A little seawatching

Had time for a small amount of seawatching this morning. After reading all the posts on Jersey Birding and in the sightings log at the Northwood Center about sheawaters (Cory's and Greater) being seen, I had to get out and see if I could add one of these to the year list.

So I headed out to the platform at St. Mary's jetty and spent about 45 min. looking to see what was out on the water today. It was very hazy and there weren't too many birds feeding in the rips. Mostly the feeding birds were Laughing gulls, I had about 240 in one mass at one point. Not a surprising number since the largest colony of nesting laughers in the world is just up the coast in the Stone Harbor area. Well as luck would have it, I have nothing much to report. Birds observed are below.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the three Brown pelicans that flew over this morning. Two adults and one immature bird cruised down the beach while I was looking out over the bay. Wish I had brought my camera along this morning, would have made a nice shot.

One last note, this about the ROSEATE SPOONBILL at Brigantine NWR was gleaned from http://www.birdingonthe.net/, posted to the New Jersey Birding listserv this morning.

"The Spoonbill was seen this morning, 7/15. It flew in from the West Pool at around 6:40am and perched in a tree about 50-75 yards west of the Gull Tower. Another birder told me it was in the same tree last night before heading out to the West Pool."


Birds seen in no particular order;

Common tern
Forster's tern
Least tern
Laughing gull
Great black-backed gull
Herring gull
Purple martin
Barn swallow
Chimney swift
Brown pelican