more hurricane birds

A report of a White Ibis (found by Jim Ash, the former director of SOFO) in Sagaponack sent Lorna, Eileen and myself scurrying to Bridgehampton early this morning to look for it. We didn't find it at the reported location although we did see a handsome nonbreeding-plumaged Boboblink (striking mustard yellow plumage, heavily striped) hanging with the Redwings in the reeds at the edge of Sagg Pond, and a young Brown Pelican at the southern edge of the pond. After riding around Sagaponack and Wainscott looking at open fields, we headed back to the original spot where a young man (Michael McBrien?) had his scope fixed on, yes, a juvenile White Ibis. The bird was at the far end of a plowed field just east of Sagg Pond (near the Bridgehampton bridge at Bridge Lane) with several Great Blue Herons. This bird had a yellow/orange bill and legs, and a dark back with a white rump. Here's one hurricane bird that did not hurry back home but hung around (see small pictures: one with a preening Great Blue Heron and an enlargement of same).

The Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons at Munn's Pond in Hampton Bays, a major rehab wildlife hospice in our midst, is overwhelmed with casualties from Irene, with an inordinate number of young Gray Squirrels that came out of downed trees or limbs. Two somewhat more special guests were pelagics or oceanic birds that were found -- one on the beach, the other inland -- in East Quogue. One was described as a skua (species unknown) but turned out be a jaeger (a predatory group of larids which the English also call skua). Its small size, proportions and weight and its blunt-tipped tail feathers indicate that it is, almost certainly, a Long-tailed Jaeger, the most sought-after of the three Jaegers. And, in the very next cage, there was a big Cory's Shearwater, a very different bird and a very striking member of the tubenose family (the tubenose sits over the regular bill; it helps the bird's sense of smell and is also used to eject salt). Both of these species migrate offshore and were swept in by the storm. The Jaeger has a broken wing (the red is a splint on the wing) and its prospects are not great; the Shearwater is in better shape and has a better chance. All photos are by Eileen Schwinn (by the way, the relative size of the two seabirds in the pictures is deceiving; the Shearwater is much the bigger bird).

Eric Salzman