November is a special month for birders, as vast numbers of birds pass by and many more arrive to spend the winter. This November 1st was amazing from Provincetown to the "so-called" southeast corner of Nantucket at Tom Nevers. The entire length of the Outer Cape, especially along the outer or eastern shore, was awash in small baitfish called sand lances, or sand eels. And they were present in numbers not seen in several decades in these waters.
A spotter pilot looking for Great White Sharks reported that the waters from Chatham Light to Monomoy Point were dark from the surface to the bottom with these small fish that range from about 6 to 12 inches long. Virtually every creature in the sea loves to eat these delicious and abundant fish, and in years like this, huge, uncountable aggregations of marine life congregate to take advantage of the feast.
They have also attracted an impressive group of birdlife, which find these sand eels as tasty as most people find Nantucket Bay Scallops. They go wild for them. This show has been going on for months in the waters off Provincetown, but has finally started to spread south. The waters off Chatham and now along the east side of Nantucket are rocking and rolling with lots of fish, stupendous numbers of birds, and marine mammals. All the life in the waters is feeding on the sand eels.
The numbers and constant movement of the birds make them very hard to count accurately, but nonetheless a careful attempt is made to get numbers as realistic as possible. On November 1st the bird show was alive and well along the entire eastern shoreline of Nantucket. The following is a partial list of what was seen during the morning: 5 Harlequin Ducks, all 3 scoter species, 1 Horned Grebe, 2 Red-necked Grebes, 460 Northern Gannets, a Semipalmated Sandpiper and a Semipalmated Plover, a Pomarine Jaeger, 16 Parasitic Jaegers, a Long-tailed Jaeger, 3200 Black-legged Kittiwakes, 36 Bonaparte’s Gulls, 3 Little Gulls, 400 Laughing Gulls, 75 Ring-billed Gulls and 420 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, as well as 2 adult Peregrine Falcons and a Merlin. A lone Monarch butterfly was seen flying along the surf line with an awfully long way to go to Mexico.
Surprising absent, as just 20 miles north there are thousands, was the absence of shearwaters.
Some 1300 Manx were reported off Wellfleet on the first - the highest number ever tallied in Massachusetts.
Sea bird enthusiast know that this is a once-in-several-decades “irruption” of sand eels.
How long it will last is anybody’s guess, but the last time this happened the show went on until February, when temperatures dropped way down, seemingly killing off the sand eels. The gales and nor’easters of November combined with the odd lovely day make for some excellent birding. One never knows what one might encounter this month.
A Bell’s Vireo was discovered at Fort Hill in Eastham last week and seen by quite a few observers. This non-descript Midwestern vireo has only been seen a few time in the state and caused quite a lot of excitement. As of this piece airing, I believe it has not been seen for a couple of days.
