Registrar: Mary Beth Kooper
Participants: 15
Weather: 74° F, light winds from the southwest
Bird Species: 33
For a great sea watch on Long Island in September, we would have liked to have had winds from the east. Although we didn’t have ideal wind conditions, we did have an enjoyable and fairly productive sea watch. Mary did a great job of orienting our group on what to look out for and we were soon seeing a steady stream of both Common and Royal terns fly by or stop to feed in good view. Our hope was to see some oceanic birds and we did have three Cory’s Shearwaters spotted during our watch. Some of the participants who saw them were delighted to have these new life birds and to learn how to spot their unique flight style. Also observed were at least 100 Dolphins swimming quite close to the shoreline. We were very fortunate to be joined by Pat Lindsay and Shai Mitra to help Mary lead the large group, and they also generously brought bagels, lox, and cream cheese for everyone to enjoy.
Our original plan was to walk from our meeting spot to the Fire Island Lighthouse to look for land birds after the seawatch, but it soon became obvious that this was a slow migration day for passerines. The group instead went over to Oak Beach where we observed more terns, shorebirds and gulls, with very helpful identification and behavior tips from Shai. Everyone was very thankful to all of the leaders for sharing so generously of their time, knowledge, good company, and even bagels!
Species List
Birds
Mute Swan
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
American Oystercatcher
Killdeer
Red Knot
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Least Tern
Roseate Tern
Common Tern
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
Common Loon
Cory’s Shearwater
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Osprey
Barn Swallow
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
House Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Mammals
Dolphins
Butterflies
Monarch Butterfly
