Today I woke up at 5:30 so I could join the Huntington Audubon society young birders on a trip to Montauk. I had never been all the way out to the tip of Long Island before, so this was a trip I was looking forward to. Luckily, Huntington Audubon President Stella Miller offered to give me and two other YBers a ride most of the way, saving our parents hours of torture driving.

Scanning the waters off Montauk Point.
We arrived at Montauk Point, the easternmost part Long Island, at 9:30 on the dot. Our first (out of the car) bird was a calling American Tree Sparrow, and a 20-minute scan of the surrounding waters yielded many Common Eiders, Common Loons, Surf, Black, and White-winged Scoters, plus some common gulls and a few Northern Gannets.
After stopping at a horse farm hosting many Canada Geese, Brent remarked, “There’s nothing here.” It was at that exact moment when we ran into none other than Shai Mitra, who kindly pointed out a Cackling Goose amongst a smaller group of Canadas further out — we would never have seen it. It was a life bird for a few, including me, officially making the trip a success early on.

Common Eider attempting to eat something (a crab?) that seemed too big for its mouth. Surprisingly, it did end up swallowing it whole.
Somehow the topic of Kittiwakes was brought up, and Shai made sure we had his number in case anyone saw something noteworthy. With that, we moved on to other nearby parks, such as Camp Hero State Park (sorry guys if I got the order mixed up), and saw much of the same, give or take a few Red-throated Loons and Bonaparte’s Gulls. However, before long the prospect of Kittiwakes lured us back to Montauk Point.

Brent scanning from Camp Hero State Park (I think).
Good thing, too. There was a lot more bird activity this time around, and soon we had even better looks at just about every species we had seen up to that point in the morning. One Scoter ID point that Shai mentioned was that Black Scoters, in flight, have semi-translucent wings, while Surf Scoters’ wings are much darker, a very helpful tip when observing these sea ducks from afar. He then told us that there had been reports of a substantial Kittiwake flight along the edge of Long Island from locations further west, so it was only to be expected that they show up. This was soon proven true, as 3 Black-legged Kittiwakes were found bobbing up and down in the water wayyyyyyyyy out. Frustratingly, I couldn’t locate them. But, thanks to Brendan, who spotted two juveniles following a boat, I got identifiable looks at the “M” patterning on juvi Kittiwakes’ wings, upping my lifer tally to two for the day. Shai and a couple others had found a Yellow-breasted Chat in the thickets close by, but unfortunately it never materialized for us.
Moving on, the only other birds of note were a “Kumlien’s” Iceland Gull, a pair of Great Cormorants, and a few very close Eiders. After stopping for some late lunch at a BBQ restaurant and with the sun setting, we embarked on the long trek back. A great day.

Brent (looking at a bird), Vinny, Brendan, and me.











