Montauk Point and back
Friday's weather looked promising for a day on the water with friends. The original plan was to scour CT waters for the odd tubenose, but an improving forecast allowed us to venture much further afield. Given the choice between maybe a few tubenoses at best (CT waters) and guaranteed pelagic birds (NY waters), the group unanimously chose the latter. We aimed for Montauk Point and would take it from there. As it turned out, we never really wandered too far from the point. We got into birds feeding in the rips which continued a few miles to the east. This entertained us for the entirely of our four hours of birding time. The highlight was the continuing shearwater diversity and a nice jaeger show. SCOPOLI'S SHEARWATER is still something we get a bit excited about since the split is still somewhat fresh, but they are by no means rare in these waters. Scopoli's Shearwater Scopoli's Shearwater at center (and another to its right, but underwing angle is poor) PARASITIC JAEGER...