Montauk! Part 2!
Montauk Point, Long Island, NY
Saturday 16 February 2019
31 °F
Today, I took the Long Island Railroad out to Montauk Point (the FAR end of Long Island) in search of a would-be life bird, a Little Gull that has been seen there recently.
After a four hour commute, when I arrived I found out that a Dovekie had also been seen there this morning, another prospective life bird! I was pumped!
My first bird was a nice RED-THROATED LOON:
BONAPARTE’S GULLS abounded:
Another fun species, RAZORBILL, was seen a few times throughout the day:
SURF SCOTER:
BLACK SCOTERS:
COMMON EIDERS:
It was an incredibly gorgeous day with beautiful scenery:
Then, a tiny alcid with an extremely compact bill flew by and I managed a couple blurry shots of my life-bird DOVEKIE, a cardinal-sized seabird! Too cool!!!
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER:
COMMON LOON diving:
Here is the famous Montauk Lighthouse, looking as regal as ever:
HERRING GULL:
And it was back on the long train ride to New York City. What a day!
Alas, I missed my target bird the Little Gull, but my life-bird Dovekie certainly made up for it! Runner-up to the other auk species of the day, Razorbill, as well as all of the Bonaparte’s Gulls that were around.
Good birding,
Henry
World Life List: 967 Species (1 life bird today: Dovekie!)
