Shorebirder

Red-billed Tropicbird ( Phaethon aethereus); Seal Island NWR, Maine; 23 Jul 2011 Five CT birders (Bill Asteriades, Patrick Dugan, Frank Gallo, Phil Rusch, Glenn Williams) joined me last weekend on a trip to Maine for the Red-billed Tropicbird that has been summering there for the past seven years. We chartered "Fluke," John Drury 's vessel out of Vinalhaven, ME on the afternoon of Saturday, July 23rd. John is the go-to guy to see the tropicbird, which has spent the past couple summers around Seal Island NWR. Seeing the bird is far from guaranteed, but John knows its habits as well as anybody. His plan for a PM attempt is based on his knowledge that the bird often swings by the island for a mid-afternoon visit. I had received my Canon 7D that week and went out of my way to rent the Canon 100-400mm IS lens on Friday evening, just in time for the weekend. On this page are my first photos taken with the camera (or any SLR, for that matter), so keep in mind I had little/no id...

Gray-hooded Gull ( Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus ); Coney Island, NY; 30 July 2011 Going to get these up quickly before I head out for food & drink... This morning five eager (and tired) birders set out to an unlikely location for a twitch...Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY. I packed four more birders into my trusty Accord (Alex Burdo, Roy Harvey, Julian Hough, Dori Sosensky) and we headed out pre-dawn. We arrived on the scene to few birds and birders. Several hours of pacing the long boardwalk turned up nothing until about 5 minutes before we were going to leave when another birder spotted the GRAY-HOODED GULL apparently flying in from the east with a few Laughing Gulls. The bird proceeded to put on a show in the harsh midday light. As Julian put it, the scene was a bit surreal as we were watching and photographing the bird among dozens of sunbathers along a crowded boardwalk with some bass-heavy music blaring right next to us. All this within yards of the Coney Island amusement part ...