The big news is that on Saturday I went on a 12 hour pelagic birding trip out of Brooklyn with American Princess Cruises. It was a really good trip, and I will publish a full post in a few days, once I’ve had time to get through the loads of pics I took – it’s incredible how many photos you can take on a trip like that. Meanwhile, here is a teaser – a beautiful Northern Gannet in flight alongside the boat.
As for Sunday, although I was exhausted, I got out for a while in the morning. First thing, I got lucky/unlucky. I joined Kyle Knapp in Warwick to see the ROSS’S GOOSE that he relocated first thing. I was lucky in that the bird stuck around in time for my arrival. I was unlucky because, just moments after my arrival, the Ross’s and all the Canada Geese it has been associating with picked up and flew, so I only got a very brief look at the bird.
Later in the morning, I located a large flock of Snow Geese on Pierce Circle in the black dirt. At first I estimated approximately 2,000 birds, but the longer I stayed, I realized it was probably north of 4,000 individuals. I scanned the birds, looking for Ross’s, but I came up empty. It was tough because the birds kept lifting up. In the early afternoon, Ken McDermott, Linda Scrima, and Jeanne Cimorelli did in fact located a Ross’s, nice job by them.