Yesterday's Paulagics pelagic trip out of Freeport, NY was a great success, especially given the windy conditions we were sailing through.
The highlights were: Northern Fulmar- 6 (including 1 that came into the wake and stayed in our chum slick for a while, giving cripplingly good views to all) Sooty Shearwater- 1 (Probably the most unexpected bird of the trip; a very late individual seen on the way back in) Cory's Shearwater- 1 Great Shearwater- 5 Black-legged Kittiwake- 26 "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull- 3 (2nd cycle, juvenile, adult) Lesser Black-backed Gull- 2 (juveniles) Bonaparte's Gull- ~250 Laughing Gull- 29 Northern Gannet- ~550 Also, thanks to the NW winds, we had: Great Blue Heron- 1 American Goldfinch- 8 (including 1 about 55 miles off shore that barely dodged death by Great Black-backed Gull a couple of times before overtaking and passing the boat shortly after we turned around to head back in) Red-winged Blackbird- 1 A BIG special thanks to Captain Danny for giving us as smooth a ride as humanly possible in the really challenging conditions, both when we were viewing birds, and when driving back to port directly into the teeth of the NW wind. He did as good a job as I've seen from a captain, and we were even able to maintain a semblance of birding on the way back in, when we had assumed it was going to be too bumpy and wet. Good birding. -Doug Gochfeld. Brooklyn, NY. P.S. For all the eBirders that were aboard, the lists should be getting shared within the next 24 hours or so. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
