Barn Owl Banding in Barto, PA

Game Commission officer holding the male Barn Owl

     Sharon and I made the trip to Barto, PA to see the banding of Barn Owls on a local farmer's property in Berks County. The Game Commission has been installing barn owl boxes throughout several counties in southeastern and south central Pennsylvania. The owls are nesting in a double silo where one of the boxes had been placed, but the farmer/owner says the Barn Owls have been nesting there for about twenty years. The game commission says there is another new location about a mile from this site thanks to the new nest box. 

 

Silos which contain Barn Owl family

      Originally the field trip was suppose to be limited to 25 people but Rick Wiltraut, the organizer of the trip, couldn't turn anyone down who requested to participate. There were actually just over 100 people present. 

Some of the 100 plus participants present

      We were fortunate tonight because the volunteers who climbed the silo to retrieve the birds were able to capture both adult birds along with the four young. We could see the difference in the male, which was very white under the wings, and the female which had a lot of spotting and darker feathering on the underside of her wings. 

Male Barn Owl

       Since the Barn Owl lays its eggs over a several day period and incubates them from the start, the young birds are hatched at various times so there are different age birds in the nest. If the youngest birds in a very large clutch don't get enough food from the parents then they will perish and become food for the other nestling.  During the banding process, a feather is extracted and DNA testing will be done on the feather. This will show if the owls that are nesting here now are the same parents from last year or if a new bird has joined the family because last years parent has died. 

Seven week old owl

Five week old owl

      Banding is important to the study of owls and birds in general. Some of the young owls that the game commission have banded in the past have shown up as far away as North Carolina. But the majority of the recaptured owls usually travel around fifty miles to find a new nest site. 
      The banding experience was fun and educational and it was good to see that so many people were interested in the birds. 
      After we left the owl site we made a quick trip to find Blue Grosbeak and Dickcissel in northern Montgomery County. We met up with Dustin Welsh and managed to find both birds along with Bobolinks in the high meadows. It was a very interesting, albeit hot, evening but well worth the effort. 

A walk around Bucktoe Preserve

     This Sunday morning I decided to go to Bucktoe Preserve in Chester County. Holly Merker was leading a walk there and since I was in need of a Blue Grosbeak for the year, and I knew that one was reported from the preserve, I headed on down. All photos in this blog were taken by Hank Davis a frequent visitor to the preserve. It was going to be a hot one today so we quickly crossed the open field headed for the shade of the woods. On the way we came across a family of three Kestels feeding over the grasslands. 

     Once in the woods we found Veery, Warbling Vireo and Red-eyed Vireos. At one point along the stream we encountered a group of about four Baltimore Orioles and a large family of Orchard Orioles. In one sycamore tree there was an oriole nest, a Kingbird nest and a Gnatcatcher nest. Hank managed to get a photo of a  female Baltimore Oriole feeding the young in the nest.

Baltimore Oriole

     Further along the creek Holly and I both heard a warbler singing and both of us recognized the song but just couldn't place the songster. After a little searching we were thrilled to discover that we had found Bucktoe's first Cerulean Warbler.

Our surprise find for the day - Cerulean Warbler

      Everyone was able to get great looks at this very cooperative bird. Usually a treetop warbler this guy was only about 20 feet off the ground and constantly singing. 
      We managed a few other birds such as Belted Kingfisher and Wood Thrush with nesting material but then headed out of the woods again as we were finishing the walk. In a large field with a lot of saplings Holly heard a strange sound coming from the brushy area. We chased it down and discovered it was another rare bird at Bucktoe, a Yellow-breasted Chat. Once again Hank managed to get a nice picture of the big warbler.

Yellow-breasted Chat - A discussion ensued rather this bird is really a warbler or should be in another Genus

     As we got back to the parking lot, I still hadn't found my target bird. Hank mentioned that the grosbeak was seen in an area behind the lot so we all walked over to the berm area and I climbed up on the berm and to my surprise there was a Blue Grosbeak sitting on the split rail fence. Success at last.
     For a hot June day this bird walk was definitely worth the trip. Thanks to Holly and Hank for all their knowledge.

Arctic Terns in Elk County

    My wife Sharon and I have been trying to visit all the counties in Pennsylvania for some years now. So we decided to visit Armstrong and Forest Counties which would be two new counties for our list. After we completed that task we started driving around the area visiting state parks. While visiting Kinzua Bridge State Park in McKean Co. during a thunderstorm (not recommended by the way) we picked up a brochure for Elk State Park. So we determined that we should head south to Elk State Park just across the border in northern Elk County.

    Upon our arrival and not having a map of the park, it looked as if there was only one way in, so we proceeded down the only road toward the lake. We arrived at a nice size parking area adjacent to the lake. While still in the car I immediately saw two white birds flying over the lake. I informed Sharon that they gave the impression of being terns but were very distant and hard to distinguish. I stepped out of the car and got the binoculars on them and indeed they were terns.  I figured they would be Forster’s Terns but I wanted to check them out just in case it was something unusual.

    The terns were still too far to identify, so I setup up the scope. By the time I had the scope setup the birds were approaching for a closer view. I could see the stiff wing beats and the very uniform gray color on the upper wings. The upper wing had no black on the primaries that I could see and after looking at photos that I procured, they didn’t reveal any black markings either. As the birds passed in profile I noticed the thin black trailing edge on the under wing primaries. The outer primaries only had a trace of black on the tips of the feathers. Good field marks for Arctic Tern. So I was psyched.

Arctic Tern at Elk State Park

     The birds had very dark, red bills which to me appeared short. The birds were bullnecked in flight; that is, the neck was short but thick. The breast looked to be gray and not white as in Forster’s Tern. The tail on both birds was deeply forked, but one bird showed a very long tail while the second bird appeared to have a shortened tail. I’m not sure if this was the angle of view or maybe a bird not yet in full alternate plumage.

    We observed the terns for approximately a half an hour to make sure of the identification and than made a call to put the word out on the PA listserv. This was only the third sighting of Arctic Tern for me in Pennsylvania, the other two being in Delaware County along the Delaware River. I assume that this would be a first record for Elk County but have not checked into that matter. About this same time there was also an Arctic Tern spotted at Beltzville State Park in Carbon Co. As far as I could tell there was no significant weather factors in the area at the time. I have also submitted a report to the Pennsylvania Ornithological Records Committee.

     So in the end, we added two new counties and eight new state parks to our list and had a great opportunity to study a rarely seen bird in Pennsylvania.

Red-shouldered Hawks Chicks Hatch in Downingtown

  

If you were following the blog last spring, you might recall that I posted about a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks nesting in my neighbors, Catharine and Mark's yard, here in Downingtown area of Chester County. 

Three chicks successfully fledged in June of 2011.

I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of winter/spring 2012 to see if the pair might re-use the nest, and they did indeed!


The adults were seen near or sitting at the nest site in the mature oak tree often in February. This seemed to be a favorable sign for nest site fidelity. 


By March 13, I was seeing an adult sitting on the nest, where only the tail was visible...This would be ten days earlier than last year's 3/23 presumed incubation start date. Since we had a mild winter, the earlier nesting date was not terribly surprising. That said, it may be one of the earliest, if not the earliest ever, record for nesting documented here in Pennsylvania (last year, I found out there was a site in Bucks County that was one day earlier in hatching than our 3/23 date). 

March 13, 2012. A Red-shouldered Hawk sits on the nest with only the tail peeking over the tip. This seems to indicate that incubation has begun.


On March 17, I spotted the two adults in a tree nearby. They were only there for a few minutes, when one flew back to the nest to resume incubation. 

The two adults appear to take a quick break from incubation 3/17

The nest was quiet for the next few weeks.  An adult was noticed sitting quite still with only the head or tip of tail peaking out the rim of the nest. On April 4th, I got to watch the "changing of the guard" when one adult took over the incubation for the other (both sexes share incubation duties). In the below image, you will see the wing of the departing bird as it swooped down off the nest.

Both sexes of Red-shouldered Hawks will take turns incubating. In this image, one adult arrives to relieve the other, and the other flies out of the nest for its break. 

On April 15, I noticed the posture of the adult sitting on the nest had changed. The bird was still in the nest, but sitting higher, and not in an incubation posture. It is impossible to tell if there were chicks in the nest, but this change is a hint that something was going on.

April 15, 2012...The adult is noticed to be sitting higher in the nest than during the previous weeks. Have the eggs hatched? 

On April 20, I watched on of the adults bring a small gray rodent to the nest, while the other adult was sitting in the nest. The one adult ripped apart and ate part of the rodent (vole?), then flew off. The sitting bird sat on the rim and ripped the prey up more, took a few gulps, and appeared to be carefully shredding the animal. I thought it was very possible the bird was also feeding very young chicks, but it was impossible to determine.

April 20, 2012. ..One adult sits on the rim of the nest after bringing in some food. You can just barely see the second adult the left of the one standing. It's presumed there are tiny chicks in the nest at this point.

On May 6, two downy Red-shouldered Hawks were finally spotted peering above the rim of the nest! I could clearly see two at once, but it is possible there is another in there that I couldn't see. From comparison of last year's photos of the chicks, I suspect these chicks are about three weeks old. This age fits with the change I saw on 4/15, where the adult seemed to sit a little higher in the nest. This would put the hatch date right around April 15, which correlates with the March 13 presumed start of incubation.


The Red-shouldered Hawk chick stretches it's downy wings 

In this image, the chick is facing the parent bird, as it stretches it's wings out and shakes it's tail. 


     It will be fun to monitor the growth of these chicks again this spring. With the leaves fully grown in now, it's going to make viewing and photography a bit trickier. That said, if I get some decent images, I will post again with updates! 

California Trip March 2012

Al after a hard day of birding

Marbled Godwit at Bolsa Chica

               We are off again to California to visit with and babysit Max. But first we have five days to bird in southern California. We arrived on March 13^th at LAX and immediately headed south on I-5 and then the Pacific Coast Highway. Our first stop was Bolsa Chica refuge in Huntington Beach. This is always a good stop for birding.

We immediately saw Elegant, Royal, Caspian and Forster’s Terns, along with Marbled Godwits, Long-billed Dowitchers, and California and Western Gulls. The highlights there were two Reddish Egrets, Blue-winged Teal and Horned Grebes all of which were new state birds for me.

                Wednesday morning we headed right to the Oceanside Pier, which is the longest wooden municipal pier on the west coast, extending out 1,942’ into the ocean. Before we started to walk out on the pier, I set up the scope and spotted a shearwater flying along the wave tops. I thought that this had to be a Black-vented Shearwater but I wasn’t certain. So we started out onto the pier for a closer view. As we were walking out to the end of the pier we could see Western and Clark’s Grebes and Western Gulls.

Western Gulls

              At the end of the pier we met two local birders. They pointed out that the large number of alcids that I had been seeing were Common Murres. There were also about 200 Pacific Loons with a spattering of Red-throated Loons flying past. At one point I noticed two birds coming towards us and identified them as Rhinoceros Auklets. Then I spotted another shearwater flying north and could see that it was indeed a Black-vented Shearwater, my first lifer of the trip.

                The two birders suggested we go to Calavera Lake to do some inland birding, so we tried it. It was a good move as were added a large number of birds. We saw California Quail, Wrentit, Lesser Goldfinch, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Bullock’s Oriole along with many ducks and grebes.

                After lunch we headed south to La Jolla. This is a town with a very nice park along the rocky beach shore and a deep water ocean just offshore. 

Scanning the surf at La Jolla for shearwaters

Because of this you can view many sea birds closer to shore than usual. There were lots of Black-vented Shearwaters flying around and many floating on the waves not too far offshore. We were able to see the brownish-black upper parts and the white under wings surrounded by a dark border, very similar to Manx Shearwater. Along the beach there were Harbor seals and their pups.

Seals at La Jolla

One bull Sea Lion claimed one large rock as his own. Since this was a rocky shoreline, one of the birds I expected to find here was a Wandering Tattler. This is a bird I have seen in Hawaii, but needed for the ABA area.

Wandering Tattler spreading it's wing

Fortunately, Sharon spotted one among the rocks and came to show me, but when I got there it was gone. So we started searching nearby rock islands and fortunately I was able to rediscover the bird sitting on the Sea Lion rock. Other birds in the area were Double-crested, Pelagic, and Brandt’s Cormorants, Spotted Sandpiper and Brown Pelicans.

            On the drive to San Diego we had the windows down and suddenly we heard this loud raucous and I quickly turned into a parking lot and parked the car. I got out and looked in the trees and discovered about 30 Mitred Parakeets. It was neat to see but unfortunately these guys aren’t countable in the ABA area.

Thursday arrived and we started out early to some refuges because Balboa Park in San Diego didn’t open until later. So we headed to Tijuana Slough NWR. We got our refuge book stamped there and found out that the Clapper Rails that we were watching had been the endangered light footed race. Also at the slough were several Long-billed Curlews and Whimbrels. 

Long-billed Curlew

                   Heading east from San Diego we drove to the Laguna Mountains and to Cleveland National Forest. We started to climb in elevation and started getting into pine woods instead of the usual sage brush.  We started finding Western Bluebirds, Western Kingbirds, Acorn Woodpeckers, Mountain Chickadees, Lark Sparrows and a Band-tailed Pigeon. From here we headed to the town of Borrego Springs which is in the high desert. Friday morning we had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel and Sharon enjoyed a cactus omelet while dining outside. In Borrego Springs we managed to find Cactus Wren and Sage Thrasher.

              As we left town we drove east along a scenic route through the high desert badlands and surrounding mountains as we headed for the famous birding area of the Salton Sea. At the Salton Sea we quickly found Black-necked Stilts, Avocets, and lots of gulls and grebes.

Burrowing Owl

At the Sonny Bono NWR, at the south end of the sea, we heard Marsh Wrens, Virginia Rail and saw White-faced Ibis and Pintails. When we visited the Headquarters building of the refuge, we were treated to Common Ground-Doves, Gambel’s Quail, Great-tailed Grackles and Burrowing Owl.  We were not having any luck with the Yellow-footed Gull that was the object of this destination. So we try another side road and found Cinnamon Teal and Common Gallinule. So we started to head north around the eastern portion of the sea and saw a road to the Red Hill Marina. We drove to that area and saw hundreds of gulls in the shallows and started scanning. But again, no luck. We drove around to the far end of the marina hoping to get to an area where we weren’t looking into the sun. I started to scan the gulls and found a dark backed gull that was definitely larger than the California Gulls present. The blocky head, the large white tertial tips and very large and long bill confirmed that this was in my lifer Yellow-footed Gull. So as of now I have two lifers and one new ABA bird. Good trip so far.

60's and Snowy

Snowy Owl . . . . that is!

Who would have believed that a bird discovered in November would remain all through the winter and still be easily seen on a sunny March day! Yes, this is the Snowy Owl at Merrill Creek Reservoir. If you have not gone to see it yet, do not delay. I'm sure hundreds of people have seen this particular visitor from the tundra by now. I was probably one of the few "local" birders who had been unable to find the time to make the trip, but my luck finally changed on St. Patrick's Day. After the 1.5 hour drive, we parked at the gate on Reservoir Rd and made the short and easy walk down the paved access road to the base of the dam. Our quarry was napping in plain view on a fallen tree at the edge of the woods on the right side below the dam. Occasionally it would turn its head or stretch its neck, but mostly it just rested peacefully. (Snowy Owls are not known for high levels of activity during the day.) Never before have I seen a Snowy Owl under such pleasant conditions. The last one I saw was on Cape Cod a few years back, after having tromped a significant distance down the beach through the snow. I was bundled in several layers with only my eyes peering through the opening in my face mask as the wind brought tears to my eyes. Shirt sleeves and 62 degrees definitely increase the enjoyment factor. It hardly seemed right that Kristen's first Snowy Owl could be that easy!

Besides the owl, we had a calling Eastern Phoebe (spring meets winter), a singing Brown Creeper (from the trail along the top left of the dam) and a flyby Pileated Woodpecker. Kristen and I hiked up the left side of the rocks, walked across the top of the dam and came back down the trail on the right side. Be advised that this loop is rather steep and will leave your legs aching. (Karl wisely remained at the dam base "guarding the scope" and showing the owl to all passersby.) He enjoyed the blooming Coltsfoot, pictured above. This alien herb, used for cough suppression, is so-named because its leaves resemble a colt's foot. (The leaves only appear after the flowers.) We also noticed a hatch of some species of caddisfly. The individual pictured below landed on my camera case. Following our visit to the owl, we made a quick stop at the inlet/outlet lot and walked the trail to see Mrs. Bald Eagle sitting on her nest. (Stop where the large tree has fallen over to the left and look down toward the water.) She turned her head but did not seem concerned about foot traffic within sight.

The visitor center at Merrill Creek has a chart of "first" dates for a variety of species (flora and fauna) which was intriguing to examine. They also have nice facilities and several fine exhibits, including classrooms used for education.

All in all. . . it was an enjoyable day

For more information visit: merrillcreek.com

Wow! What a week of Birding

Harris's Sparrow with Cardinal

     Sharon and I had a great week of birding this past week. On Tuesday we headed to Kempton in Berks County just south of Hawk Mountain in search of the Harris's Sparrow. We had brought along a bag of bird seed to add to the pile already there and than just waited. During the 40 minute wait we saw several sparrows and Juncos, along with two Wild Turkeys. Finally a White-crowned Sparrow showed up and than the Harris's Sparrow appeared from nowhere. 
      Afterwards we headed to Hawk Mountain to take a peak at the feeders and added a Black-capped Chickadee to our year list.
      From there we traveled to Hamburg to the Kearchers Pond Park in search of the White Ibis but we had no luck with that guy. So we headed south to Gilbertsville to see the Bullock's Oriole. An adult male Bullock's Oriole was present last winter at this woman's house and amazingly it appeared again this year. We arrived at her home at 12:15PM and at 12:20PM the bird arrived at her suet feeder.

Bullock's Oriole Gilbertsville, PA 

     At Marsh Creek State Park later that day we found a Common Goldeneye and both Common and Red-throated Loons.

     Thursday morning found me at the Exton Mall anticipating the BCDC field trip to Lancaster County led by the All-star Birding Lady, Holly Merker. As we left the parking lot it started to rain, but I thought to myself, some of the best birds are seen on days like this. And the premonition came true. In Lancaster, Holly found a dark phase Rough-legged Hawk sitting on a fence post.

Horses studying Barb Elliot and George Wrangham

As the Rough-legged Hawk was posing at the top of a willow tree, a Red-tailed Hawk came in and landed about five feet away, trying to scare the Rough-legged away but he wouldn't budge. Later, at Groffdale Rd we finally found a decent size flock of Horned Larks and in among them I spotted one lonely Lapland Longspur.
     We then headed back to the Struble Lake area and searched through some other flocks of Horned Larks, but no luck. As we were approaching the Struble Lake parking lot, Hawk-eye Holly says to me, "What's that bird on the top of that tree?". We stop and there it was, a Northern Shrike. So we went and parked the cars and came back to get a better view. We managed to get the bird in the scope for every one to see. It appeared to be a young bird. The mask of the bird was very dull giving the bird a weird look to the facial area.

Northern Shrike Struble Lake (Holly Merker)

     Finally, on Friday Sharon and I headed to Easton, MD to the Pickering Creek Audubon Sanctuary. There was a Virginia Warbler found there a few days ago and confirmed yesterday. We arrived there at 11:30, after a late start from home. It was about a two hour drive. But be warned that your GPS unit will land you at a site about 3 miles away from the sanctuary, so use the website directions. When we arrived there was a large crowd of folks already assembled along the path. Some folks got a quick glimpse of the bird early this morning, but it was not cooperating for the rest of the folks. We stayed for about an hour and then decided to head out for lunch. Upon our return we heard that the warbler was seen about five minutes ago. So I picked a spot along the trail and waited. Within five minutes I heard a chip note that wasn't familiar to me, so I knew this had to be our bird. Trouble was, he wasn't showing himself. So we waited some more, and finally the bird flushed out and flew away from us, heading across the field, but we could still hear the chip notes. Some other birders were on that side of the field and because they were talking so loudly, I think the bird flushed back towards us. Then all of a sudden the bird appeared at the top of a small shrub and in plain site. We could see the bright yellow undertail coverts and the grayish body as it hopped around the shrub.  

Virginia's Warbler (Photo from Internet)

Razorbill at Manasquan Inlet, NJ

Razorbill at Manasquan Inlet (Photo by Nick Pulcinella)

     Nick and I decided to head to Manasquan Inlet and Shark River on Friday to see what was happening since neither of us had been that for over four years. When we arrived at the inlet, the ocean was so calm that there was no wave action at all. The tide was outgoing, so there was some riptide effect where the inlet met the ocean, which usually produces flocks of Bonaparte's Gull feeding, but not today. We did find Red-throated and Common Loons plus the usual gull species and some Gannets.

Purple Sandpipers

      We then drove to Shark River Inlet and were immediately shocked when we discovered there were about 300 Mute Swans swimming around. For the record, Mute Swans are far from being mute. There was quite a lot of grunts and squeals among all those swans. Am Wigeons, Black, Mallards and Ruddy Ducks were spotted along with Hooded and Red-breasted Mergansers. After driving around the inlet and birding along the ocean we decided to go back to the inlet for another look before heading home. We arrived and I told Nick there was a close Common Loon that would make a good photo. As he was getting ready to walk over to the loon, Nick yells there's a Razorbill flying into the inlet. Well, it flew right by us and landed in the inlet but unfortunately landed on the other side of the channel. We wanted to get a closer look and better pictures, so we drove around to the opposite side, which took us about 15 minutes. As we arrived, we were hoping the Razorbill was still there. It was! We watched the bird for a good 40 minutes from 20 feet away to about 300 feet.  We finally left there satisfied with our photos and pleased that the Razorbill made its appearance when it did..

The Day of the Dovekie: A "Paulagic" Birding Adventure at Sea

As you may recall from my blog entry in August 2011, one of my favorite types of bird watching is seabirding, or pelagic birding. The winter ocean offers the possibility of seeing species not found this far south during the summer months. Alcids are an attraction for these winter tours of the ocean, and a trip off-shore from NJ this past Saturday (2/4) was the best winter pelagic I’ve been on for seeing these birds.

My trip started out at 3:15am, when I met up with my friend Brian Henderson in King of Prussia. We figured we’d try doing the trip in one long day, rather than staying overnight on the Jersey Shore. We arrived at Wildwood Crest before 5:30am, and met our leader, Montgomery Co., PA resident Paul Guris, at the dock. The boat Paul chartered for this trip was the 110 foot “Atlantic Star”, which was a great boat for this sort of trip.

This had to be one of the better days of winter to be on the ocean for birdwatching. The sea was tame, at 1-3 feet, and there was little wind. The sun was shining until early afternoon, making viewing and photography conditions optimal, not to mention that it wasn’t very cold. The calm seas helped us find the floating alcids, who otherwise blend into the backdrop of the surface of a choppy sea.

It was dark when we pulled out from the pier, but soon, daylight made viewing easier. Shortly into the trip, we started spotting loons, scoters, and one of my favorites: The Northern Gannet. Gannets were with us much of the day, to my delight. It was entirely amusing and awesome to watch them as they came in and either sliced into the ocean sideways to get to the chum that was falling into the water, or, plunge dive beak first like an aquatic missile. The sound effects completed the show: just before they dove, they squawked twice in a gravely voice, and went down. It was very entertaining to watch!

Northern Gannet squawking as it comes in for a plunge dive

Northern Gannet gracefully soars above the water

Razorbills were the first distant alcids to be spotted. This was expected, as Razorbills tend to stay closer to land than the other alcid species. Alcids are pelagic birds who are more adapted to using their wings to “fly” underwater, rather than in air. That said, unlike the penguin, these birds do a good amount of flying. They dive deep into the water using their webbed feet and wings to propel them, and their sleekly compact bodies to torpedo down to their preferred food source, sometimes a few hundred feet down.

We were about sixteen miles out to sea when seven little white dots bounced up from the surface of the ocean, and formed a fast moving line. Shouts of “DOVEKIE!!!” could be heard echoing around the boat. While we thought we might see some, as reports earlier in the week gave promise, seeing them this close inland was a surprise. While the looks were distant for this first sighting, there was no doubt that the “flying Nerf footballs”, as Paul Guris described, were these tiny seabirds on the move.

The first seven Dovekie of what would be close to seven hundred totaled for the day

Little did we know at this point, the boat would tally over 660 Dovekie spotted throughout the day. There were periods of time when many strings of Dovekie could be seen flying low to the water across the open ocean. Rarely were they seen flying solo, most often they were oddly in groups of four or eight. There were some the boat came up fairly close to as they were floating on the surface, where we could get nice long appreciative looks at these tiny little seabirds.

Two Dovekie floating by the boat

Alcids, and particularly the Dovekie, have many threats of predation on the open ocean. There are the larger fish and presumably sharks that could snatch a floating Dovekie from below, but the aerial predators who find them can be quite menacing and fierce, particularly the larger gull species. Unfortunately, we got to witness a Great Black-backed Gull pluck a Dovekie off the water and carry it away. It was unclear whether or not the Dovekie was already dead, or, if the Great Black-backed in fact killed the bird before pulling it off the ocean. I was photographing the gull, and wondering “what’s that black thing it’s carrying?” before we all realized exactly what was happening. The photos were telling of the story. Such is the circle of life, and nature.

Great Black-backed Gull has just plucked a Dovekie off the surface

Great Black-backed Gull carries the lifeless Dovekie away

In addition to that casualty, another Dovekie met it’s demise yesterday, likely at the beak of a Herring Gull. The dead bird was noticed and pulled from the ocean by Paul, who brought it on board for us all to study. It was amazing to see just how small these birds truly are up close.

This dead Dovekie allowed many to study and learn this bird up close

A “fanciful” little alcid we are all familiar with, birder or not, is the Atlantic Puffin. This bird sports a highly decorative beak during the breeding season, which coupled with what looks akin to theatrical eye make-up, can make them look quite clownish in appearance. After the breeding ritual is complete, the bright colors and crisp white face being to fade, as the colors peel off the bill, and the facial feathers being to fill in with a smudgy gray. This change is advantageous for survival on the open ocean, as the birds blend into the water. On this trip, we were lucky enough to encounter eighteen individual total. A few were floating close enough to the boat to allow some photographs, and long studies of this large beaked bird.

We had fewer Common Murre, but there were a couple that sat still long enough for us to study, including this one

One of the specialty gulls of the pelagic trips in winter are Black-legged Kittiwakes. Not easily found from land, or close to it (that said—read Al Guarente’s report from last year of an encounter on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry!), this demure looking gull is often attracted to the “chum slicks” provided by fishing boats and seabirding tours. We had several encounters with this species, and were treated to a variety of ages to compare the plumages. While I am a fan of the “black Ms” on the back of the younger birds, the older birds are a treat to see when compared to the bulky Herring Gulls and massive Great Black-backeds.

Adult Black-legged Kittiwake skips on the surface to take off

My favorite seabirds are the “tubenosed” birds. So, multiple visits from Northern Fulmars really made my day. Like the Shearwaters and Petrels, these birds are built for soaring and gliding above the ocean for endless miles. The long tapered wings enable them a life on open water, traveling long distances with little effort . This bird nests on cliffs in the Arctic and subartic, but spends their winter months where the seas are free of ice, including a good portion of the Atlantic seaboard. Like the other tubenose species, the naricorn or tube atop the bill of a Fulmar, helps the bird to smell at long distances, and filter out the salt from the seawater. No doubt the chum and oil slick provided by Paul and his crew of “chummers” attracted the attention of this very obliging Northern Fulmar:

Northern Fulmar (light phase)

Size comparison (l-r) Herring Gull, Northern Fulmar, Northern Gannet

As always, I am eager to have another opportunity to get off-shore in search of birds. 
If this type of birdwatching looks appealing to you, I highly recommend going out with Paul Guris and his See Life Paulagics tour company. Paul runs at top notch trip. (http://www.paulagics.com/) .

Paul and his spotters will show you the birds, and any other ocean life encountered (I forgot to mention we saw several pods of dolphins and a Finback Whale, a species that is federally listed as endangered).

After this very satisfying day at sea, Brian and I headed back to Pennsylvania. While it made for a very long day, making it a daytrip, it wasn’t as hard as I expected. I guess the adrenaline from such a great day on the ocean, and seeing fabulous birds, makes anything seem doable! I hope that you, too, will have a chance to get off shore and see some of these ocean specialty birds.

When you do, I wish you fair winds and following seas, and great birds!

All Photos taken and copyrighted by Holly Merker