were of a yellowish bird which would match those species.
I called Jeremiah immediately and he said that he and Blair Nikula had seen
the bird and their impressions were the same -- WAGTAIL!
Apparently they had been split up on the beach seawatching at the Race
Point Beach parking lot and this bird came flying over. Jeremaih heard it
and watched it fly over and then ran to catch up to where he had seen it go
down. Blair had independently heard it and was watching it. They saw where
it dropped in the dunes and were able to flush it again and get in flight
photos, which may not be identifiable beyond wagtail sp. They again herad
the distinctive call.
To put this record in context, White Wgatil has occurred several times on
the East Coast, but the call and photos do not match a White Wagtail. Gray
Wagtail occurs in the western Aleutians and has occurred once in CA--again,
it was not a Gray Wagtail. Western Yelow-Wagtail has ever occurred in the
New World, but I believe that the September yellow wagail sp. photographed
in New York in a couple years ago was likely a Western. Eastern Yellow
Wagtail is regular in western Alaska and has occurred occasionally in late
August to early October on the West Coast; it has never appeared past early
October. I can't help but wonder if this bird is most likely North
America's second Citrine Wagtail, by date alone. The lone New World
occurrence was a February bird in Starkville, MS, more than a decade ago.
I would recommend anyone in the area heading out to help refind the bird.
Cell coverage is not very good there, but may help to coordinate a search
for the bird. Audio recordings and close range photos would be particularly
helpful. Blair an Jeremiah are still out there looking. Checking the
beaches and maybe especially the edges of Hatches Harbor might be ideal.
Best,
Marshall
****************************
Marshall J. Iliff
miliff AT aol.com
West Roxbury, MA
****************************
eBird/AKN Project Leader
www.ebird.org
www.avianknowledge.net
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ithaca, NY
****************************
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 11/11
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:48:53 -0500
Today's brisk NW winds blew a modest number but nice assortment of
seabirds past First Encounter Beach in Eastham this morning (11/11). My
totals (0630 - 0830 hrs.; Cloudy; Winds NW AT 15-20mph increasing to
15-30mph; joined by the Trimbles for all but a few minutes of this time):
40 Atlantic Brant
25 Canada Geese
325 Common Eider
25 Surf Scoters
55 White-winged Scoters
35 Black Scoters
250 dark-winged scoters
9 Bufflehead
35 Long-tailed Ducks
15 Red-breasted Mergansers
23 Red-throated Loons
5 Common Loons
1 N. Fulmar (lt.)
8 Cory's Shearwaters
4 Great Shearwaters
15 Cory's/Great Shearwaters
1400 N. Gannets (90% ad.; I've seen very few young birds all fall - they
typically move south before the adults)
1 Double-crested Cormorant
1 Peregrine Falcon (chasing, unsuccessfully, a Black-bellied Plover)
1 Black-bellied Plover
1 Semipalmated Plover
155 Black-legged Kittiwakes
100 Bonaparte's Gulls
6 Laughing Gulls
2 Ring-billed Gulls
40 Herring Gulls
25 Great Black-backed Gulls
1 jaeger sp. (very distant)
2 Dovekies
9 Razorbills
10 lg. alcid sp.
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Great Cape Cod birds--Ash-throated Flycatcher, Prairie Warbler, etc.
From: Marshall Iliff <miliff AT aol.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:36:47 -0500
All,
I just spoke with Jeremiah and Peter Trimble who are leaving a swath of
good birds in their wake as they are birding Cape Cod. Here is what I know:
First Encounter Beach - Fulmars, Dovekies, 1 jaeger, Cory's and Great
shearwaters, kittiewakes, and ganets
Ft. Hill - ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER (juv; photos), Prairie Warbler (photos),
2 Seaside Sparrows, 3 Am. Bitterns, etc.
Chatham area (?) - One each of Marbled and Hudsonian Godwit and Western
Willet
With these westerly winds there could be some other good birds out there!
Best,
Marshall Iliff
--
****************************
Marshall J. Iliff
miliff AT aol.com
West Roxbury, MA
****************************
eBird/AKN Project Leader
www.ebird.org
www.avianknowledge.net
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ithaca, NY
****************************
================
Subject: Cape Cod Highlights - 5-6 November 2011 - Philadelphia Vireo!!
From: Jeremiah Trimble <jtrimble AT oeb.harvard.edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 2011 11:22:17 -0500
Massbird,
This weekend I had the good fortune to bird Cape Cod both Saturday and
Sunday with Peter Trimble and Blair Nikula (just Blair on Sunday).
Although a bit windy on Saturday, it was a beautiful weekend. The
following are some of the many highlights, with perhaps the most
unusual sighting being that of a Philadelphia Vireo.
Images of many of these birds can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/sets/72157628077443414/detail/
Saturday, 5 November:
Race Point, Provincetown:
Northern Fulmar - 82 (81 light morph and 1 dark morph); High Count;
Great Shearwater - 135
Common Tern - 65
Pomarine Jaeger - 1
jaeger sp. - 1
Dovekie - 185 - High Count; moving past in groups of up to a dozen!
Razorbill - 8
Herring Cove Beach, Provincetown:
Cory's Shearwater - 6
Common Tern - 155
Forster's Tern - 1
Dovekie - 7
Macmillan Wharf, Provincetown Harbor:
BROWN BOOBY - 1 immature; continuing bird but not seen in over a
month; Seen earlier in day by Jeff Offermann and Ryan Schain; Images
here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/6322990396/in/photostream
Great Shearwater - 1 - odd location; well inside pier;
Razorbill - 1 - Very odd to have a checklist with Brown Booby and
Razorbill (!!) on it.
Common Tern - 35
Forster's Tern - 1
around Provincetown, MA:
RED-EYED VIREO - 1 - VERY LATE; very few reports from Massachusetts in
November (most from the first week of November): image at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/6322991272/in/set-72157628077443414
Lark Sparrow - 1 - image at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/6322991516/in/set-72157628077443414/
White-crowned Sparrow - 1 immature - image and video at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/6322465533/in/set-72157628077443414/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/6322277397/in/set-72157628077443414/
SUNDAY, 6 November:
High Head, Truro:
Bohemian Waxwing - 2 - VERY EARLY; only 2 or 3 earlier reports for
Massachusetts and apparently only one from October; images at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/6322469087/in/set-72157628077443414
Philadelphia Vireo - 1 - EXCEPTIONALLY LATE; photographed; this
species clears out of New England and indeed the country by mid to
late October; For example, eBird has fewer than 12 records for
Philadelphia Vireo for the United States after November 1;
Baltimore Oriole - 1
elsewhere in Truro:
Orange-crowned Warbler - 2 - images at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/6322570331/in/set-72157628077443414/
Eastham Brush Dump, Eastham:
Bobolink - 1 - late lingering bird; images at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/sets/72157628077443414/detail/
Indigo Bunting - 1 - late lingering bird:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jrtrimble/sets/72157628077443414/detail/
Good birding,
Jeremiah Trimble
Cambridge, MA
--
Jeremiah Trimble
Curatorial Associate - Ornithology
Museum of Comparative Zoology
Harvard University
26 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
phone: 617-495-2471
fax: 617-495-5667
email: jtrimble AT oeb.harvard.edu
================
Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) (1)
- Reported Nov 05, 2011 07:35 by Ryan Schain
- MacMillan Wharf, Barnstable, Massachusetts
- Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=42.0494838,-70.181694&ll=42.0494838,-70.181694
- Comments : "***Mega; Continuing bird, not reported (that we know of) since October 11th when Matt Garvey had it in the same location; Roosting out on the west side of the breakwater, nearly at the tip with several hundred cormorants; When we arrived ten minutes after dawn it was completely tucked up but was easy to pick out by shape alone; As the light got better it took its head out and began preening constantly, and was still there when we let just after 8; Pretty distant, so photos are bad, but the scope views were excellent; Wind prevented any effective phone-scoping, so heavily cropped camera pics will have to do.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryser915/6318955026/" title="Brown Booby by Ryan Schain, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6234/6318955026_3aae020141_z.jpg" alt="Brown Booby"></a>"
================
Subject: 10/30 - Sea Watch, First Encounter Beach, Eastham - A few deltas from Blair's Report
From: Pokedaddy <pokedaddy151 AT aim.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:43:59 -0400 (EDT)
Good Morning -
Kim Allen and I birded FEB yesterday from 0835 to 1335. As Blair previously
reported, there was a nice flight of storm-related seabirds. Blair's list, as
usual, is comprehensive and extremely accurate. There are couple of birds that
we were fortunate enough to see that Blair did not (nothing outrageous). The
differences in numbers, although not substantial, are most probably due to
several factors. Blair was looking deep into the bay at the very left of FEB
where as Kim and I were looking more in line with the double water towers to
straight out over the eel grass. Also, with the birds being at the distance
they were and the wind blowing as it was, deltas are to be expected.
I would like to post here on Massbird a huge "Thank You!" to Blair for alerting
us to the Great Skua that he found. Blair's skill and dedication to his sea
watches are truly to be commended.
Blair: 1 Am. Green-winged Teal - We had an additional 2 GWTE for a total of 3
Blair: 2 Red-necked Grebes - We had 3 RNGR - It is safe to say the total is 3
(not 5)
Blair: 1 Manx Shearwater - As Blair previously reported, we had a second bird
for a total of 2
Blair: 3 Red Phalaropes - We had 5 REPH - it is safe to say the total is 5 (not
8)
Blair: 1 Laughing Gull - We had an additional LAGU for a total of 2
Blair: 1 Dovekie - As Blair previously reported, we had an additional 2 DOVE
for a total of 3. I too share Blair's sentiments with respect to alcids. Their
absence was duly noted.
Thanks!
Steve
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 10/30
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:22:33 -0400
Although not a perfect storm (despite its intensity, too brief in
duration and peaked at night), the 20th anniversary of THE Perfect Storm
produced an excellent seabird show at First Encounter Beach today
(10/30). Given the forecast for NW winds gusting to 60mph and a morning
low tide, I was afraid conditions at First Encounter might be
intolerable this morning. However, by dawn the winds had subsided a bit
and maintained enough of a northerly component to provide some lee, in
addition to which the intense low pressure kept the tide from going all
the way out. Consequently, viewing conditions were fairly decent for
the most part, though after six and a half hours my car had a
considerable coating of wet sand!
The morning started very slowly, but from about 7:30 on there was
constant activity, with a steady stream of shearwaters and gannets,
frequent jaegers (some very close), flocks of kittiwakes, and ultimately
the best bird of the day, a Great Skua. Not until well after noon did
things begin to subside.
Highlights (0650 - 1325 hrs.; NNW wind AT 20-40+ mph; Visibility varying
from fair to good. Tide low but rising):
45 Atlantic Brant
1 Am. Green-winged Teal
11 Greater Scaup
800 Common Eider
200 Surf Scoters
30 White-winged Scoters
60 Black Scoters
3000 scoter sp.
100 Long-tailed Ducks
8 Buffleheads
85 Red-breasted Mergansers
55 Red-throated Loons
7 Common Loons
2 Red-necked Grebes
8 N. Fulmars (all light)
80+ Cory's Shearwaters (could have been 2-3 times this number - they
were constantly in view, some very close to shore, but impossible to
know how much turnover there was.)
40+ Great Shearwaters (ditto for this species)
1 Manx Shearwater (Steve Arena saw a second bird)
400+ lg. shearwater sp. (another very conservative count; as many as a
hundred birds per scan, but impossible to know how many were milling
about and not going anywhere)
2 storm-petrel sp. (both distant and seen only briefly)
1400 N. Gannets
3 Red Phalaropes
5 phalarope sp.
710 Black-legged Kittiwakes (80+% ad.)
1 Laughing Gull
11 Bonaparte's Gulls
45 Common Terns
8 Forster's Terns
1 GREAT SKUA (fairly distant, but pale streaks evident on back; molting
primaries)
49 Pomarine Jaegers (wide variety of ages/plumages, including 5 adults
w/full tail streamers; one bird passed low over the parking lot!)
5 Parasitic Jaegers (4 juv.)
21 jaeger sp.
1 Dovekie (Steve Arena saw a couple others; somewhat surprisingly, no
other alcids)
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: P'town seabirds - 10/29
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:54:52 -0400
Another nice variety of seabirds in P'town this morning - nothing out of
the ordinary and modest numbers for the most part, but a steady movement
into the early afternoon when the rain began and visibility
deteriorated. Conditions were almost pleasant early in the morning,
with glimpses of sun through breaks in the clouds and a light (5-10mph)
NE wind. The wind increased slowly throughout the morning, reaching
20-30mph by noon, and the rain began about an hour later. Highlights
from Race Point Beach (a total of 4.5 hours of viewing between 0710 -
1410 hrs.):
2 Am. Green-winged Teal
255 Common Eider
85 Surf Scoters
90 White-winged Scoters
30 Black Scoters
185 scoter sp. (scoters never occur in great numbers here and the vast
majority are heading west into Cape Cod Bay)
6 Long-tailed Ducks
25 Red-breasted Mergansers
53 Red-throated Loons
22 Common Loons
3 Red-necked Grebes
12 Cory's Shearwaters
480 Great Shearwaters
3 Sooty Shearwaters
6 Manx Shearwaters
1 storm-petrel sp. (very likely a Wilson's based upon flight
characteristics, but very distant and given the late date best left
unidentified)
1125 N. Gannets
60 Laughing Gulls
190 Bonaparte's Gulls
25 Black-legged Kittiwakes
635 Common Terns
16 Forster's Terns
30+ Parasitic Jaegers
2 Dovekies
3 Razorbills
3 lg. alcid sp.
Blair Nikula
-- 2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 10/28
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:17:07 -0400
There was a nice variety of seabirds at First Encounter Beach in Eastham
this morning (10/28), though numbers for most species (with the notable
exception of scoters) were rather modest. Scoters, not surprisingly,
far outnumbered all other birds combined, though constituting only a
fraction of the numbers passing Cape Ann yesterday. Counting birds at
First Encounter is always challenging, at best, and especially so for
waterfowl, which do even more circling than most true seabirds.
However, my best estimate is about 15,000+ scoters, though I would
freely admit the potential error rate could be as high as 50%. Whatever
the actual number, it was impressive and probably the largest number
I've ever seen at this location.
Highlights (0655 - 0905; Cloudy to Partly Cloudy; NNW wind AT 15-25mph.
Low tide and only a modest wind meant many birds were rather distant.):
45 Atlantic Brant
3 Am. Green-winged Teal
2 scaup sp.
600 Common Eider
15,000 Surf/Black scoters (I made little attempt to distinguish between
the species, but of the small percentage I did identify, the majority
were Blacks, in sharp contrast to the ratio Rick saw a Cape Ann yesterday.)
330 Long-tailed Ducks
3 Bufflehead
140 Red-breasted Mergansers
24 Red-throated Loons
4 Common Loons
1 Horned Grebe
1 Red-necked Grebe
8 Cory's Shearwaters
4 lg. shearwater sp.
1350 N. Gannets
3 phalarope sp. (probable Reds)
76 Black-legged Kittiwakes (90+% ad.)
55 Bonaparte's Gulls (90+% ad.)
2 Laughing Gulls
35 Common Terns
76 Forster's Terns (nice movement of this species)
15 sterna sp.
1 Pomarine Jaeger
1 Parasitic Jaeger (1 cy.)
2 jaeger sp (probable Pomarines)
1 Dovekie
2 lg. alcid sp.
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Chatham highlights, 10/26
From: "Mark Faherty" <mfaherty AT massaudubon.org>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:46:36 -0400
I helped out with the USFWS Red Knot tagging effort again yesterday in
Chatham. We landed at the South Beach/South Monomoy connection and were
about a mile south of there most of the day. We did not catch any but
there were still at least 150 knots around along with 1500 Dunlin, 500
Black-bellied Plovers, and some Sanderlings. My birding opportunities
were limited since my job involved being hunkered down all day waiting
for a signal to fire the nets, but I managed to notice some things. The
highlights included:
- Being attacked by a rogue Grasshopper Sparrow. He was hopping around
on the ocean beach and flew straight at me before landing about a foot
away - must have been a mock charge. I grabbed a camera and got a shot
off as he explored our gear before moving off into the dunes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pajarero/6285227338/
- A Short-eared Owl being mobbed by crows at North Monomoy, seen from
the boat as we headed back in the afternoon.
- The mind-boggling biomass of seabirds off Chatham. The ocean was black
with tens of thousands of scoters as far as you could see.
- The Townsend's Solitaire at the Morris Island causeway. Had it at
about 5PM for maybe 2 seconds.
There were at least a dozen Humpback Whales feeding off the Chatham
Inlet, easily visible from Chatham Light. A fishing boat had a few Great
Shearwaters among the masses of gulls.
The list from South Monomoy:
Monomoy NWR (IBA), Barnstable, US-MA
Oct 26, 2011 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
Comments: Red Knot banding 1 mile south of connection
31 species (+2 other taxa)
Brant 1
Canada Goose 12
Wood Duck 4 One sitting on ocean. Others flying by with scoters.
American Black Duck 85
Greater/Lesser Scaup 10
Common Eider 500
Surf Scoter 25
White-winged Scoter 800
scoter sp. 50000 Blanketing the ocean in uncountable shifting
masses.
Long-tailed Duck 1
Common Loon 5
Northern Gannet 120
Double-crested Cormorant 400
Great Blue Heron 1
Northern Harrier 2
Peregrine Falcon 1 Perched all day. Watched but never chased the big
shorebird flocks.
Black-bellied Plover 500
Semipalmated Plover 3
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Ruddy Turnstone 4
Red Knot 150
Sanderling 200
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Dunlin 1500
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Lesser Black-backed Gull 3
Great Black-backed Gull X
Horned Lark 6
Tree Swallow 5
Lapland Longspur 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Grasshopper Sparrow 1 On ocean side. May have just come in off
water - breast feathers looked wet.
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3
(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)
*********************************************************************
Mark Faherty
Science Coordinator
Mass Audubon/Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
Subject: Andrew's Point, Rockport, MA Seawatch; 27 Oct. 2011: Remarkable scoter flight.
From: Richard Heil <rsheil AT comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:38:54 -0400
THURSDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2011:
ANDREW'S POINT, ROCKPORT, MA Seawatch (0835-1535 hrs.)
Weather: Overcast, rain showers, NE > NNE winds 20-25 mph, 42-44 F.
Seas: 4-8 feet ; Visibility: Variably fair to very good.
Richard S. Heil
An amazing scoter flight occurred today, far greater than anything I
have witnessed here in 36 years of seawatching. The previous single
day counts for all three species were shattered, each by a wide
margin. The flight continued literally all day long, with only a
slight slowdown mid-day. At times there were several thousand mixed
species flocks in view at once winging past the point. Flocks were
still moving at 3:15 when I unfortunately had to depart. Of interest
I noted a report from Tom Aversa from this morning of 2500 scoters
(mostly Black) departing Unity Pond in central Maine this morning,
and other flocks in the hundreds were reported today in Vermont.
'Pale-bellied' Brant (24)
Wood Duck (3) : Only a few prior recrds.
American Wigeon (13) : New high count.
American Black Duck (5)
Mallard (1)
Green--winged Teal (84) : Mixed in with scoters as usual.
Greater Scaup (182) : 2nd highest count; no certain LESC.
Common Eider (740)
Harlequin Duck (7)
Surf Scoter (58,670) : Remarkable flight totally eclipsing previous
single day high counts: cf., 13,830 on 27 Oct. 1992 (note same day as
today), and 12,050 on 5 Nov. 1983.
White-winged Scoter (4300) : Previous single day high count: 2800 on
12 Oct. 2005.
Black Scoter (20,660) : Previous single day high counts: 9055 on 4
Nov. 2003 and 5660 on 7 Oct. 2007.
Oldsquaw (1720) : 4th highest single day count, cf., 5900 on 5 Nov. 1983.
Bufflehead (2)
Hooded Merganser (1f.) : 2nd record.
Red-breasted Merganser (2190) : 2nd highest record, cf., 8570 on 5 Nov. 1983.
Red-throated Loon (141) : 90% - 1st-winter birds.
PACIFIC LOON (2) : Both in partial breeding plumage; 'ho hum', 15th
and 16th record.
Common Loon (163)
Horned Grebe (2) : Rarely seen as a migrant here, unlike the next species.
Red-necked Grebe (10)
Greater Shearwater (8) : Poor showing, perhaps due to the lack of
strong Easterly winds.
Northern Gannet (550)
Double-crested Cormorant (13)
Great Cormorant (3)
Black-legged Kittiwake (6) : 5 ads., 1-1W.
Bonaparte's Gull (4)
Laughing Gull (10) : 9 ads., 1-1W.
Ring-billed Gull (2)
Herring Gull (30)
Great Black-backed Gull (25)
Common Tern (2)
jaeger sp. (1) - distant.
COMMON MURRE (1-breeding plumage) : Early, only 2nd Oct. record.
Razorbill (11)
Black Guillemot (2)
Richard S. Heil
S. Peabody, MA
rsheil AT comcast.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/?saved=1
================
Subject: Jeffery's Ledge 10-23-2011
From: salvatore frontierro <sjfrontierro AT yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:06:19 -0700 (PDT)
Lots of good birds on jeffrey's Ledge this afternoon. Highlights included: 1
Parasitic Jaeger (light phase), at least 6 Northern Fulmars (5 light, 1 dark),
1 Black-legged Kittiwake (basic plumage �adult), numerous Gannets, lots of
Great shearwaters including a few inside Gloucester harbor.... I'm not sure if
I've ever seen them in the harbor before, 1 Common Murre (can you believe I
actually typed "Thin-billed Murre" then looked at for a minute, knowing
something was wrong about the way it looked but unable to figure out what! Oh
yeah that reminds me I also saw 2 Olsq... er.... Long-tailed Ducks ;-) and
finally there was an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron on the wharf at Harbor
Cove in Gloucester Harbor at 7:30 this evening. Kind of late for this bird, no?
When birders come out whale watching they often want to see Fulmars and rarely
does it happen. Fulmars are generally very sporadic in the spring and Fall and
virtually absent in Summer and Winter. However they have been VERY common over
the past week-or-so. �I actually think that I have seen more Fulmars this Fall
than I have seen total in the Gulf of Maine previously. Normally I wouldn't say
this, but if anyone has been wanting to see a Fulmar I think now would be great
time to go whale watching out of Gloucester. �Unfortunately my company, 7 Seas,
is now done for the year but some of the other companies are planning to go out
a few times this week if the weather is good. So if Fulmar has been eluding you
it may be worth the ride. There aren't many whales out there, but the birding
has been great.
Best,� �Jay� �Hamilton, MA�
================
Subject: Provincetown 10/22/2011
From: "Mark Lynch" <moa.lynch AT verizon.net>
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 06:23:06 -0400
Our MAS fall migration class had a great trip to PROVINCETOWN and NORTH
TRURO Saturday. We birded locations like HEAD OF THE MEADOW; RACE POINT;
HERRING COVE BEACH; PILGRIM LAKE; MACMILLAN WHARF. The seabird show,
especially for a class, was just outstanding. To be able to have a constant
gannet show, watching them plunge dive in every plumage imaginable, was
great, but then there was a steady passing of sea ducks; terns; Laughing
Gulls. Shearwaters were also on hand. Finally, to be able to see jaegers
chase terns at almost every stop (we even could look across the marsh to the
bay and see a jaeger chasing a tern from High Head!). It�s great when people
who have never seen many jaegers before can learn to pick one out on their
own AND enjoy its kleptoparasitic behavior. We dipped on the Brown Booby
despite two attempts. Still, from the wharf, we had close looks at terns,
eider, compared cormorant identification, and found the Peregrine Falcon on
the tower.
A word about numbers: I tried to write down all numbers in a field book, and
was thankful other folks were helping calling out numbers of passing eider.
But then we would be distracted by Iding a passing shearwater, and many
other birds would pass uncounted. So numbers are at best a low estimate of
what was actually out there. Visibility was outstanding and the lighting at
Race Point incredible. We also birded the Stump Dump and got little and
ended the afternoon looking for the Western Kingbird, and dipped, but it
really didn�t matter.
Red-throated Loon (8)
Common Loon (22)
Northern Fulmar (1)
Cory�s Shearwater (9: clearly id�d)
Greater Shearwater/shearwater sp: (59+ most too far out to id)
Northern Gannet (897: outstanding showing)
Double-crested Cormorant (335)
Great Cormorant (14)
Great Blue Heron (9)
Turkey Vulture (2)
Mute Swan (2)
Wood Duck (1f caught up in a flock of eider)
A Black Duck (90)
Mallard (9)
Greater Scaup (8)
Common Eider (2458)
Surf Scoter (164)
White-winged Scoter (801)
Black Scoter (43)
Long-tailed Duck (21)
Bufflehead (1)
Red-breasted Merganser (8)
Northern Harrier (1)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (2)
Peregrine Falcon (1: P�Town tower)
Virginia Rail (3)
Black-bellied Plover (1)
Greater Yellowlegs (3)
Ruddy Turnstone (4)
Sanderling (7)
Parasitic Jaeger/jaeger sp. (25+: the few birds that were close enough for
me to feel somewhat confident about id�ing all looked like Parasitic.
Whenever a flock of terns would appear, eventually a jaeger would be seen in
pursuit. As many as three chasing a single tern was observed a number of
times)
Laughing Gull (142+)
Bonaparte�s Gull (2)
Common Tern/sterna sp. (226)
Forster�s Tern (37)
Dovekie (1: out of nowhere, zipping along)
Razorbill (1)
Belted Kingfisher (1)
Snow Bunting (1)
ALSO: nice showing of butterflies with Cabbage White; Clouded Sulphur;
Clouded Orange; American Lady (very worn); Common Buckeye and Monarchs.
Green Darners were common in a number of locations. Gray Seals kept us
company at Head of the Meadow and there was a sighting of a Minke Whale.
Mark Lynch/Sheila Carroll
Moa.lynch AT verizon.net
================
Subject: Stellwagen Bank Seabird Survey: October 18
From: Wayne Petersen <wpetersen AT massaudubon.org>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:39:09 +0000
Below are the belated the results of a seabird survey conducted on 18 October
at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Santuary. This is the fourth in a series
of dedicated seabird monitoring surveys conducted this year as part of a joint
project between the Stellwagen Marine Sanctuary and Mass Audubon.
Common Eider - 24
White-winged Scoter - 104
Scoter sp. - 20
Common Loon - 15
Northern Fulmar - 5
Cory's Shearwater - 3
Great Shearwater - 587
Manx Shearwater - 4
Storm-Petrel sp. - 1
Northern Gannet - 235
Double-crested Cormorant - 2
American Coot - 1 (Remarkably, this individual was sitting in the water miles
from shore.)
Bonaparte's Gull - 1
Laughing Gull - 9
Herring Gull - 571
Great Black-backed Gull - 283
Gull sp. - 806
Pomarine Jaeger - 1
Tree Swallow - 3
Warbler sp. - 1
Also observed were 6 Harbor Porpoises and 1 Minke Whale.
For more information about this program or to volunteer, contact Anne-Marie
Runfola at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
Wayne R. Petersen, Director
Massachusetts Important Bird Areas (IBA) Program
Mass Audubon
208 South Great Road
Lincoln, MA 01773
(781) 259-2178
Protecting the Nature of Massachusetts
================
From: John Conlon
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:24:41 -0400
To: <kmueller@ntplx.net>
Subject: RE: John from Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch
Keith;
Hi... Good to hear from you...
I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that beginning on the day you were on the boat with me I've seen small numbers fulmars on most days since. Though certainly not all days. We are still having to travel a long way to the whales. Jaegers are still good though we are seeing less. Gannets showing up in larger numbers every day.
Yesterday we had 2 Sabine's gulls between Long Point and Wood End. And we also had a murre. Not sure which one... At a quick glance I thought a razorbill but closer inspection revealed a quite well developed chin strap so to speak. Though it is early for a murre...
OK, hope all is well for now...
See you over the weekend...
John
================
Subject: Brown Booby, Macmillan Wharf, Provincetown 10/10/11
From: Matt Garvey <mattpgarvey AT gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:07:53 -0400
After an embarrassingly high number of scans of the breakwater from
Macmillan, I was finally able to catch up with the Brown Booby in
Provincetown on a summery Columbus Day. It can be surprisingly
difficult to find amongst the 1000+ Double-crested and smattering of
Great Cormorants that loaf on those rocks as well! Other highlights
included a good jaeger show from both Herring Cove Beach in Ptown and
Chatham Light (the latter including aerial chases oversea between two
Parasitics and a Peregrine, where it wasn't clear how was chasing
whom), Orange-Crowned Warblers at High Head and the Eastham Stump
Dump, and a Chestnut-sided Warbler at High Head.
Best,
Matt Garvey
Brookline, MA
mattpgarvey AT gmail.com
================
Subject: Outer Cape Cod-10/8/11
From: "Glenn d'Entremont" <gdentremont1 AT comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:54:40 +0000 (UTC)
21 birders of a combined group of Brookline Bird Club and South Shore Bird Club
members were on the outer cape Saturday. 107 species was tallied; though not
any one individual saw all 107, but most were probably over 100. This was a
very enthusiast group and despite it's size we were able to move right along
covering several habitats. Highlights were a continuing American Avocet at
Nauset marsh, a continuing Yellow-crowned Night-Heron coming out of the
Hemenway Road roost at dusk, American Golden-plover at First Encounter Beach, a
very cooperative Yellow-billed Cuckoo and two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers at
Wellfleet Bay WS, Yellow-breasted Chat at Herring Pond in Eastham, two Blue
Grosbeak at the Eastham Stump Dump, a Seaside Sparrow at Fort Hill, and a
couple of flyover siskin.
F-First Encounter, Eastham, P-Provincetown (Herring Cove to Race Point parking
area), W-Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, H-Fort Hill, Eastham, remainder at
Eastham unless noted.
Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 13
Black Duck 52 (2-W, 50-Nauset Marsh)
Mallard 3-W
Common Eider 300 (50-P, 250-W)
Surf Scoter 15 (10-F, 5-P)
White-winged Scoter 8 (6-F, 2-P)
Red-breasted Merganser 9-P
Wild Turkey 5-Truro
Red-throated Loon 2-P
Common Loon 1 (only 1)-F
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Great Shearwater 3-P
Northern Gannet 10-P
Double-crested Cormorant 500 (100-P, 50-W, 350-H)
Great Blue Heron 21 (3-F, 8-W, 10-H)
Green Heron 1-W
Black-crowned Night-Heron 28-Hemenway Road, Eastham
YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON 1 imm (it was #26 out of 29 coming out of the roost
about 6:40ish)-Hemenway Road, Eastham
Turkey Vulture 2 (1-Provincetown)
Northern Harrier 2-H
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3-H
Cooper's Hawk 6 (2-W, 3-H)
Red-tailed Hawk 2 (1-H)
Peregrine Falcon 1-H
Black-bellied Plover 72 (22-F, 50-Nauset Marsh)
AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER 1 imm-F
Semipalmated Plover 12 (2-F, 10-Nauset Marsh)
AMERICAN AVOCET 1-Nauset Marsh
Greater Yellowlegs 135 (75-W, 60-H)
Solitary Sandpiper 2-W
Sanderling 60 (10-F, 50-P)
Semipalmated Sandpiper 253 (3-F, 250-Nauset Marsh)
WESTERN SANDPIPER 1 (probable female with very long bill for a peep, taller
than Semis-probably many more, but poor light and lack of time)-Nauset Marsh
White-rumped Sandpiper 5 (2-W, 3-Nauset Marsh)
Pectoral Sandpiper 2-W
Dunlin 42 (17-F, 25-Nauset Marsh)
Short-billed Dowitcher 2-F
Laughing Gull 61 (1-F, 50-P, 10-W)
Ring-billed Gull ***
Herring Gull ***
Great Black-backed Gull ***
Common Tern 25-P
Forster's Tern 34 (9-F, 25-P)
sterna tern 2000-P
Mourning Dove 67 (1-W)
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO 1-W
Belted Kingfisher 4 (2-W)
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 (1-W)
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER 2-W
Downy Woodpecker 6 (2-W, 1-H)
Hairy Woodpecker 3 (1-W)
Northern Flicker 4 (1-W)
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 11 (6-W)
American Crow 21 (15-W)
Fish Crow 1-W
Horned Lark 2-F
Tree Swallow 590 (50-P, 35-H, 500-Truro)
Barn Swallow 1-H
Black-capped Chickadee 29 (16-W, 2-H)
Tufted Titmouse 7 (2-W)
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 (1-W)
White-breasted Nuthatch 5 (2-W)
Carolina Wren 4 (1-W)
Golden-crowned Kinglet 9 (6-W)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2-W
Eastern Bluebird 1+-W
American Robin 100
Gray Catbird 8 (2-W)
Northern Mockingbird 1
Starling ***
American Pipit 4-H
Cedar Waxwing 4
Nashville Warbler 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 male
Yellow-rumped Warbler 19 (2-W)
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 1-W
Prairie Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 4 (western)
Blackpoll Warbler 1+
warbler, sp 5
Black-and-white Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
small bright yellow warbler-probably Wilson's
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 35
Field Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow 3
SEASIDE SPARROW 1-H
Song Sparrow 63 (3-F, 3-W)
Swamp Sparrow 10
White-throated Sparrow 15 (10-W)
White-crowned Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 6
Northern Cardinal 7 (2-W)
BLUE GROSBEAK 2
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 2 (flyovers)
Red-winged Blackbird 54 (50-F, 4-W)
Common Grackle 29 (25-W)
Purple Finch 1 (flyover)
House Finch 50
PINE SISKIN 2
American Goldfinch 12 (5-W)
House Sparrow ***-W
Glenn
Glenn d'Entremont: gdentremont1 AT comcast.net Stoughton, MA
================
Subject: Re: Chatham pelagics - 10/9
From: Bird lists <cnc_bird_lists AT comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:38:57 -0400
I had the good fortune of being able to join the Sunday morning trip, and let
me tell you, he is not exaggerating about how great these trips are. For
anybody interested, I've posted a few pics from the trip at:
http://www.pbase.com/bluegoose/chathampelagic
Easily the best views I've had of some of these species - thank you Blair!
Good birding,
Christopher
Christopher Ciccone
Woburn, MA
On Oct 10, 2011, at 10:05 PM, Blair Nikula wrote:
> Two more pelagic trips yesterday (10/9) aboard the Kittiwake out of Chatham
continued our streak of success, with very similar results to Saturday. All
four trips were remarkably similar in terms of species composition, differing
primarily only in the numbers of some species. And on all four trips almost
every species was seen very well.
>
> Yesterday morning's trip first headed south from Chatham Light down South
Beach and South Monomoy (through "jaeger alley"), before heading southeast for
a bit, where we put out some chum. We then headed northeast to a point several
miles east of Chatham Light where we encountered a returning commercial fishing
boat with a mass of birds trailing behind. We followed the boat in for a couple
miles, then stopped to put out some more chum before heading northwest back to
shore and in the new inlet in North Chatham. A NW breeze stirred up a modest
chop, but the ride was pretty smooth and dry.
>
> The afternoon trip headed out through the new inlet, turned north up North
Beach to a point roughly east of Pochet Island, then turned east for a few
miles, then turned south, eventually encountering a returning scallop boat that
had the anticipated horde of followers, though the numbers in this case were
lower than on previous trips. We followed this boat most of the way in, and
returned to port through the south inlet. The morning's breeze died by
mid-afternoon and we enjoyed nearly glassy seas for much of the trip, the
downside being that the calm conditions resulted in less bird activity.
>
> Highlights (the first number is the morning trip, the second the afternoon)
>
> Common Eider: 260, 185
> Surf Scoter: 4, 18
> White-winged Scoter: 6, 26
> Black Scoter: 20, 8
> scoter sp.: 140, 15
> Common Loon: 33, 5
> N. Fulmar: 10 (8 lt., 2 dk.), 5 (3 lt., 2 dk.)
> Cory's Shearwater: 22, 4
> Great Shearwater: 1500, 450
> Sooty Shearwater: 30, 15
> Manx Shearwater: 3, 3
> N. Gannet: 30, 23
> Bonapartes Gull: 0, 1
> Laughing Gull: 150, 40
> Lesser Black-backed Gull: 3, 3
> Black-legged Kittiwake: 2(ad.), 0
> Common Tern: 350, 40
> Forster's Tern: 3, 4 (all in Chatham Harbor)
> Parasitic Jaeger: 16, 6
> jaeger sp.: 10, 5
>
> Blair Nikula
>
> --
> 2 Gilbert Lane
> Harwich Port, MA 02646
> http://www.odenews.org/
> http://www.capecodbirds.org/
>
Subject: Chatham pelagics - 10/9
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:05:30 -0400
Two more pelagic trips yesterday (10/9) aboard the Kittiwake out of
Chatham continued our streak of success, with very similar results to
Saturday. All four trips were remarkably similar in terms of species
composition, differing primarily only in the numbers of some species.
And on all four trips almost every species was seen very well.
Yesterday morning's trip first headed south from Chatham Light down
South Beach and South Monomoy (through "jaeger alley"), before heading
southeast for a bit, where we put out some chum. We then headed
northeast to a point several miles east of Chatham Light where we
encountered a returning commercial fishing boat with a mass of birds
trailing behind. We followed the boat in for a couple miles, then
stopped to put out some more chum before heading northwest back to shore
and in the new inlet in North Chatham. A NW breeze stirred up a modest
chop, but the ride was pretty smooth and dry.
The afternoon trip headed out through the new inlet, turned north up
North Beach to a point roughly east of Pochet Island, then turned east
for a few miles, then turned south, eventually encountering a returning
scallop boat that had the anticipated horde of followers, though the
numbers in this case were lower than on previous trips. We followed
this boat most of the way in, and returned to port through the south
inlet. The morning's breeze died by mid-afternoon and we enjoyed nearly
glassy seas for much of the trip, the downside being that the calm
conditions resulted in less bird activity.
Highlights (the first number is the morning trip, the second the afternoon)
Common Eider: 260, 185
Surf Scoter: 4, 18
White-winged Scoter: 6, 26
Black Scoter: 20, 8
scoter sp.: 140, 15
Common Loon: 33, 5
N. Fulmar: 10 (8 lt., 2 dk.), 5 (3 lt., 2 dk.)
Cory's Shearwater: 22, 4
Great Shearwater: 1500, 450
Sooty Shearwater: 30, 15
Manx Shearwater: 3, 3
N. Gannet: 30, 23
Bonapartes Gull: 0, 1
Laughing Gull: 150, 40
Lesser Black-backed Gull: 3, 3
Black-legged Kittiwake: 2(ad.), 0
Common Tern: 350, 40
Forster's Tern: 3, 4 (all in Chatham Harbor)
Parasitic Jaeger: 16, 6
jaeger sp.: 10, 5
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Chatham Pelagics - Volume II - Fulmars - Lesser Black-backed Gulls
From: "Peter Trull" <petrull AT comcast.net>
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 15:47:36 -0400
massbirders,
Sorry for the late post but it's the first computer sit since yesterday.
I spent Saturday, Oct 8 aboard a commercial fishing boat about 14 miles,
(not 28) east of Monomoy Point. Wide open water with thousands of Great
Shearwaters, about 200 in view every minute for about 5 hours. Hard to
count that.....Interesting Blair's inshore count of jaegers and terns when I
saw no terns and 1 jeager in offshore waters. Fulmars were beautiful! I too
used skate livers on a boat with a ton or so of Skate on board.
Peter Trull
Brewster, MA
petrull AT comcast.net
================
Subject: Chatham pelagic - 10/8
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:00:20 -0400
We had another very successful pelagic trip out of Chatham aboard the
"Kittiwake" this morning. Although the marine forecast called for winds
gusting to 20mph, there was but a gentle westerly breeze early that
became almost calm with glassy seas by late morning.
We saw our first jaegers and Cory's Shearwater before we had left the
inlet, and headed due east for a mile or two, passing numerous terns,
Laughing Gulls, and gannets. Jaegers were constantly in view, and
though there only a few shearwaters, we quickly ticked off all 4 of the
expected species plus a fulmar that made a brief pass. The captain
started chumming (skate livers were the special on today's menu) and in
no time we had 3 species of shearwaters and 4 species of gulls in a
frenzy beside the boat.
We then head NE, reaching a point about 7 miles offshore, and found a
mass of birds behind a commercial boat that turned out to be the same
boat we followed in last week. It had a similar concentration of birds
today, comprising about 1000 shearwaters and a similar number of gulls.
Scattered among the congregation were 10 or more N. Fulmars. We then
headed NW toward shore, seeing relatively few birds along the way, and
put out some more chum a couple miles off North Beach (just north of the
Orleans/Chatham town line). By this time it had become calm and there
was little bird activity, though a modest number of gulls and a few
shearwaters put on a good show at the slick. We then headed back south
through "Jaeger Alley" (we saw none farther offshore) and back to the
pier, passing through the new inlet in North Chatham (a "life" inlet for
most of us!).
Highlights (0700 - 1200 hrs; Clear skies; W wind AT 5-10mph, becoming
nearly calm; 1-2 foot seas becoming glassy):
125 Common Eider
4 Surf Scoters
4 scoter sp.
26 Common Loons (steady southward movement; some still in breeding plumage)
15 N. Fulmars
16 Cory's Shearwaters
1400 Great Shearwaters
40 Sooty Shearwaters
12 Manx Shearwaters
150 N. Gannets
2000 Double-crested Cormorants (all in one massive flock on the north
end of North Beach Island)
1 Peregrine Falcon (flyover on our way out of the harbor; pursued a tern)
37 Am. Oystercatchers (on Tern Island)
150 Laughing Gulls (mostly juv.)
1300 Herring Gulls (90% around the commercial fishing boat)
8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (7 offshore, one on North Beach Island; 3
juv., 3 ad., 2- 2/3cy.)
400 Great Black-backed Gulls
3 Black-legged Kittiwakes (all ad.)
600 Common Terns (about half in Chatham Harbor and on North Beach)
5+ Forster's Terns (Chatham Harbor)
30 Parasitic Jaegers (mostly young birds; all within a couple miles of
shore, which, not coincidentally, is where most of the terns were)
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
from Thomas Robben robben99@gmail.com
to massbird@theworld.com
date Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 1:07 AM
subject Lots of seabirds around this week, e.g., Cape Cod 10/5
mailed-by gmail.com
hide details 1:07 AM (7 minutes ago)
Sea watch trip to the outer cape on Wed October 5th....
Rough weather kept pelagic, whaling, and fishing boats in harbor all day.
The 55 degree temps and strong winds were remarkable, and so were the seabirds we saw from land, with most activity around 7am....
a) Herring Cove Beach, in Provincetown, MA:
9 Parasitic Jaegers, 60 Gannets, several thousand terns and common gulls.
At 7am Cape Cod Bay was swarming with flying birds, as far out as the eye and binocs could see.
b) Race Point Beach, in Provincetown MA:
2 Northern Fulmars, 40 Parasitic Jaegers, 200 Greater Shearwaters, 5 Manx Shearwaters, 100 Gannets, 1000 terns and gulls
c) South Provincetown Beach:
2 Parasitic Jaegers in harbor area, chasing terns within 500 feet of route 6a.
d) Nauset Beach, in Orleans, MA:
35 Parasitic Jaegers, 1 Pomarine Jaeger, 30 Cory's Shearwaters, 2000 terns (20% were Forster's).
We also searched for the Sabine's Gull on the outer cape, but unsuccessfully.
The blog post for this trip will appear at... http://coastalbirds2.blogspot.com/ in a few days.
Tom Robben and Keith Mueller
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach - 10/5
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:10:19 -0400
Today's blustery winds blew a few seabirds into First Encounter Beach in
Eastham this morning (10/5). Actually the wind wasn't that strong early
this morning (15-20mph out of the NNW), but it was enough apparently and
viewing conditions were good, at least initially - heavy drizzle reduced
it considerably the last half hour or so. Highlights (0635 - 0820 hrs.;
Cloudy; NNW AT 15-20mph, increasing to 15-25mph; Tide high):
3 Atlantic Brant
5 Blue-winged Teal (in with a flock of scoters)
120 Common Eider
40 Surf Scoters
33 White-winged Scoters
60 Black Scoters
150 dark-winged scoter sp.
3 Red-breasted Mergansers
1 Red-throated Loon
4 Common Loons
3 loon sp.
1 N. Fulmar (lt., a pleasant surprise given the relatively benign
conditions; fairly close to shore)
1 Cory's Shearwater
3 Great Shearwaters
2 shearwater sp.
180 N. Gannets (including 15+ juveniles - the first I've seen this fall)
1 Red-necked Phalarope (juvenile sitting in the surf just beyond the
grasses)
8 (only) Laughing Gulls
2 Bonaparte's Gulls
75 Common Terns
40+ Forster's Terns
150+ sterna sp.
27 Parasitic Jaegers (one group of four headed due east over the parking
lot, apparently heading overland for the ocean.)
16 jaeger sp.
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Brown booby -Sandy Neck
From: Peter Crosson <pcrosson AT emeraldphysicians.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2011 10:12:47 -0400
This AM I watched a (the?) juvenile brown booby fly by at Sandy Neck. It was
traveling west to east at about 7:30am. I lost it eventually but it was headed
in the general vicinity of Chapin/Corporation beaches so may be worth checking
there. Also at Sandy Neck were several gannets, 9 white-winged, 7 surf and 17
black scoters.
At Navigation Road I was unable to locate the western kingbird, but had 2 palm
warblers.
Later Chris Walz and I birded Old Harbor in Sandwich. We had 1 peregrine
falcon, 4 Cooper's hawks, 8 black-bellied plovers, 4 great egrets, and 1
greater
yellowlegs.
Peter Crosson
Osterville, MA
================
Subject: P'town seabirds - 10/2
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:02:11 -0400
There was a nice movement of seabirds past Provincetown today, including
a Sabine's Gull, a fulmar, hundreds of shearwaters, well over 100
jaegers, and thousands of terns.
Race Point Beach (0630 - 0800 & 0935 - 1050 hrs.; Cloudy to Mostly
Cloudy; NE AT 10-15 increasing to 15-20mph):
7 White-winged Scoters
1 N. Fulmar (lt.)
9 Cory's Shearwaters
310 Great Shearwaters
11 Manx Shearwaters
2 Wilson's Storm-Petrels (late)
455 N. Gannets
460 Laughing Gulls
1 SABINE'S GULL (ad., flew in with Laughing Gulls, landed on the water
for a couple of minutes, then continued E)
10 Black Terns
11 Roseate Terns (undoubtedly many others passed undetected)
5700 Common Terns
77 Forster's Terns (probably overlooked many others among the masses of
terns)
114 Parasitic Jaegers
1 Long-tailed Jaeger (1st year)
10 jaeger sp.
Herring Cove (0820 - 0910 hrs.):
6 Cory's Shearwaters
300+ Great Shearwaters (most heading south into Cape Cod Bay)
1 Manx Shearwater
30 N. Gannets
400 Laughing Gulls
2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (ad.)
4 Black Terns
4+ Roseate Terns
1200 Common Terns
10 Forster's Terns
5 Parasitic Jaegers
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
=========================
Here is the October 2nd Provincetown "pelagic trip" report from Keith Mueller, co-leader of our October 15th HAS field trip....
Coastal Birds: Late September Shorebirding- Part 3
=========================
Subject: Andrew's Pt., Rockport, MA Seawatch; Sun., 2 Oct. 2011.
From: Richard Heil <rsheil AT comcast.net>
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:38:05 -0400
SUNDAY, 2 OCTOBER 2011:
ANDREW'S POINT, ROCKPORT Seawatch (0830-1050 hrs.)
Weather: Overcast, NNE winds 20-30 mph, 56 F.
Seas: 4-8 feet; Visibility: good to excellent.
Richard S. Heil
American Black Duck (4)
Common Eider (155)
Surf Scoter (14)
White-winged Scoter (49)
Black Scoter (4)
Red-throated Loon (1 - breeding plumage)
Common Loon (24)
Northern Fulmar (3 - light morph)
Cory's Shearwater (4)
Greater Shearwater (330+)
Northern Gannet (27)
Double-crested Cormorant (5)
Black-legged Kittiwake (8): 7 ads., 1 juv.
Laughing Gull (11): 10 ads., 1 juv.
Ring-billed Gull (1)
Herring Gull (135+)
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL (2 ads.)
Great Black-backed Gull (50+)
Common Tern (6)
Parasitic Jaeger (3)
RAZORBILL (1) : 2nd earliest record, cf., 1 - 9/26/10.
Black Guillemot (1)
Richard S. Heil
S. Peabody, MA
rsheil AT comcast.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/?saved=1
================
Subject: Outer Cape - 10/2 - Summer Tanager, Clapper Rail, continuing Am. Avocet
From: james sweeney <assawompsett AT yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 20:27:55 -0700 (PDT)
Massbirders,
I birded various locations on the outer portion of Cape Cod this afternoon
(10/2) with Vin Zollo and Mike McWade. We observed the continuing American
Avocet at Coast Guard Beach (Nauset Bay) in Eastham around 1:00pm.
We also observed a female/1st winter type Summer Tanager at Fort Hill in
Eastham. The bird was observed at the edge of the northwest corner of the field
just north of the entrance to the Red Maple Swamp trail.
Later, around 6:10pm, we were fortunate to have great views of a Clapper Rail
at the edge of the marsh. The bird was extremely cooperative and gave us
unobstructed looks for close to ten minutes.
As we were walking back to the car, we were treated to a Great Horned Owl that
had alighted on the top of a cedar at the opposite side of the field.
Jim Sweeney
assawompsett AT yahoo.com
Providence, RI
================
Subject: Western Kingbird -Barnstable Great Marsh
From: Peter Crosson <pcrosson AT emeraldphysicians.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 15:33:01 -0400
Hi All, after enjoying the CCBC/BBC Birding with Kids walk this morning with my
two little birding proteges, I headed out later to a few spots around
Barnstable. After locating the Eurasian Wigeon at Mill Pond in MM, I hit Sandy
Neck, where the highlight was a massive cloud of tree swallows easily numbering
into the many thousands.
At the next stop, Navigation Rd in the Barnstable Great Marsh, I found a
Western Kingbird. I got a few distant photos before it flew from the small tree near
the marsh cabin into the woods at the edge of the marsh. Shortly after that I
relocated it and got a few more photos, but it flushed to the south and I could
not refind it.
Pictures (not very good ones!) are at
www.flickr.com/petercrosson.
Peter Crosson
Osterville, MA
================
Subject: Re: Chatham Pelagic - 10/1
From: Mary Keleher <maryeak AT yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 03:40:48 -0700 (PDT)
Wanted to share a few photos & video from the trip yesterday that I got with my
point & shoot camera to give people an idea of how amazing it was. Ashley took
a couple of videos with her ipod touch.
Many thanks to Blair for organizing the trip & to Captain Ken Eldredge for his
service. This was a great first pelagic trip for Ashley. Hopefully she doesn't
think it's always this good!
https://picasaweb.google.com/117292452030005706716/October22011?feat=email
Ashley's videos http://www.flickr.com/photos/26056276 AT N07/
Mary Keleher,
Mashpee, MA
================
Subject: Chatham pelagic - addendum
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2011 21:27:44 -0400
Inadvertently omitted from my list of seabirds off Chatham today:
3 N. Fulmars (1 dk., 2 lt.; one of which spent several minutes on the
water right off the stern)
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
Subject: Chatham Pelagic - 10/1
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2011 20:33:22 -0400
The inaugural Chatham "Kittiwake" pelagic was a great success. Although
we found no rarities, the numbers of birds and the eyeball to eyeball
views we had of many made for a memorable trip. Heavy rain early in the
morning led us to delay our departure from the scheduled 7:00 to 10:00,
which proved to be a good move as conditions the rest of the day were
quite favorable, with mostly cloudy skies, a light SSE breeze, and light
to nearly glassy seas by the end of the trip.
Our route took us north from the Chatham inlet to a point a couple miles
east of Pochet Island in Orleans, then generally easterly out to about
5-6 miles, then southwest to the southern tip of South Beach. So, we
never got very far offshore, but didn't need to as there was plenty to
see well within sight of land. Captain Ken Eldredge, our affable and
able skipper, scored a couple of buckets of cod livers the day before,
so we were well armed with some of the best chum known to man or bird.
And it worked like a charm, bringing in hundreds of gulls and
shearwaters to within arms reach. At one point there were so many birds
around and overhead it was almost overwhelming. A bit later we trailed
a returning fishing boat that had thousands of gulls and shearwaters
following behind - one of the densest concentrations of ship-followers
I've ever seen.
Highlights (1000 - 1530 hrs.):
6 Surf Scoters
8 Black Scoters
25 dark-winged scoter sp.
250 Common Eider
5 Common Loons
3 Cory's Shearwaters (the first 3 shearwaters we saw, 2 of them in the
mouth of the inlet; we never saw another the rest of the trip!)
2000 Great Shearwaters (About 75% of them among an incredible mass of
birds behind a returning fishing boat).
100 Sooty Shearwaters
39 Manx Shearwaters
73 N. Gannets
100 Laughing Gulls (90% juvenile)
1500 Herring Gulls (most behind a returning fishing boat, 90% of which
were juveniles; many hundreds more roosting on the beaches upon our return.)
12+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls (6 at the Chatham Fish Pier before we
departed, another 6+ at sea, including 2 juveniles)
300 Great Black-backed Gulls (mostly juveniles at sea; many hundreds
more roosting on the beaches upon our return)
1 Black Tern (just outside the inlet)
250 Common Terns (most in Chatham Harbor, only a few offshore)
4 Forster's Terns (Chatham Harbor)
38 Parasitic Jaegers (most, not surprisingly were close to shore; some
great shows of birds chasing terns, including one adult that made
dizzying, breathtaking loops around the boat at point-blank range)
18 jaeger sp. (a couple of possible Pomarines, but not seen well, and at
least one possible Long-tailed, but again not seen well)
If the weather looks favorable, we'll schedule another trip next Sunday
(the captain's not available on Saturday). If the long-range forecast
looks good Wednesday evening, I'll send an announcement to Massbird.
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Dickcissels, Blue Grosbeak- Brewster
[this is 20 miles west of Provincetown in Plymouth MA]
From: Al Curtis <killdeer89 AT comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2011 11:30:19 -0400
In a case of bad timing, I sat in my vehicle in the pouring rain at
Brewster Gardens this morning (10/1). Through the rain-streaked
windows I saw 3 Dickcissels and a female type Blue Grosbeak. I plan
to return this afternoon if the weather clears to try for some photos.
Al Curtis
Harwich, MA
================
Subject: Sabine's Gull, etc. Wellfleet Bay 9/29
Sabine's Gull, Wellfleet Bay | Flickr - Photo Sharing! <<note yellow tip on bill
From: "Mark Faherty" <mfaherty AT massaudubon.org>
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:23:52 -0400
I found a Sabine's Gull (phonescoped photo link below) roosting among laughing
and other gulls on the South Sunken Meadow beach section of the sanctuary this
afternoon. This is the barrier beach across the creek from the main sanctuary
beach, reachable by South Sunken Meadow Rd./Harme's Way. A likely Clapper Rail
was calling invisibly from the tall spartina along Hatch's Creek.
Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, Barnstable, US-MA
Sep 29, 2011 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Comments:� ���South Sunken Meadow, high falling tide.
36 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose� 8
American Black Duck� 145
Mallard� 15
Common Eider� 110
Common Loon� 1
Northern Gannet� 15
Double-crested Cormorant� 20
Great Blue Heron�28, congregating at the water line on the evening low tide, as
is typical here.
Great Egret� 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron� 1
Northern Harrier� 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk� 1
Clapper/King Rail� 1 Calling from bank of Hatch's Creek near mouth.
Black-bellied Plover� 60
Semipalmated Plover� 35
Solitary Sandpiper� 2
Greater Yellowlegs� 30
Willet� 3
Lesser Yellowlegs� 1
Whimbrel� 6
Sanderling� 18
Semipalmated Sandpiper� 75
Dunlin� 45
Sabine's Gull� 1�
���http://www.flickr.com/photos/pajarero/6196844688/in/photostream
Laughing Gull� 400
Ring-billed Gull� 40
Herring Gull� 30
Great Black-backed Gull� 18
Common Tern� 20
Forster's Tern� 16
Mourning Dove� 2
Belted Kingfisher� 2
Blue Jay� 1
American Crow� 8
Horned Lark� 2
Tree Swallow� 5
Savannah Sparrow� 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2
(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)
*********************************************************************
Mark Faherty
Science Coordinator
Mass Audubon/Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
================
Subject: Brewster Dickcissels & Eastham Avocet
From: Mary Keleher <maryeak AT yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:36:03 -0700 (PDT)
Thanks to Peter Trull for finding a Dickcissel at the Brewster Gardens
yesterday. I checked it out this morning and found at least two! of them. I
suspected there might have been another one but I never saw more then two
together. I got some photos of them through my binoculars. See link below.
I continued on to Eastham to look for the previously reported American Avocet.
After scanning the marsh for 10-15 minutes I spotted it with several
yellowlegs. I set my scope & camera up to get some distant photos accidentally
taking a photo before I was zoomed in. Just after that all the yellowlegs got
up and flew. I grabbed my binoculars & noticed the avocet was with them. Hoping
it would land closer for a better look, but that didn't happen as they all
landed on the opposite side of the marsh grass & out of sight. After another
5-10 minutes they all got up & flew further out into the marsh, the avocet was
quite obvious in flight mixed in with the yellowlegs.
I checked my camera afterwards & noticed I actually did get a distant photo of
the avocet!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26056276 AT N07/sets/72157627657614151/
Mary Keleher,
Mashpee, MA
================
Subject: Chatham seabirds
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 20:36:13 -0400
Seabirds continue to be present in abundance off Chatham, some
remarkably close to shore. I spent 45 minutes scoping from the Morris
Island overlook late today and had the following highlights (1725 - 1810
hrs.; wind E AT <5 mph; seas calm):
18 White-winged Scoters
23 Surf/Black scoters
2 Cory's Shearwaters
10 Great Shearwaters
1 Sooty Shearwater
8 Manx Shearwaters
100+ shearwater sp. (a couple of rafts on the water)
10 N. Gannets
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Merlin
250 Laughing Gulls
2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (ad.)
400+ Herring/Great Black-backed gulls
150 tern sp. (nothing but Commons detected)
15 Parasitic Jaegers (typically wide assortment of plumages/ages)
5 jaeger sp. (one possible ad. Long-tailed, seen very briefly).
Sunday afternoon (9/25) there were upwards of 1000 shearwaters in
several large rafts on the water.
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
Subject: Provincetown & High Head, Truro; Mon., 26 Sep. 2011.
From: Richard Heil <rsheil AT comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:07:15 -0400
MONDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 2011:
HIGH HEAD, TRURO & PROVINCETOWN, Massachusetts (0740-1715 hrs.)
Weather: Partly sunny, light variable winds, 66-72 F.
Richard S. Heil
Mute Swan (4)
American Black Duck (3)
Common Eider (90+)
White-winged Scoter (45)
Black Scoter (1)
Red-breasted Merganser (11)
Wild Turkey (13)
Cory's Shearwater (9)
Great Shearwater (105+)
Sooty Shearwater (1)
Manx Shearwater (12)
BROWN BOOBY (1 -1st. yr..) : Long-staying immature bird roosting on
harbor breakwater with cormorants as previously reported at this
location by others.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/6188638176/in/photostream
Northern Gannet (125)
Double-crested Cormorant (700+)
Great Cormorant (5; 2 ads., 3-1W)
Great Blue Heron (3)
Green Heron (1 juv.)
Northern Harrier (1 juv.f.)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (1)
Cooper's Hawk (1)
Merlin (1)
Sora (1) - marsh below High Head, Truro.
Black-bellied Plover (450+) : Most Provincetown Harbor.
American Golden-Plover (3 juvs.)
Semipalmated Plover (23)
Greater Yellowlegs (45) - Provincetown Harbor.
Ruddy Turnstone (9)
Red Knot (4 juvs.) Provincetown Harbor.
Sanderling (525+)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (24)
Least Sandpiper (1)
Pectoral Sandpiper (2): 1 - Hatches Harbor, 1 - Provincetown Harbor.
Dunlin (5)
Short-billed Dowitcher (2 juvs.) - Provincetown Harbor.
SABINE'S GULL (1 adult): Partially hooded bird foraging off Herring Cove.
Laughing Gull (1200+) : Including - 500 Provincetown Harbor, 400 -
Herring Cove, 100 - Pilgrim lake, 100+ - catching flying ants over
Provincelands, 100 - Race Point.
Ring-billed Gull (150+)
Herring Gull (2500+)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (5 ads.): 1 - Hatches Harbor, 4 - P'town Harbor.
Great Black-backed Gull (1000+)
Black Tern (13+) : 7+ - Herring Cove, 3 - Race Pt., 3 - P'town Harbor.
Roseate Tern (175+) : Provincetown Harbor to Hatches Harbor
Common Tern (8000+): Including 2500+ foraging off Herring Cove;
simultaneously 1600 roosting Hatches Harbor; 800+ - Race Pt.; 3000+ -
Provincetown Harbor
Forster's Tern (15)
Parasitic Jaeger (36+) : Including 2 - Provincetown Harbor; 8+ -
Herring Cove; 27+ - Race Point; up to eight trying to stand on a
floating board off Race Point parking lot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/6188653608/in/photostream
, http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/6187551322/in/photostream
Rock Pigeon (20+)
Mourning Dove (22)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (1) - High Head, Truro.
Belted Kingfisher (5)
Downy Woodpecker (4)
Northern Flicker (4)
Eastern Phoebe (3)
Great Crested Flycatcher (1)
Blue-headed Vireo (2)
Red-eyed Vireo (7)
Blue Jay (103+) : Many small flocks wandering (mostly northwestward)
around High Head and Provincelands.
American Crow (12)
Tree Swallow (4500+)
Black-capped Chickadee (60)
Tufted Titmouse (23+): Wandering small groups everywhere, including
High Head, downtown P'town, and the Provincelands.
White-breasted Nuthatch (3)
Carolina Wren (6)
Marsh Wren (2)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
Swainson's Thrush (1) - High Head, Truro.
American Robin (55+)
Gray Catbird (35+)
Northern Mockingbird (3)
Brown Thrasher (1)
Eur. Starling (400)
Cedar Waxwing (22)
Nashville Warbler (1)
Magnolia Warbler (1)
'Myrtle' Warbler (10)
Pine Warbler (2)
Prairie Warbler (1) - High Head, Truro.
'Western' Palm Warbler (4)
'Yellow' Palm Warbler (1)
Blackpoll Warbler (11)
Northern Waterthrush (1)
Common Yellowthroat (3)
Eastern Towhee (12)
Chipping Sparrow (17)
Field Sparrow (7)
Savannah Sparrow (3)
Song Sparrow (18)
Swamp Sparrow (1)
White-throated Sparrow (9)
Scarlet Tanager (1) - High Head, Truro.
Northern Cardinal (11)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (4) - High Head, Truro.
Bobolink (1)
Red-winged Blackbird (5)
Common Grackle (15)
Baltimore Oriole (3) - High Head, Truro.
House Finch (4)
American Goldfinch (12)
House Sparrow (20+)
Richard S. Heil
S. Peabody, MA
rsheil AT comcast.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rsheil/?saved=1
================
Subject: Avocet, Nauset Marsh in Eastham 9/26
From: "Mark Faherty" <mfaherty AT massaudubon.org>
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:44:28 -0400
Bob Cook had American Avocet yesterday in Nauset Marsh in Eastham, near the
Coast Guard Station. It sounds like other people have had it in the last week
or so - I believe Keith Brunell was the first to report it.
Mark Faherty
Science Coordinator
Mass Audubon/Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
================
Subject: Mid-Cape, Barnstable , 9/25/11
From: Matt Malin <hossfeldt AT yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:26:55 -0700 (PDT)
I birded around the western side of the town of Barnstable yesterday and had
the following highlights:
�
Eurasian Wigeon� 1 - Marstons Mill Pond AT Rts. 149/28
Blue-winged Teal 5 - Marstons Mill Pond AT Rts. 149/28
Wood Duck 8 - Muddy Pond
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 - Santuit River Conservation Area
Yellow-billed Cuckoo�1 - Crocker Neck Conservation Area
Red-eyed Vireo 1 - Crocker Neck Conservation Area
Bobolink 1 - Long Pond Conservation Area (Community Garden)
Blue Grosbeak� 1 (molting male) - Long Pond Conservation Area (Community
Garden)
�
Matt Malin
Mashpee, MA
hossfeldt (at) yahoo (dot) com
================
Subject: Birding Cape Cod Weekend - Falmouth Bike Path
From: Mary Keleher <maryeak AT yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:21:41 -0700 (PDT)
This morning 9 people joined me for a Cape Cod Bird Club "Birding Cape Cod
Weekend" walk along the bike path in Falmouth. Lots of birds around and we
finished up just before the rain drops. Hopefully all the other walks fared
well with the weather today. For a list of walks tomorrow, hopefully it won't
be a total washout, go to
http://www.massbird.org/ccbc/BirdingCapeCodWeekend.pdf
Falmouth Bike Path - Locust St - Oyster Pond, Barnstable, US-MA
41 species (+2 other taxa)
Mute Swan 2
Mallard 3
Double-crested Cormorant 9
Great Blue Heron 2
Osprey 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Laughing Gull 10
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 4
Sterna sp. 4
Rock Pigeon 1
Mourning Dove 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 6
Hairy Woodpecker 5
Eastern Phoebe 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 2
Tree Swallow 96
Black-capped Chickadee 40
Tufted Titmouse 7
Carolina Wren 5
House Wren 2
American Robin 14
Gray Catbird 30
Northern Mockingbird 3
Cedar Waxwing 4
Common Yellowthroat 3
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 3
warbler sp. 2
Eastern Towhee 10
Song Sparrow 10
Northern Cardinal 12
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Common Grackle 6
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 6
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 14
Mary Keleher,
Mashpee, MA
================
Subject: eBird Report - Cumberland Farms--IBA and Provincetown Harbor, Sep 21, 2011 (Connecticut warbler, Brown bobby, black skimmer)
From: davidely AT comcast.net
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:08:33 +0000 (UTC)
Hi all,
Today I birded both Cumberland Farms and Provincetown Harbor. Below are the
ebird checklists I submitted for those locations.
On my way back to Salem, I pulled over briefly at King's Beach on the
Swampscott/Lynn line and was able to see 8 black skimmers (all juvies). There
were only 7 here on 9/19.
Cumberland Farms--IBA, Plymouth, US-MA
Sep 21, 2011 6:45 AM - 8:47 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.3 mile(s)
Comments: I came here on my own but birded briefly with Patrick
Loranger, Hank Levesquene (sp?), Jim McCoy, Bob, and a lady whose name I didn't
get. It was 56F and foggy when I got here and 70F, clear, and short-sleeve
weather when I left.
29 species
Canada Goose 20
Great Blue Heron 1
Northern Harrier 1
Mourning Dove 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 8
Tree Swallow 18
Barn Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Wren 2
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 6
European Starling 30
Nashville Warbler 1
Cumberland Farms--IBA, Plymouth, US-MA
Sep 21, 2011 6:45 AM - 8:47 AM
Protocol: Traveling
0.3 mile(s)
Comments: I came here on my own but birded briefly with Patrick
Loranger, Hank Levesquene (sp?), Jim McCoy, Bob, and a lady whose name I didn't
get. It was 56F and foggy when I got here and 70F, clear, and short-sleeve
weather when I left.
29 species
Canada Goose 20
Great Blue Heron 1
Northern Harrier 1
Mourning Dove 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 8
Tree Swallow 18
Barn Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Wren 2
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 6
European Starling 30
Nashville Warbler 1
Connecticut Warbler 3 I personally saw/heard 3, but based on my
conversations with others, I believe there were at least 5 birds present within
30 yards of the entrance "gate" and the first dip in the road. I was able to
photograph a cooperative bird in a pine tree at the entrance gate along the
chain link fence on the right side as you begin to walk down the dirt path
towards the dip.
Common Yellowthroat 4
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 6
Swamp Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 1
Indigo Bunting 3
Red-winged Blackbird 12
House Sparrow 1
Provincetown Harbor, Barnstable, US-MA
Sep 21, 2011 11:10 AM - 12:10 PM
Protocol: Stationary
Comments: I ventured here after a successful morning trip to Cumberland Farms
in hopes of spotting the lingering and often elusive brown booby.
14 species (+1 other taxa)
Common Eider (Atlantic) 60
**Brown Booby 1 imm. It was sitting with double-crested cormorants on the
breakwater. I didn't see it initially, having scanned through all of the birds
with my scope at least twice. On my 3rd pass, I noticed it preening and I
was able to get a couple of poor digiscoped photos with my iPhone. It was
preening most of the time and then finally sat down on a rock. I then walked
about 75 yards south along the pier to get a better angle for the picture and I
never saw the bird again. I don't know where it went, but lots of cormorants
were starting to fly off.
Double-crested Cormorant 492
Great Cormorant 5 exact count
cormorant sp. 1 probably a distant great cormorant on a buoy
Great Blue Heron 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Ruddy Turnstone 6
Laughing Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull 4
Herring Gull (American) X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Common Tern 60
Rock Pigeon 45
House Sparrow X
David Ely
Salem, MA
davidely AT comcast dot net
================
Subject: Brown booby yes
From: David Ely <mountainplover AT gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:47:16 -0400
The brown booby is currently (11:30am) resting on the breakwater opposite the
Boston Harbor Cruise booth on MacMillian Pier in Provincetown.
Sent from my iPhone
David Ely
Salem, MA
================
Subject: Outer Cape- Chatham-P'town
From: Bob Stymeist <bobstymeist AT gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 11:04:05 -0400
This past weekend from Friday through yesterday I led an annual Brookline
Bird Club trip-the Cape Cod Blitz from Chatham to Provincetown, nine
participants tallied 114 species during the three days; on Friday we started
in Chatham and ended up at Hemingway Landing in Eastham. Saturday we birded
Wellfleet from 7:30-6:30 and Sunday we started at MacMillian Pier in
Provincetown and ended in Truro. The weather , promising to deliver
southbound migrants didn't materialize , at least in our minds and migrants
and even residents were hard to come by.
Our highlights included the BROWN BOOBY on the breakwater in P'town Harbor,
a BLUE GROSBEAK in Wellfleet (High Toss Road), six Philadelphia Vireos and
15 species of warblers including two Tennessee (one in Wellfleett and one in
Truro, an Orange-crowned at Ryder Beach, Truro and a Cape May at Bound Brook
in Wellfleet.) There was a good show of jaegers at Race Point along with
several Great Shearwaters and a Cory's. Two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls
at the Chatham Fish Pier, an Olive-sided Flycatcher in Wellfleet and a
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher at the Beech Forest in P'town.
Bob Stymeist
Arlington
bobstymeist AT gmail.com
================
Subject: Booby
From: alice morgan <morgan.alice AT gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 08:22:12 -0400
On mcmillan pier in provincetown 8:15 am.
================
Subject: First Encounter Beach seabirds
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:16:39 -0400
The first real NW winds of the fall blew a nice assortment of seabirds
past First Encounter Beach in Eastham this morning (9/16), highlighted
by an adult Sabine's Gull. At this time of the year, any brisk NW winds
can produce seabirds at this location, even without any easterly winds
to blow birds into the bay. Highlights (0625 - 0750 hrs.; Winds
NW AT 15-30mph):
7 Cory's Shearwaters
8 Great Shearwaters
150 Cory's/Great Shearwaters (all on the horizon, where there was a
great deal of distortion today)
600 N. Gannets
6 N. Pintail (one flock)
10 (only) Laughing Gulls (this species has been abundant at many other
locations on the outer Cape recently)
1 SABINE'S GULL (ad w/partial hood, flew past over the flats at fairly
close range; photos)
1 Black Tern
20 Forster's Terns
50 Common Terns
700 tern sp. (distant)
9 Parasitic Jaegers
1 Pomarine Jaeger (ad.)
40 jaeger sp. (most probably Parasitic)
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
DUXBURY BEACH IS 20 MILES WEST OF PROVINCETOWN, ACROSS CAPE COD BAY....
Subject: 9/14 Duxbury Beach - ISS. Golden Plovers, Gannet
From: Rick Bowes <rbowes AT bowesweb.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:59:43 -0400
Wed 9/14/11: 11:00-3:15pm; HiTide 1:15pm (10.4ft); clear, Temp 78;
wind SW 10-15; bay and ocean waters: quiet
I ran the International Shorebird Survey route today - thus all
non-shorebird sightings were serendipitous including a
first-of-season adult Gannet well offshore from the 3rd crossover.
The shorebird numbers were about right for this point in the
migration except that there were an unusually high number of
Semipalmated Sandpipers for this late in the season thanks to one
flock of about 400 birds (oceanside loafing area about 200yds north
of the Gurnet Guard Shack). Sanderling numbers are building a little
ahead of schedule. A mixed flock on the bayside south of the 3rd
crossover of about 200 birds pushed up numbers of Black-bellied
Plovers, Turnstones and Dowitchers.
The birds of the day were three Golden Plovers including a paired up
juvenile and molting adult, that let me get pretty close to them. A
photo is at http://www.pbase.com/rickbowes/image/138074919.
ISS numbers excerpted and annotated from eBird posting..
Shorebirds:
Black-bellied Plover 197 Most in one flock (approx 150) south of
High Pines on bay side
American Golden-Plover 3 photos of 1 juv, 1 molting adult. found
between 1st and 2nd crossovers. 3rd individual bayside south of High Pines
Semipalmated Plover 213 Present all up and down the beach - both
sides. One flock of 150 on ocean side.
Piping Plover 4 all juveniles
Spotted Sandpiper 3 Single birds at High Pines, the Boathole,
and oceanside at Gurnet
Greater Yellowlegs 8 All in High Pines area
Willet 3 Together. With Yellowlegs on High Pines Peninsula
Ruddy Turnstone 31 Scattered but generally with Black-bellied Plovers
Red Knot 2 With large Black-bellied Plover flock
Sanderling 488 Migrants - nearly all on ocean side south of
High Pines; one flock of 400+
Semipalmated Sandpiper 574 Migrants - one flock of 400+ most on
Ocean side, some at Boathole
Least Sandpiper 23 Still scattered throughout High Pines and
Gurnet marshes
White-rumped Sandpiper 1 at the Boathole
Short-billed Dowitcher 76 In various places - mostly with
Black-bellied Plovers
Other birds of note...
Brant 1 Summer-over individual - bayside south of 3rd crossover
Least Tern X several birds from breeding population remain -
adults and juveniles
Northern Gannet 1 Adult well offshore at 3rd crossover flying south
Rick Bowes, Duxbury, MA
rbowes(at)bowesweb.com
Beach info at http://www.duxburybeach.com/visit.htm
================
Subject: P'town seabirds - Sabine's Gull
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:07:41 -0400
A stunning September morning and a nice variety of seabirds, highlighted
by an adult Sabine's Gull, made for a very enjoyable couple of hours in
Provincetown early today (9/10).
Race Point Beach (0605 - 0705 hrs. Winds and seas were near calm):
6 Cory's Shearwaters
95 Great Shearwaters
105 Cory's/Great Shearwaters
2 Sooty Shearwaters
19 Manx Shearwaters
30 Wilson's Storm-petrels
51 N. Gannets
300 Laughing Gulls (90+% juv.)
2 Black Terns
75+ Roseate Terns
300+ Common Terns
1200 Common/Roseate Terns
8 Parasitic Jaegers
7 jaeger sp.
1 Dickcissel (flyover calling - or was it a cardinal?)
5 warbler sp. (flyovers)
Herring Cove (0715 - 1081 hrs.)
3 Common Loons
5 Cory's Shearwaters
2 Great Shearwaters
2 Sooty Shearwaters
1 Manx Shearwater
15 Wilson's Storm-petrels
10 N. Gannets (no sign of the booby this morning)
800 Laughing Gulls (90% juv.)
1 SABINE'S GULL (ad., w/full hood. Flew in, landed on the water next to
a Laughing Gull for a couple of minutes then disappeared to the north.)
1 Least Tern (juv.)
8 Black Terns
25 Roseate Terns
300 Common Terns
800+ Common/Roseate Terns (roosting at Hatches Harbor)
10 Parasitic Jaegers
5 jaeger sp.
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
Subject: South Beach - Wilson's Plover
From: Blair Nikula <odenews AT odenews.org>
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:49:28 -0400
An otherwise fairly typical assortment of birds on South Beach, Chatham
today (9/10) was highlighted by a Wilson's Plover, a bird that was first
seen a week ago by Mark Kasprzyck and others. Highlights (1045 - 1500
hrs.):
1 Wood Duck (! My first on South Beach, though they show up occasionally
on the ponds of South Monomoy.)
75 Wilson's Storm-petrels (but little else offshore)
3+ N. Harriers (1m., 2+ juv.)
1 Peregrine Falcon (imm.)
1 WILSON'S PLOVER
12 Whimbrel
8 Hudsonian Godwits
1 Marbled Godwit
2 Western Sandpipers (ad.)
110 White-rumped Sandpipers (all ad.)
3 Pectoral Sandpipers
1 Wilson's Snipe
7 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
8 Black Terns
22+ Forster's Terns
1 Veery (flushed from marsh)
1 Bobolink
Blair Nikula
--
2 Gilbert Lane
Harwich Port, MA 02646
http://www.odenews.org/
http://www.capecodbirds.org/
================
