Next week the Autumnal Solstice will occur and with it the change from more hours of darkness than light. All wildlife but especially birds are tuned into this, and with the passage of the solstice the fall migration quickens, as colder temperatures and shorter days foretell the coming winter.
From now thru October, not only is the birding the best of the year, but pretty much the best of everything occurs, including home-grown vegetables, lots of fresh fish and greatly reduced crowds and traffic. I am already ruing the fact that 16 days are gone in September and the fall is proceeding much too rapidly. That said, the birding, as always happens when Labor Day Weekend is in the rearview, has gotten better and better, and each day holds great promise.
A dedicated pelagic birding trip left Hyannis in late August with an overnight at sea. On board were 50 hard-core birders and a group of seabird experts for leaders on a 2 day overnight trip to the edge of the continental shelf south of Nantucket and the submarine canyons that abut the Gulf Stream. This area is hard to get to and represents the “final frontier” in New England ornithology. This area is rarely visited by birders and each trip has tremendous potential to find, rare, unusual or even unknown species.
Despite strong northeast winds and lots of sea sickness, they managed to find lots of birds in between the big waves. They had 3 Black-capped Petrels, a species of Pterodroma that loves big winds, waves and has a rollicking, bounding flight. The windier the better for finding these scarce birds. No other trip has ever recorded more than a single individual in New England water so this was off the charts. An immature Red-billed Tropicbird was discovered sitting on the water and great views and photos were obtained before it was driven off by a Pomarine Jaeger, a powerful, falcon-like seabird. They also managed to find and get good views of a White-faced Storm-petrel a very hard to find species anywhere in the world’s oceans. They also had Band-rumped, Leach’s and Wilson’s Storm-petrels, some came right in to chum slicks created just to attract these vary birds close to the boat.
They also encountered approximately 80 Audubon’s Shearwaters, a small tropical shearwater that wanders north in the Gulf Stream at this season. Normally a half dozen to 10 is considered a big count so the 80 individuals seen over the course of this trip was unprecedented. A South Polar Skua, all 3 jaeger species, lots of pelagic sandpipers called phalaropes and a Whale Shark rounded out their list. Despite the rough seas and getting a bit beat up all participants agreed it was the best sea trip-ever. Ten days later some birders/fishermen came across an immature White-tailed Tropicbird in the same waters. Two out of the 3 species of tropicbirds that occur on the planet off the coast of Massachusetts at this season is quite something!
Like clockwork mid-September arrives and birds are seemingly everywhere. As if that were not enough going on the Cape Cod Bird Club hosts their 2nd annual Cape Cod Birding Festival this coming weekend and then from October 16-19 is the 4th annual Nantucket Birding Festival sponsored by the Linda Loring Nature Foundation that is a remarkable, small event with great scenery, fantastic birds, good food and exceptional leaders. For more information check out www.llnf.org and click on Birding Festival. Hope to see you there.
