2018 Fish Watching

2018 "Fish Watching" Project


What is happening in LIS Long Island Sound, in the water?? We are addressing part of this question...
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FIVE FUNDAMENTAL sub-QUESTIONS:

• # 1) WHICH are the significant fish etc. ("etc" = & other marine life) in LIS and nearby waters?
• # 2) Which birds EAT which of these fish etc? Which fish are not prey to birds?
• # 3) WHEN are these fish etc. here in LIS and nearby waters? Many fish are migratory & cyclical. 
• # 4) Which of these fish etc. have actually been reported in RECENT weeks? How seen? By who?
• # 5) WHO is knowledgeable about these fish matters, and will they collaborate with us?

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From a bird watcher's point of view :
Why do seabirds (and whales) concentrate in some waters, and what are they eating there???

Since fish (and plankton, etc) are such essential food items in the diet of most seabirds, it is important that we understand them better, including their 1) seasonal changes and 2) long term trends. The changes in fish numbers, distributions and health have a large impact on the success and survival of many seabirds (and where seabirds tend to congregate). Seabirds often search for fish (and plankton) concentrations, and we should know which fish species they are eating.

MAIN QUESTION (related to #4 above):  Can we find or produce a quarterly or monthly report on the currently changing fish patterns (fish species, ages,  numbers, distributions) in nearby waters, such as LIS Long Island Sound, Montauk and Long Island South Shore, Stellwagen Bank, The Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, Scotian Shelf, Grand Banks, etc?

To do this, somebody has to be able to answer this simple underlying question: Which fish species are ACTUALLY in the water now, right in front of us, as we stand on a ship?

How do we know which fish are "out-there" from month to month, and how they are changing, e.g., migrating? Who knows that? Who is "watching" these fish changes in-the-field, from month to month? Who are these "fish watchers"? How are they "watching"? What are all the methods being used to monitor fish populations, both formal/scientific and informal/nonstandardized?


And secondarily, can we note any relationships being observed with birds (such as flocks of terns, gulls, shearwaters, gannets, cormorants, loons, ospreys, alcids, etc.) feeding on these fish?

Because of our emphasis on "seabirds" we are mostly focusing on salt water fish, with more attention to pelagic species and less on ground fish. Which raises an incidental question about scientific fish surveys: are most of them trawl surveys, focusing more on ground fish than pelagic fish??

We will try to work through this main question at this post, starting with fishing reports, such as:
DEEP: Weekly Fishing Report  <<for LIS and CT watershed in 2018.
fishreport092018.pdf  <<for the most recent week. Note the good reports on Atlantic Bonito and Little Tunny.
and these  more commercial fishing reports:
Weekly Fishing Reports for South Shore Mass. to Maine New England - The Fisherman Magazine
October 8, 2018 Fishing Report: Hillyers Tackle, Waterford CT - The Fisherman Magazine


We will include inputs from fish experts from many areas, including commercial fishing, recreational fishing, academic, governmental, tackle shops, museum collection curators, etc. This new project is already receiving useful information from many subject matter experts and project partners. These two groups include P.Auster, M.Bull, P.Comins, I.Devlin, K.Douton, J.DiCostanzo, K.Hartel, D.Hudson, A.Jordaan, L.Kaufman, B.Lucey, M.Male, K.O'Brien, M.Sedotti, D.Wessner, C.Witek, C.Wood, etc etc.

Tackle shops could be another key source of valuable information, e.g., J&B Tackle Co  in Niantic, with outstanding store manager Capt.  Kyle Douton.



EXAMPLES:
Here are two interesting samples from the CT DEEP Weekly Fishing Report on Sept.20th. Is this the best contemporaneous fish information we have for LIS, from week to week?   These small tuna species were not reported in LIS earlier in the summer, so you can deduce the changing patterns of fish to some extent from studying these qualitative weekly fishing reports...
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"ATLANTIC BONITO & LITTLE TUNNY. Just got back from a great morning of fishing today (Sept 20th). They are here feeding on the crab hatch and forage fish. They are fast movers and moving to different locations is important. However, the action in CT is heating up and many fish have moved into the western Sound. Big catches of these small tunas have been reported from Griswold Point. Pleasure Beach, Pine Island, Bluff Point, Groton Long Point to Norwalk/Darien. Shore anglers are scoring at Pleasure Beach, Ocean Beach, Seaside, Harkness Memorial and Rocky Neck State Park. These small tunas are also cruising around from Pt. Judith, Watch Hill to Bluff Point (including Fishers Island Sound), the Race to Little Gull Island, from Bartlett Reef to Black Point. Dawn and dusk is the best time to fish for these inshore tunas. They are also feeding heavily on young of the year transparent anchovy. Try casting metal (heavy) lures (Swedish pimple and Epoxy jigs) to feeding fish on the surface. A jig with a plastic swimming bait (sluggos, fin-s-fish, super flukes) and no weight on the leader has been very productive. A quiet approach and finding birds (gulls/terns) actively feeding is the key to a successful trip. Jigging for them also works when they are close to the bottom."
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"BLUEFISH fishing has improved a little. They can be found in good numbers the eastern sound (find the birds). More recently good numbers of bluefish can be found in the lower estuaries, rivers and beaches feeding on menhaden/anchovies. The “Top-water” bite continues to be very good, look for the “blow-ups”. Bluefish fishing spots include the reefs off Watch Hill, the Race, Thames River, Sluiceway, Plum Gut, Pigeon Rip, lower Connecticut River, Long Sand Shoal, Sixmile Reef, Falkner Island area, New Haven Harbor and upper reaches, lower Housatonic River, buoys 18 and 20 off Stratford Point, Stratford Shoal/Middleground, Penfield Reef, and Cable and Anchor Reef.  SNAPPER fishing has improved in the tidal creeks and rivers with fish measuring 6 to 10 inches in length."
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Other "fish" mentioned by LIS fishermen in their August reports included:
Fluke, black sea bass, porgy(scup), mullets, bluefish (and snappers), menhaden/bunker, striped sea robin, northern kingfish, sand shark, humpback, blackfish (tautog), spearing, weakfish, eels, hickory shad, blue crab, Jimmies.


Of course mention of these fish species (Atlantic Bonito, Little Tunny, Bluefish, Menhaden, Anchovies -- all of various age classes and sizes) makes us wonder which bird species may eat them, and how important they may be to those birds.  We will focus on this.



RELATED QUESTIONS:
From a birding and ornithological point of view we cant fully understand the birds and seabirds of a particular body of water such as GOM (Gulf of Maine) or LIS (Long Island Sound) unless we also understand the fish and other lifeforms on which they depend for food and survival. This leads to a series of questions we need to address:

1)  What are the predominant 20 or 50 fish species in, for example, the LIS? Both pelagic and ground fish.

2)  Are the numbers of these species trending in any long term directions?

3)  How do the numbers of these species change seasonally through a typical year? What are the explanations?  A great example for this, for California waters, is this site:  Seasons in the Sea - Home Page

4)  What about this particular year? How have these numbers been changing the last month, or week? Which species have been seen very recently, where, by who, identified how (in hand, photographically at a distance, etc)? And have there been any noteworthy events, such as schools of one species blitzing schools of another fish species?


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Basically this is a citizen-science initiative, hoping to get more amateur naturalists and bird watchers to focus on fish and how they are changing (and of course, for us to tap into the knowledge which fishermen and fish scientists already have). We are currently assessing how much we know in this area, and how we can learn more (perhaps by bird watchers starting to catch&release fish, and photograph fish, from above and from below the water). We need to document, for example, the basics of fish in LIS, what we know and dont know,  and then go forward from there. We will try to learn this from every source possible, including fish experts and doing our own first-hand field research, with fishing rods, nets, cameras, etc.


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SOURCES OF FISH INFO:   List of all current methods of monitoring fish in LIS and nearby waters:

1. Fishermen catching fish.
2. DEEP dock surveys, interviewing fishermen.
3. Fishermen reporting some of the fish to tackle shops.
4. Tackle shops and charters reporting to The Fisherman Magazine.
5. DEEP weekly LIS fish report, in warmer months, with data from fishermen (via charters and tackle shops).
6. CT DEEP LIS estuarine seine survey, at several inshore areas.
7. CT DEEP LIS Trawl Surveys "LISTS", since 1984.
8. Norwalk Maritime Aquarium trawl survey.
9. Harbor Watch trawl survey in Darien, Norwalk and Westport harbors.
10. Millstone Environmental Laboratory trawl survey.
11. Project Oceanology nearshore fish trawl, since 1972, on LISICOS. See Snyder 2017.
12. NOAA trawl surveys, but offshore not in LIS. Includes NEFSC Bottom Trawl Survey.
13. www.QuanTech.com  doing  Fisheries Research.
14. NOAA fish reporting of several kinds:  Atlantic HMS Catch Reporting App | NOAA Fisheries but these are for tuna, marlin, spearfish, sailfish and swordfish.
15. What else??

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WHAT FISH ARE ACTUALLY IN THE WATER RIGHT NOW, right in front of us ??
Do some of our own sampling, first-hand (catch & release), with hook, net, camera, fish-finders, etc. Here is our first sampling with underwater photography, in this case, about ten miles NE of Cape Ann, MA:  will video camera just under ocean surface show anything? - YouTube
And also contact all the sources above, to learn what they know.


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PLAN:
Focus on LIS Long Island Sound (and GOM) initially.

• Get to know and network with core fish experts, including fishermen, scientists, etc.
• Assess what is known and not known.
• Try to work with experts to fill in a few gaps, to document what is known but not published.
• Start with a TopTen approach, for fish, plankton, seabirds, etc.
• Draft a web page for each of the TopTen fish in LIS, including what categories they fit into, what they eat, what preys on them, their life cycle, their seasonal cycle,  etc.

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CATEGORIZING FISH:  is this a useful way to categorize fish?

1.  "Vertical":

• Pelagic (the rest of the water column).
• Demersal (just above the benthos/seabed).
• Benthic (the seabed and its ground fish). 

2.  "Horizontal":

• Freshwater.
• Anadromous (born in fresh water, e.g., salmon, striped bass).
• Catadromous (born in salt water, e.g., eels).
• Estuarine (e.g., LIS).
• Marine/Oceanic. 

3.  Size and Trophic levels:

• Apex Predators: Sharks and billfish.
• Gamefish and other medium sized fish.
• Bait/forage fish, including juveniles of larger fish. 
• Fish larvae and fish eggs.

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FISH CALENDAR FOR LIS:
Is there a Fish Calendar for LIS? Can we assemble one, based on collective expert knowledge? We could start with the Top 25 fish species, and then gradually expand to the Top100 species. Here is the only/best Fish Calendar I could find for LIS, from the PonusYachtClub in Stamford CT...

Here is the new 2018 Forage Fish Calendar for LIS, from CT DEEP (David Molnar and Justin Davis):

Here is my draft LIS Fish Calendar (Fish Calendar for LIS 2018 MIXED - Google Sheets), derived from the 2018 Fish Calendars from CT DEEP, especially from David Molnar and Justin Davis. Click to enlarge this image, and then press ESC key to return...

We could start with these top 25 fish species, as listed in the offshore "deep water" LIS food web model by R.Zajac in 2008 (C:\RZ\LIS Food Webs\LIS FOOD WEBS FINAL REPORT\Zajac et al 2008 Food Webs in LIS Final Report EPA LISS.wpd -- we believe this is the only known formalized food web model for LIS!):

FISH vs BIRDS in LIS - Google Sheets


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BIRDS VS FISH MATRIX FOR LIS:   draft this...

FISH vs BIRDS in LIS - Google Sheets

COLUMNS: ten selected interesting birds in LIS, such as N.Gannet, Common Tern, DCCormorant, Bonaparte's Gull, RBGull, Osprey, loons, Brant, Wilson's Storm-petrel, Gr.Shearwater!, etc.

ROWS: top 50 fish (and plankton and other marine life forms) eaten by these birds.

FISH vs BIRDS in LIS - Google Sheets

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REFERENCES:  this is a draft list being assembled...
Schultz, Ken. Ken Schultz's Field Guide to Saltwater Fish. 2004.
Kells, Val & Kent Carpenter. A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes, from Maine to Texas. 2011.
Fish | Northeast Ocean Data Portal
NEFSC Ecosystems Surveys Branch
Blue Plan LIS_resource_and_use_inventory_april_2018_v1.2.pdf
Warm Water/Cold Water Fish Index « Long Island Sound Study
Forage Fish – Open Water/NY and CT Coastlines « Long Island Sound Study
Plants, Fish and Wildlife Monitoring « Long Island Sound Study
DEEP: Saltwater Fishing
Saltwater Fishing Resource Map
Long Island Sound Ecological Assessment

Long Island Sound Ecological Assessment
Joseph J. Luczkovich | Faculty | Department of Biology   Food web network models.
Ecological Network Analysis and food web for coastal North Carolina.
Ecological Network Analysis for LIS
ecopath model lis long island sound - Google Search
Food Webs in Long Island Sound: Review, Synthesis and Potential Applications
LIS FOOD WEBS FINAL REPORT\Zajac et al 2008 Food Webs in LIS Final Report EPA LISS.wpd <<

2018 September 15 and/or 16 Hurricane?? Trip

RESULTS:
Sept.15 trip had great weather and was very enjoyable, but very few birds that day. See below.
Sept.16 trip was cancelled.


SUNDAY TRIP  Sunday Sept 16th:
The public Sept.16 Sunday trip will run at 2pm, as its normal Classic Lighthouse Cruise, although I will not be there. There were remarkably FEW birds on Sept.15th on this route. So, go if you would like, it is a beautiful ride, but do not expect a lot of birds along the route.



SATURDAY TRIP RESULTS SUMMARY (and letter grades!), for Saturday trip 2-4pm Sept.15, 2018:
A:  Weather, ship and route were all excellent.
A:  Partners were excellent:     S.Gifford, R.Gowing, D.Jernigan, M.Peretto, T.Robben.
C:  Birds were not excellent; they were few and far between. And distant. I had many more birds in August in these waters. The only groups of birds on-the-water were 25 Common Terns flying and diving for fish about half a mile SSE of Avery Point, and about 300 distant gulls sitting on the water in a long line, just off the north shore of western Plum Island (see photo/s below).
D:  I twisted my bad leg on Saturday, making it worse, and making it difficult for me to do this trip again Sunday. Therefore,  I will NOT be doing the Sunday 9/16 trip (and I believe that tonight I have contacted/notified everyone who told me they will be taking the Sunday trip), but it is a public trip (the "Classic Lighthouse Cruise"), and you can still go. It is a pleasurable trip, but be warned, there are fewer birds out in those waters than usual! Many of the recent birds have headed south for the winter, especially tern species, and the hurricane is too far south to send us any bird-benefits.  Sit on the open top deck (the highest of 3 decks), near the back, and enjoy an excellent (very windy-- your hat will blow off) ride, but expect very few birds. Good luck.


More details coming within 24 hours, here, including photos.
I took videos of several distant bird concentrations, and will analyze them shortly, to see if we overlooked any good species.

Our Sept.15 trip was right after maximum high tide in Eastern Long Island Sound:
Montauk tidal tables for Sept.15th:  H12:05am, L5:39am, H12:50pm, L6:44pm.
Montauk tidal tables for Sept.16th:  H12:51am, L6:23am, H1:49pm, L7:56pm.
From:  September / 2018 - Montauk Point Tides :: Montauk-Online.com
See also: Tide times and charts for Montauk, New York and weather forecast for fishing in Montauk
Water temp  72F.  Air temp 70-75F.  Wind about at least 5mph,  varying from NE to SE.
Cloud cover 2%.  Sunlight was bright and reflections off the water made some viewing difficult.

Bird were unremarkable, in ad hoc order :
Shearwaters, none.
Storm-petrels, none.
Jaegers, none.
Waterfowl, none.
Passerines, none.
Shorebirds, one, Am.Oystercatcher.
Uncommon terns, none.
Common Tern, 25 in a group, plus about 20 scattered around our route.
Forster's Tern, 1, flying near the group.
Great Black-backed Gull, 200 at multiple islands and rocks.
Herring Gull, 200 almost all on island and rocks.
Laughing Gull, 10 scattered along the route, plus possibly in the large distant group near Plum Island.
Other gull species, TBD shortly, pending studying of long-distance photos.
Double-crested Cormorant, 20 scattered around the water, plus 300 on various island and rocks.
Mute Swan, 4 along shoreline of islands.
Am. Oystercatcher, one on islet at mouth of New London harbor.



By far the largest group of birds-on-the-water was a long line of at least 200-300 gulls, in a mixed flock (including some Herring and some Laughing Gulls), about 100 yards off the north side of western Plum Island. Our ship did not get close to this distant flock, and here is part of it, this frame grabbed from my video at 1,000mm (that is like 20x) and then also highly cropped (making it the equivalent of approximately an image-stabilized 100x scope)....

If this was a dedicated pelagic charter we could have gotten the ship closer to the gulls for a better look and surer identification. This was a public trip, however, and we had no influence over the route. There were about 60 passengers on board, mostly on the top deck, along with five of us bird observers (our bird-oriented trip was only created a few days before its cruise date, and only "advertised" locally to some friends, so it was good that anybody showed up, on this otherwise busy weekend).

One week later on Sept.23rd Matthew Male reported a flock of gulls just west of Great Gull Island plankton feeding on crab larva (of unknown crab species, but identified by gull vomit and pellets), on 9/23 and for a week before that. So it is possible that these are the same gulls, and were feeding on crab larva on Sept.15th also, but around the north side of Plum Island.

We had the benefit on Sept.15th of a modified (41-mile shortened, 1hr55min) route, dropping the long run down to Bug Light in favor or more time around and a closer approach to Plum Island and Plum Gut.. usually birdy areas (e.g., with gannets in winter and terns in summer) although both areas had unusually few birds today (perhaps partly because of the high tide, and mid-afternoon time of day)...

Our actual route on 2018 Sept 15. The circuit departed New London CT and went clockwise around the route, doing a close pass around the SOUTH of the two Gull Islands this time, and going no further west than Plum Gut, which gave us a better than usual look at western Plum Island.

CURRENT STATUS of the  9/16 weekend trip, as-of 1am Sept.16.
The organized bird trip for 9/16 is CANCELLED, because of so few birds out there on Sept.15th (and my bad leg getting worse), but the ship will sail this beautiful route on 9/16 (the 2pm "Classic Lighthouse Cruise"), and you may want to go and enjoy the pleasure of it. But do not expect many birds there currently.

Beautiful weather on Sept.15, 2018 crossing The Race, LIS, NY.
Click on this panoramic image to enlarge it, and then press ESC key to return.

The above photo shows M.Peretto, D.Jernigan (holding her hat in the strong wind), S.Gifford and R.Gowing seated, left to right.


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NOTE that this is a new trip, on a new ship, with some new people who have never been to this dock, or birded these waters, so please forgive all the details in this post. Most of you know all or most of this material.


SUMMARY OF THE PLAN:
WHEN:  Saturday and Sunday, September 15 and 16, two trips. Park around 1:15pm. Buy ticket around 1:30pm. Board ship ASAP. Ship leaves dock 2:00pm sharp. Returns to dock between 4 and 4:30pm.
WHERE:  Cross Sound Ferry main building, 2 Ferry Street, New London, CT  06320. Buy your ticket here.
MEET AT:  Onboard the ship! Probably on the top deck. Meet us ON the ship, docked 100feet from ticket office. We will not wait in the ticket office. We will board ship as early as possible. Call me if needed.
PARKING:  At that address or parking building across the street (5-minute walk). See details in Q&A below.
COST:  Ticket for ship is $30. Buy it at the ticket office (main building) at the ferry dock (phone reservation is optional, but recommended, to 1-860-443-5281).
CONTACT if needed:  Tom Robben, robben99@gmail.com  (mobile: 860-922-1098)
WEBSITE: CSF Classic Lighthouse Cruise  We are joining this scheduled "Classic Lighthouse Cruise".

CAR-POOLING:  If you want to try to car-pool, email to me and I will try to arrange something with others.



HURRICANE FLORENCE:

Q:  Is Hurricane Florence too distant to have any impact on LIS and its birds?  TBD.

HURRICANE WEATHER MAY FORCE SHIP OWNER TO CANCEL THIS TRIP.  THE TRIP Go-NoGo STATUS WILL BE POSTED HERE AS SOON AS WE HEAR FROM THE FERRY COMPANY, PROBABLY FRIDAY LATE.

During Wednesday & Thursday Sept.12 & 13,  Hurricane Florence turned further to the south, increasing the probability that our ship will leave the dock, but decreasing the probability that we will see any "hurricane birds" all the way up here in LIS (we are probably too far north of the hurricane).

THIS IS A NEW, AD HOC TRIP, AN EXPERIMENT:  NOTHING IS GUARANTEED.  Parts of this route have not been heavily birded.  We may see a few good post-hurricane-birds, or we may see nothing, because of the trajectory of this hurricane.

One of our (highly unlikely) target species, which the hurricane may displace:  Sooty Tern...

photo from Audubon Guide to North American Birds:  Sooty Tern | Audubon Field Guide
See also:  Sooty tern - Wikipedia

The unusual trajectory of this hurricane may bring in more pelagic bird species to New England, or nothing, since landfall is so far south of New England, and the storm did not swing through the Caribbean. As of Friday 5am it is clear that this storm, instead of turning right/north, it kept turning left, into South Carolina, reducing the chance of New England getting any "hurricane birds"...

As of Friday Sept 14 at 5am

As of Wednesday Sept 12 at 2am

You can click on this image to enlarge it.
Then press ESC key to return.
This image is as of 2018 Sept 12 at 5pm.
Note the extended arm of the storm, far north of the center. 

THE TRIP(S) -- THIS WEEKEND -- SEPT.15 & 16 -- TWO BRIEF CRUISES:

With hurricane Irene in mind (Hurricane Irene 2011 (and its birds): Summary of Hurricane Irene's Birds), we will be taking a possible post-hurricane seabird survey trip this weekend in eastern LIS Long Island Sound, hoping for some displaced hurricane-birds, assuming the marine weather is not too bad (this large 143-foot long catamaran is extremely stable, and the trip is not likely to be cancelled). We are hoping for S, SE, E winds which will blow some seabirds into this area this weekend (as similar winds did in July 2018, two months ago). We will take this public 2.5hour non-stop round-trip for $30@ this weekend, Saturday and probably also Sunday, departing at 2pm, weather permitting. All birders are welcome -- this ship has a very large capacity. As of 10am Sept.14th there were 200 open seats on this ship for Saturday Sept.15.

The following map shows the planned regular route, 55 miles roundtrip (mostly in NY waters) from New London CT (highest point on the map, on the blue route) on this clockwise circuit.... NewLondon, Dumpling Islands, The Race, Gardiners Bay, Orient Pt, Plum Gut & Middle Ground, Plum Island, The Sluiceway, Great Gull Island, Little Gull Island, and back across LIS through CT waters to NewLondon....

If you want to join us, meet us at the New London ferry dock ticket building (at 2 Ferry Street, New London CT 06320) by 1:30pm Saturday Sept.15th for a 2pm departure (and this same trip will probably be repeated Sunday Sept.16th). We suggest arriving in the area around 1:15pm to allow time for parking, in case of crowding. This is a public cruise, but being offseason, we expect relatively few people to be on it, other than us birders.

This trip is called the "Classic Lighthouse Cruise" (NOT the more limited "Lights & Sights Cruise"), and you can verify that it will run by calling the ferry company on Saturday morning at 1-860-443-5281.  Also see:  CSF | Cross Sound Ferry   This route uses one of two catamarans, usually the Cecelia Ann, with its open top deck, open side decks, and large glass front viewing area in case of heavy rain (the viewing areas are not perfect, but they are workable, imho)...
Fleet Information
We have not been on the Sea Jet catamaran and do not know if that ship is practical for birding (it does appear to have an open top deck). We were on the Cecelia Ann on August 5th and you can see my thoughts and photos about that large stable ship here, if you click here and scroll way down:  2018 August 5th cruise around eastern LIS

CLOTHING ADVISORY:  There are several viewing areas on the Cecelia Ann, but if you choose the top deck be aware that it is very exposed -- DRESS FOR COLD VERY WINDY WEATHER. This ship changes speed, slow in some areas and approaching 40mph (plus or minus for wind and water current speed) on the back-stretch, from The Race all the way through Gardiners Bay.


Notice that this trip spans the water current gateways between LIS and more oceanic waters :  PlumGut, The Sluiceway, the narrows between the two Gull Islands, and The Race. What an interesting area to visit the day after a large hurricane hits the US East Coast  (click on this map if you want to expand it, and then press ESC key to return)...

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Q. Might I get seasick?
A. Extremely unlikely, unless we have really nasty wind/waves. This is a large catamaran which is inherently stable, more than single-hull vessels. Its powerful engines slice the ship through most waves.

Q. What is the cost of this trip?
A. Just the $30 ticket, plus your gasoline and parking. No other charges.

Q. When should I arrive in New London CT near the dock?
A. By 1:15pm, to allow for parking, buying ticket, boarding and 2:00 departure, sharp.

Q.  Where should I meet you?
A.  We will meet onboard the ship, probably on the open top deck.

Q. Where can I park my car?  This is just for people new to this area....
A. There are usually some spaces right at the dock area (at 2 Ferry Street, New London CT 06320).  If full, you can park at the nearby large Water Street Garage municipal parking building, with entrance around 85 Eugene O'Neill Drive, at Atlantic Street, in New London (after parking you then have to walk 5-minutes across the railroad tracks to the ferry docks -- see the RED line on this image -- click to enlarge it). Arrive in New London by 1:15pm to allow time for parking, and then buying your ticket in the main building.  Click to enlarge this map, and then press ESC key to return...

Q. How much time will we spend in CT waters?
A. About 25%. Most time is spent in NY waters, around those islands which form LIS's gateway to the ocean. This is an exciting marine area with strong currents and fish, and hopefully seabirds. This area is not easily accessible for most birders, and rarely birded, so each trip out here contributes some new understanding to these waters.

Q. Is this trip meant to compete with bird watching from the NewLondon-Orient ferry?
A. No, this trip takes a different route. It covers more miles, but with less of them in CT waters. To maximize your time in CT waters, you could take the regular ferry in the morning, and at 2pm you could join our trip (which also covers some CT waters not covered by the regular ferry route). More generally, this trip is trying to learn more about LIS Long Island Sound overall, covering both CT and NY waters.

Q. Where on this ship can I view birds from?
A. Top deck has a large open area, including benches. Direct front view effectively obstructed by 6-foot high shaded glass wind screen. But just stand near the middle or back of this large area and you have a good (although windy) view, covering about 320-degrees.
Middle deck has open rear deck and side viewing through glass.
Bottom deck has open rear deck (but this may be off limits, tbd), open side areas, and a large front view through plate glass.

Q. If we get heavy rain and extreme wind, how/where will we watch birds?
A. Several places, especially the front-facing large plate glass windows.

Q. Will this ship slow down to look at anything?
A. Yes, it slows almost to a stop at each of the nine lighthouses it focuses on (doing a slow 360 degree full rotation in front of each of them!), including narration about each of them. During those stops we get more time to study birds. In between those stops it travels rapidly, but we can work around that and see birds in-passing. We cover a lot of water, which increases our chance of seeing birds, which are often spaced out over miles.

Q.  Will this ship change course to pursue any birds?
A.  No. This is a public trip, focused on lighthouses, and we are "piggy-backing" on it.

Q. Will we look only for birds?
A. No, we will also look for marine mammals and fish, especially schools of predatory fish blitzing schools of forage fish.

Q. Will anyone be talking on the public address system?
A. Yes, they talk about each lighthouse and the history of these waters. Some of it is quite interesting.

Q. If we separate to different viewing areas on the ship, how will we communicate a rare bird to each other?
A. I have several walkie-talkies, and hopefully they will work well.

Q. What might be the worst and best outcomes of this trip?
A. Worst: All that we see are a few Herring Gulls!  (we have to keep our expectations low!)
Best: Seeing a few uncommon pelagic/seabirds. How about a Magnificent Frigatebird? Or maybe a Sooty Tern? If the hurricane had come further north Sooty Terns would be possible. In any case, we will look for them, plus other tropical and larger terns, and pelagic species.
Remember what Hurricane Irene brought north/inshore in 2011:
Hurricane Irene 2011 (and its birds): Summary of Hurricane Irene's Birds

Q. How could this trip be briefly characterized?
A. As a luxurious relaxing (but exciting?) mini-pelagic trip for $30, on a super-stable fast ship. Regarding the birds -- well, time will tell. This is not a well-trodden path. We are exploring. Enjoy the unique aspects of this trip.

Q. Which ship will we be on?
A. Almost certainly the Cecelia Ann, shown below. Note the large open upper deck (click on the photo to enlarge it, and then press ESC key to return)...

Q.  How is the weather?
A.  Using Montauk NY as the nearest ocean-exposed weather station:
Montauk, NY History | Weather Underground
You can click on the images below to enlarge them, and then press ESC key to return.
Note the shifting winds, from ENE to E, which is some good news for us...

2018-09-14:

2018-09-13:

Q.  What is the marine forecast for the weekend Sept.15-16?
A.  It will be updated here, later today. Click on the images to enlarge them, then press ESC key to return.
National Weather Service Marine Forecasts
LINKS to NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MARINE FORECAST OFFICES
New York, NY
Zone Area Forecast for Block Island Sound

Zone Area Forecast for Peconic and Gardiners Bays

Zone Area Forecast for Long Island Sound East of New Haven CT/Port Jefferson NY

National Weather Service Marine Forecast (for Mass and RI coastal waters)

Q.  How are the winds blowing currently?
A.  Go to this link:  Ventusky - Wind, Rain and Temperature Maps for an amazing live wind map:

Wind gusts...

https://www.ventusky.com/?p=37.4;-73.4;5&l=temperature-2m

Wind speed... note that our winds are mostly from the E and NE, which is pretty good for our trip...

Waves... note some waves pushing towards us from the south. Florence was a Category 4 hurricane for days, pushing lots of water ahead of it, and now some of it is reaching Long Island waters...

If you have any other questions about this unusual route/trip please email me at robben99@gmail.com
Tom

2018 August 24th Little Egret

Jamie Meyers (on left) and Jay Kaplan (ARCC Chairman) watching, as we wait for the Little Egret to arrive at the long breakwater (you can click on most of these images to enlarge them, and then press ESC key to return). I took the bird photos, and feel free to re-use them if you want. Yes, that is the moon rising, as dusk settles in, and with the clearly-red planet Mars about to appear to its right... what a beautiful evening...

The Little Egret arriving just after sunset, heading for its favorite spot, as five Snowy Egrets look on...

Pretty obvious when Little Egret (little egret - Google Search) is compared with two Snowy Egrets... (the Little Egret including dark lores [not yellow lores], the dangling head plume and the stringy breast plumes)...

Notice the stringy breast plumes, longer heavier bill, and heftier build, in the photo below...

Many thanks to Capt. Ian Devlin for meeting us at the Barn Island boat ramp, with his boat on his trailer, getting us out three miles, right next to this bird, and knowing exactly where it would be camping out for the night, near the western end of that long breakwater south of Stonington Point, CT. The blue line is our route, out and back, 6.5 miles round trip...

Yellow ovals mark the Barn Island boat ramp (on the right) and the evening roost of the Little Egret (on the left). Note the state boundary line on the map below (click map to enlarge, and press ESC key to return)...

The trip included Jay Kaplan, Jamie Meyers, Alecia Langlois, myself and of course Capt. Ian Devlin (captain_ian@yahoo.com) who was terrific. Ian even identified a young Banded Rudderfish swimming under a float in the fading light of the evening! Good show! And a beautiful moon as we returned to the boat ramp in the dark of night. Memorable indeed! Thank you all!

Contact Ian, by email (captain_ian@yahoo.com), if you would like to take his boat out to see this bird, or other birds in Long Island Sound.  His rates are reasonable. His boat will  hold up to four passengers.

BIG THANKS:

Lets not forget that seeing this Little Egret in CT is thanks to multiple days of persistent field work and creative detective work of Nick Bonomo, Allison Black, Phil Rusch, Dave Provencher and others.... what a great success story for that team....

Shorebirder: Connecticut's first LITTLE EGRET - Aug 8, 2018  << click here for more details

Tom

2018 August 5th cruise around eastern LIS

Looking for BRIDLED TERN info??   please scroll down to bottom half of this post, 

although for convenience I will post the latest summary about this Bridled Tern right here at the top:


Ed: The Bridled Tern has NOT been seen the last four days (Aug.17-20) on or near GGI Great Gull Island, and may have moved on. Also noted around GGI during the past week were a few GREAT and CORY'S SHEARWATERS and up to 8 PARASITIC JAEGERS. This count from last Sunday.


AUG.19:  No Bridled Tern yet today. Here is Joe DiCostanzo's report as of 6am Aug.19:
"The Bridled Tern that was on Great Gull I., Suffolk Co., has not been seen since Thursday despite three checks Friday and two on Saturday. Numbers of terns on the island are dropping now, so it may have departed with some of the Commons and Roseates. I will try to check again today, but the weather this morning is a bit rainy so I don�t know when I will get to the eastern end of the island."


AUG.18:  Bridled Tern not seen today, Saturday, Aug.18th. Ian Devlin reports, "This afternoon 3:30pm-6pm. Significantly less tern activity on [Great] Gull Island. The Bridled Tern was a no-show on its usual spot. I circumnavigated the island to look in all other possible spots that can be seen by boat. No luck. It might have migrated away.  Capt. Ian Devlin,  East Norwalk, CT."


AUG.17:  Not seen today at all on Great Gull Island on Friday, Aug.17th. Despite checks this morning, midday, and late afternoon, the Bridled Tern was not seen today by Joe DiCostanzo. Will be looked for tomorrow. 


AUG.16:  Seen the morning of Aug.16 by Joe DiCostanzo, in the usual place, before 8:09am. Also seen at 8:09am by Maggie Peretto, Tim Antanaitis and Dave from NY, on Ian Devlin's boat, after which the tern flew NE a long distance.

AUG.15:  Seen the morning of Aug.15 by Joe DiCostanzo, in the usual place.

AUG.14:  Seen the morning of Aug.14 by Joe DiCostanzo, in the usual place, around 8:40am.

AUG.13:  Seen the morning of Aug.13 by Joe DiCostanzo, coming into the usual roosting place, flying in from the NE. Seas are rough today. Not a good day for a small boat. 


AUG.12:  Seen at 5:30pm Aug.12 by Joe DiCostanzo in the usual place, but not there earlier in the day, around 10:30am or 3:30pm.

AUG.11:  Seen at 2:30pm Aug.11th by Joe DiCostanzo in the usual place on NE corner of GGIsland. 
Inwood Birder: August 11 - Bridled Tern and other birds on Great Gull Island

AUG.10:  Seen 4pm Friday Aug.10th by Mike Resch and Ian Devlin, around Great Gull Island, NY. Scroll down to see details near the bottom of this long post. Initially it was roosting on the island, but in a different (unknown) location - not its usual place.  Later seen flying away from GGIsland around 5pm and could not be found in the next hour.  Summarized in Mike's blog post here:          http://statebirding.blogspot.com/2018/08/best-2-days-of-birding-ever-august-2018.html and on eBird: eBird Checklist – Great Gull Island, Suffolk County, New York, US – Fri Aug 10, 2018 – 11 species

AUG.9:  Seen Thursday Aug.9th late afternoon by Bob Proniewych et al, on a hired boat out of Orient Pt, NY. The Bridled Tern approached Gr.Gull Island from south of Little Gull Island, with large flock of Common Terns. 

See: eBird Checklist – Great Gull Island, Suffolk County, New York, US – Wed Aug 08, 2018 from Shai Mitra and Patricia Lindsay

AUG.6-8:  Seen almost every day this week on Great Gull Island by Joe DiCostanzo, American Museum of Natural History researcher on Great Gull Island. See: inwoodbirder.blogspot.com

AUG.5:  Seen and photographed Sunday August 5th by Tom Robben, on Great Gull Island, NY, while passing onboard the "Classic Lighthouses Cruise". That trip is detailed in THIS post, right here. 

AUG.4:  Seen by Joe DiCostanzo.

AUG.3: Seen first this year on August 3rd by Sean Sime and Joe DiCostanzo, on Great Gull Island, NY. 



Note that in the last 30 days (since today Aug.11 ,2018), the red markers show only one Bridled Tern reported north of the Cape Hatteras area (and those were 1-3 birds well offshore between July 27 and August 4th and none photographed were in such great plumage as our NY bird)....

and that one Bridled Tern (that northernmost red symbol) is our Great Gull Island one...

Note that you can click on most of these images to enlarge them, and then press ESC key to return.



SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

THIS WAS A VERY ENJOYABLE TRIP AND I WILL HAVE A LOT MORE TO SAY ABOUT THIS OVER THE NEXT WEEK, HERE...
BOTTOM LINE: I WILL DEFINITELY TAKE THIS TRIP AGAIN!

IF YOU ENJOY EXPLORING SOME NEW WATERS, THIS MAY BE A TRIP FOR YOU.



BACKGROUND:
On August 4th we observed another fish feeding frenzy just off Plum Island Light, which you can see in the other post, below here. I wanted to get closer to that area the next day, to try to learn more about the birds there and the fish, so I decided to do an experiment, to try the lighthouse cruise going out from New London CT on Sunday August 5th.  It was a successful experiment!



THE TRIP:

If you like to explore eastern LIS and nearby locations (80% in NY waters), this was a fantastic 2 1/2 hour 55mile round trip (clockwise on the two satellite maps below, starting at 12:30pm in New London, CT). I highly recommend it, the "CLASSIC Lighthouse Cruise" -- a true value at $30. This was the first of these 3 "lighthouse cruises" and it began in mid-2015.

Note that there are TWO different lighthouse cruises from NewLondon (and a 3rd one from Orient Pt, NY), and I would NOT recommend the other one, the "Lights & Sights Cruise" from NewLondon, since its route seems to have been revised to exclude Little Gull Light and crossing over to those waters near Great Gull Island - at least that was true on August 9th when a friend took that trip.


It was 90F hot on August 5th, which resulted in 250 people on board the Cecelia Ann ship (which has capacity for 600!), an unusually high number for these trips. This lighthouses trip has had as few as a dozen passengers.

Bird-wise, the trip was consistent with everything we have been seeing about this area over the last few weeks, on the CT and especially the NY side.... so I saw no new species which have not been mentioned for this geographic area lately, except one Merlin flying south over western Gardiners Bay....

This is the CLASSIC route, not the Lights&Sights route (which does not cross over to the two Gull Islands!)

WHERE IS BIRD WATCHING BEING DONE?

Where is most seabird watching being done in this region? We can use Herring Gulls as an indicator for that, since Herring Gulls are everywhere in and around LIS Long Island Sound. See the following 3  eBird maps for Herring Gulls, where red markers indicate reports in the last 30 days, since today Aug.7, 2018.   Note that a large concentration of bird watching has been done along the ferry route between NewLondon CT and OrientPt NY, and relatively little birding has been done elsewhere in the waters of LIS, especially at Little Gull Island and in Gardiners Bay... including the route this lighthouse cruise takes close to Plum Island, Great Gull Island and the Little Gull Island, plus the Gardiners Bay waters south of that string of islands. In other words, this "classic lighthouse cruise", if taken often, can provide us with new bird knowledge for marine areas which we do not have now!

zooming out to see more of the region...

and zooming out further to see even a wider area... note that bird observations are being performed and reported in some marine areas and hardly at all in many other areas...

TRIP SUMMARY:


FOR BRIDLED TERN DETAILS  scroll down here,
AND ALSO GO TO JOE DICOSTANZO's EXCELLENT WEBSITE:
Inwood Birder  << click to jump to Joe's blog and tern details...

On August 7th Joe kindly annotated this satellite map with blue, to show the main locations where he has seen the Bridled Tern... but be prepared for a long-distance look for this beautiful tern if you get there...

Note that there is a long-term research project on GGI Great Gull Island, since the 1960's....
Great Gull Island Project
with the  largest concentration of nesting Common Terns in the world (9,500 pairs). The boulders dumped around the edge of the island to stabilize the shoreline, as well as some of the retaining walls of the fort, offer nesting sites for 1300 pairs of Roseate Terns, the largest nesting concentration of this endangered species in the Western Hemisphere.
GGI staff who are already helping our investigation of recent shearwater/tern/fish events around GGI are project director Helen Hays, Joe DiCostanzo, and Michael Male.


And here is a google satellite side-view which I annotated in yellow to show the Bridled Tern area, to show the south-looking view-point from a ship passing along the north side of the island, as our ship did on August 5th...

On August 5th, as our ship slowly cruised by the north side of the research island, I saw the Bridled Tern flying around the NE end of Great Gull Island, with my image-stabilized 10x42 binocs, and land on the rocks.  Here is the NE corner of Great Gull Island, and the red oval is where I saw the Bridled Tern land on the rocks, more or less (I took this distant photo a few minutes after the two closer photos below it)...

Within a minute of the tern landing I got the following photo of that general area, and this tern (which I  circled in red) appears to be the same bird I saw flying. Hopefully this photo will give you an idea where to look for this tern (and the difficulty of spotting it), at the far eastern end of Great Gull Island, along the north shore of the island, about 200feet west of the eastern point...

PLEASE click on the above image to expand it, and then press ESC key to return.
The following image is a magnified view of the image above... which Joe DiCostanzo commented on today 8/8, confirming the Bridled Tern in this photo, "Congratulations on getting your picture of the Bridled. It is very distant but it is clearly the bird. There are no other dark backed terns on the island at the moment. The large concrete structure behind the bird in your picture is where I photographed the bird last year." ...

Please note that if you do go to see this Bridled Tern it is quite distant from the ship, and you will probably not have the close-up view you are hoping for (I apologize for my long-distance photos above).    The bird also departs the island sometimes, so there is no guarantee you will see it at all. But good luck if you try.
The latest information on this bird is usually available here:
http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01


Because of the many different areas covered by this wide-ranging trip I will start with a summary all-in-one species list, in arbitrary order (all birds seen in NY waters unless otherwise indicated):

Great Shearwater, 2.
Cory's Shearwater, 2.
Parasitic Jaeger, 1 dark phase, at North Dumpling Island, NY.
BRIDLED TERN, 1 adult, seen at distance around northeast rocks of Gr.Gull Island.
Common Tern, 1000+, mostly at the two Gull Islands, and scattered all around LIS.
Roseate Tern, 20+, mostly at Great Gull Island.
Forster's Tern, 3.
Least Tern, 0.
DC Cormorants, 100+, everywhere.
Northern Gannet, 0.
Herring Gull, 200+.
Gr. Black-backed Gull, 100+.
Laughing Gull, 5.
Ring-billed Gull, 4.
Tree Swallow, 1.
Merlin, 1, flying south over Gardiners Bay.
more to come

Bottom line, it appears that most of the shearwaters of the past two weeks are gone, and there was no fish frenzy off Plum Island Light on August 5th, as we had August 4th.

Most valuable about this trip was how many interesting locations it covered, so I could see which locations had which birds, or not. The locations covered by this "classic lighthouses cruise" (which just started five years ago) included, in this sequence:

New London Harbor Light.
New London Ledge Light.
Avery Point Light.
North Dumpling Light, which had the only jaeger of the trip.
Race Rock Light, in the very interesting waters of The Race.
Long Beach Bar (Bug) Light. The westernmost point in our roundtrip. Off south side of Orient NY.
Orient Point Light. *
Plum Island Light. *  where we had a tern and fish feeding frenzy on Aug.4th.
Great Gull Island. *  where I saw and photographed the adult Bridled Tern.
Little Gull Island Light. *  after which this ship cuts across LIS for New London, CT.

where asterisk * indicates the most birds seen.


THE SHIP:

One major purpose for me was to evaluate this ship and its route, for birding, whale watching and marine surveys. More on that in a bit.

This is our extremely stable 3-deck catamaran, the Cecelia Ann...

Here we are on the top deck, pushing 37mph (groundspeed -- I measured it, with my GPS) into a headwind, going west in Gardiners Bay, two miles south of Plum Island...
This first photo is me facing forward, from my left rear corner perch (visibility straight forward is difficult [unless you are over six feet tall and can look over a high dark glass wind screen], although all other angles are good, making birding from the back of the top deck the best choice)...

and this second photo is me facing rearward (also showing the middle deck below, and Plum Island on the distant left)... this ship can fly...and it is super steady...

Here is the lowest of the three decks, in case of extreme weather, or anyone needs to nap in an airline type seat...

FROM NEW LONDON, CT:
CT birders can join one of TWO different lighthouse cruises, departing from New London CT (click to enlarge, and press ESC to return). Be aware that the Lights & Sights Cruise does NOT cross over to the Little Gull or Great Gull Islands!   These trips are run during six months only, May through October:

FROM ORIENT POINT, NY:
NY birders can join a similar trip which begins at conveniently located Orient Pt, NY, the new "Long Island Lights Cruise" (click to enlarge, and press ESC key to return)...
Long Island Lights Cruise on News 12's The East End - YouTube
Unfortunately (I just heard about this) this ship could NOT sail on August 9th due to mechanical problems (and the same on August 10th). Passengers were refunded, and given $10 toward their next trip. This ship is expected to run on Saturday and Sunday, but given this situation, I would recommend calling ahead to make reservations...

More details on these 3 different "lighthouse cruises" are available here:
www.lighthouse.cruises

SO HOW GOOD IS THIS SHIP AND THIS ROUTE FOR BIRDING?

This (the "Classic Lighthouse Cruise") is a great route if you are interested in seabirds in general (it focuses mostly on NY waters and therefore, on NY birds). A lot of interesting NY locations are visited (80% of the time is in NY waters), including Race Rock, The Race waters, Little Gull, Great Gull, Plum Island and Orient Point. These are among the most interesting locations in Eastern Long Island Sound, for sure, and the birds and fish there can be exciting.

If you prefer to focus on CT only, then this is not that trip. BUT the alternate trip out of NewLondon, called "Lights & Sounds Cruise" route might be appealing, since it covers more CT waters, plus Race Rock, The Race waters, Little Gull Island, and presumably (I am verifying this now with the ferry company) Great Gull Island. Best of both worlds!

The ship has three levels. The top deck can seat about 100 people and has good visibility in most directions. This deck is always open to the public, even in bad weather. The middle deck has very good side and rear views. The lowest deck is glassed-in, but has good glass in front, so it could be used during extreme rain or other rough weather.  I would give this ship an 8 or 9 out of ten rating, although its size may be a deterrent to some seabirds coming close to it.

Stability wise, it is tops. It runs dead flat in light waves, and I assume it will handle bigger seas well, similar to most big-engine catamarans.



WHAT IS NEXT?

Fasten your seatbelt -- I am negotiating with the ferry company, hoping we can do a charter cruise, to a place we all want to go, in comfort. Hopefully this will work.   More in a few weeks!



ANOTHER POTENTIAL WAY TO GET TO THE BRIDLED TERN:
=================
Subject: Little Egret and Bridled Tern Boat Ride Services
Date: Thu Aug 9 2018 8:49 am
From: ctbirds AT lists.ctbirding.org

Hello everyone,

Last year I took many people to see the Bridled Tern out at Faulkner�s Island, and enjoyed it very much. I would like to offer my services to take people out to try and see both the Bridled Tern at Gull Island and the Little Egret off Stonington. I have a 17�6 boat and can take up to 4 passengers. Rate is $75/hour flat rate minimum 2 hours for the boat, not per person, for birding by boat. That works out to $40/person if 4 people go out for 2 hours. I have a trolling motor on my boat and able to quietly be near whatever we are watching at that moment. I supply ice and water in a cooler and a full tank of gas too. Just bring your optics and clothing suitable for the conditions.

I trailer my boat every time, so I am highly mobile. For the Little Egret, we would meet at Barn Island State Boat Ramp. For the Bridled Tern, we would meet at Niantic Waterford State Boat Ramp.

Best bet to contact me via my email:  captain_ian@yahoo.com

Let me know ASAP, and good birding!

Capt Ian Devlin

East Norwalk, CT.
=================

Followed the next day Aug.10 by this heartening success story by Mike Resch and Capt. Ian Devlin...

=================
Subject: Success with the Bridled Tern
Date: Fri Aug 11 2018  6:25 am
From: Mike Resch

Tom -

I want to thank you for all your details about the Bridled Tern - I was successful in seeing it yesterday.  The details in your blog gave me the impetus to give it a go yesterday, though it almost didn't happen.  I had reached out to Captain Ian Devlin to try to arrange a trip but hadn't heard back from him.  So I decided to take the Lighthouse Cruise on Friday, but then it was canceled.  So then I resigned myself to just taking the 1 PM round-trip ferry ride to Orient Point and back, of course with little to no chance of seeing the Tern.  But just as I was about to buy my ticket Ian called and said he would take me out.

We left from the Niantic River public boat ramp, and 20 minutes later arrived at the northeast portion of Great Gull Island.  But after a few minutes of increasingly frantic searching there was no Bridled Tern in site.  It quickly brought back most unhappy memories of my 2 failed attempts for this bird last summer.  Just then all the terns took off from the island as a Peregrine buzzed the colony.  I looked to the east and even without binocs quickly picked out the Bridled Tern in flight among hundreds of Commons.  We both watched it for the next several minutes as it flew nearby, allowing for a few nice pictures.  It briefly landed on a concrete structure just above the rocks at the northeast corner of the island, but then took off and we didn't spot it again over the next 45 minutes.  Later we had a Parasitic Jaeger nearby (still in NY waters).

Here's a link to my eBird checklist with a couple photos -
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S47770709

This photo by Mike Resch on August 10, 2018 around 4pm on Ian Devlin's boat near Great Gull Island, NY

This capped off what was likely my best ever 2 consecutive days of birding in my 51-year birding career -

Thursday -
   Great Black Hawk - Biddeford, ME
   Neotropic Cormorant - Gorham, NH
   Wood Stork - Rochester, NH
Friday -
   Little Egret - Westerly, RI
   Bridled Tern - Great Gull Island, NY

That's 5 extreme rarities, 2 of which were life birds, in 2 days.
Thanks again for your details and help in finding the Bridled Tern!

Mike Resch
www.statebirding.blogspot.com
Pepperell, MA


And Mike's trip was later summarized in his blog at this post:  State Birding: Best 2 Days of Birding Ever, August 2018
=================



HISTORY:

There were many efforts in the last two years to visit and see this bird (perhaps the same bird?), in NY and CT waters. Here is just one of those memories...
31st July – Falkner Island, Guilford | Naturescape Images