Winged Runners

It was bit of a bumpy ride out to "The Tails" (north end of Block Canyon) on the night of July 31st. The seas were a bit unsettled but the offshore forecast for the following day, 8/1, was of favorable conditions with light wind. It was roughly 3:00 AM when Captain John Shemilt, Angus Wilson and I arrived along the western edge of The Tails. It was a moonless night and we spent the leading hour slowly navigating our way through the pitch black, playing close attention to the radar and watching for lobster pots. The moonless night added to an incredibly enhanced sky with stars brilliantly twinkling in every which direction. The pre-dawn sun light eventually began to make an appearance on the horizon but not before we situated our trawling rigs and communicated our morning strategy. The plan was to lay down a chum slick composed of menhaden oil and cubed suet, trawl around the canyon for game fish and routinely circle back to check on the slick. Sea conditions were perfect,...

The Mission and How It Unfolded : Photo Credit: Eugene D. Nichols - This is the first photograph of what will likely become the 1st NYS record of Willow Ptarmigan On Thursday evening, April 24, 2014, I received a pix message from my friend Eugene Nichols looking for some ID assistance on an "odd looking white bird that flew like a grouse?" I nearly dropped my phone when I saw photos of what looked like a ptarmigan. He perfectly described what may have been either a Rock or Willow Ptarmigan. "All white, black outer tail feathers, feathering throughout legs and feet, etc." Eugene is very observant, a great naturalist, and lives on Point Peninsula. He was making his evening waterfowl rounds when he noticed this odd bird and luckily he managed to grab some photos with his phone. I urged him to share the photos with his friend and colleague, Jeff Bolsinger and it wasn't long before Eugene and Jeff had Friday morning plans to try and relocate and well document...

Every winter, wigeons migrate down the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts where they spend time dabbling in  marshes, ponds and tidal flats. Long Island has no shortage of these ecological features and in turn is a  great place to study the less common Eurasian Wigeon. Every waterfowl season, birders enjoy sifting through groups of American Wigeon, and other dabbling ducks, in search of Eurasian Wigeons. Adult male Eurasian Wigeons in full breeding plumage are very easy to identify and stick out like sore thumbs among flocks of other ducks. Females, on the other hand, are a bit more difficult and require careful observation. Here, I will share several photos of female Eurasian Wigeon, share some thoughts and point out some of the key features that have worked for me when separating female wigeons of both species. One of the first things that I always notice with female Eurasian Wigeons is how warm and chocolate-toned their heads are in direct comparison with female American W...

1) White-faced Storm-Petrel, Block Canyon, August 20, 2013 : It was August 19th when I received an email from John Shemilt that he was looking for a 3rd individual to join his team, on August 20th, to hunt for the much sought after Big-Eye Tuna in the Hampton Offshore Invitational fishing tournament out of Shinnecock Inlet. How could I resist? I scrambled around a bit, made sure things were squared away at work and decided to jump in on this last minute invite to try and catch a tournament winning fish. John had caught a nice Big-eye not long ago and was hoping to repeat during tournament week. I should mention that John and Keegan are both expert pelagic birders, so for obvious reasons I enjoy spending time with them. Fishing while birding, or birding while fishing? I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than that. I have to say, August 20th was a very slow day offshore, both for birds and fish, but that's just how it goes sometimes. White-faced Storm-Petrel     ...

Hudsonian Godwit, 8/9/13 - image captured with an iPhone and Meopix Adapter taken through a Meostar S2 Spotting Scope Its been quite a while since my last blog post, 2 months to be exact. The Summer tends to grab a hold of me as I'm busy working 2 jobs, attending weddings, parties, etc. There is much less time for me to enjoy the outdoors and go birding. And when the birding opportunities come about, I always feel rushed, like I have to think about where and what I'm going to have to do next. For this reason, I now have to choose my birding locations strategically and hope to maximize my time. I always look forward to the Fall when I can get back into my groove and spend hours upon hours wandering sites looking at birds and enjoying nature. This week was one of those weeks where I had to squeeze in my birding. I decided that Jones Beach West End would become a morning routine. It is more or less on the way into my office and if I got there early enough I could get in ...

I came across another Arctic Tern on 6/5/13, at Cupsogue Beach County Park. A 1st Summer type individual that put on quite a show and I watched intently. I first noted the bird sitting along the edge of a large group of Common Terns. Also in the mix were a few Forster’s and Roseate Terns. The Arctic Tern exhibited uniform grey primaries, as they always do and this was one of the first major keys that tipped me off on the bird. This, along with a more rounded head shape, extensive black on cap dipping beneath the birds eye, and seemingly shorter black bill pointed directly Arctic Tern. The bird was standing on a firm surface of sand, therefore the short leg length was obvious and apparent. After about 15 minutes of viewing, the bird took off toward the east marsh, showed off its wing pattern and lent a few squeaky call notes. The bird took a 5 minute hiatus, returned to the flats, and decided to land within 20 feet of me! The tern continued to loaf and preen for quite a while before...

It was a fairly long week at work, even though Monday was a holiday it still felt long. All I could think about was waking up early on Saturday and birding the flats at Cupsogue Beach County Park to study some terns. I really wanted to find an Arctic Tern, the furthest traveling migrant in the world. Arctic Terns breed in the Arctic and spend their winters in Antarctica making roughly up to a 44, 000 mile round trip per year. The majority of their migration takes place over open sea, where their buoyant, seemingly effortless wing beats carry them across the ocean. Every year, a handful of Long Island birders get lucky enough to view these birds as they touch down on the island for a quick rest stop.  Arctic Tern - Cupsogue Beach C.P., 5/20/13 - Note many good field marks captured in this image. Thin black trailing edge of outer primaries, relatively short, deep red bill, short legs and an extensive black cap (image captured with an iPhone and Meopix Adapter through Meost...