The strong ESE winds made for a stormy and downright chilly Saturday afternoon on the South Fork of Long Island (Suffolk Co). On the ocean front there was a strong easterly movement of *NORTHERN GANNETS*. Whilst performing a 1-hour count (4:00-5:00 PM) from East Hampton, I picked up my first *SOOTY SHEARWATER* of the 'summer' season, moving quickly eastward. Usually it is late May before the first land-based sightings. Here are the count totals.
Common Loon - 11 Red-throated Loon - 16 loon sp. - 4 Northern Gannet - 527 (predominantly adults) *SOOTY SHEARWATER* - 1 (eastward, 4:36 pm) Surf Scoter - 267 Black Scoter - 21 White-winged Scoter - 41 Great Black-backed Gull - 19 American Herring Gull - 60 At Mecox Bay, two adult *LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS* were on the remnant sand flat, along with a couple of *PIPING PLOVER*. John Shemlit visited later and added 2 *CASPIAN TERNS*. At Georgica Pond a* PECTORAL SANDPIPER* was feeding with 5 *WILSON'S SNIPE* and another snipe was at Sagg Mains. -- Angus Wilson New York City & The Springs, NY, USA http://birdingtotheend.blogspot.com/ -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
