Re: [Maine-birds] Sabine's Gull, Eastport, ME and Deer Island, NB

Should anyone have the ambition and poor judgement - but that's up to you! - to look for the Sabine's Gull, it's likely to linger off the Old Sow for several days.  One can take the car ferry - as a pedestrian - from Campobello to Deer Island and bird from the southern tip looking across to Eastport.  You can figure out the ferry schedule, just remember NB is one hour ahead of ME time and you need your passport.  We were there around 11:30 about 1+ hour before high tide and there were thousands of Bonies and I'm sure we missed numerous birds.  But the point offers a stable platform, unlike a small boat bouncing around in the Sow.  I used to bird this area in the 70s and 80s and it's worth being there 2+ hours before high tide - there's just too much activity to capture in this bedlam of birds.  It's truly spectacular, irrespective of rarities, which are always present but perhaps not recorded.  Sabine's Gull is so much easier than first year Little or Black-headed - but the latter two are annual here.

Bon chance,

Peter

On Aug 20, 2016, at 1:45 PM, Chris Bartlett <christophabartlett@gmail.com> wrote:

My daughter Sarah and I had the pleasure of birding alongside Peter and Barbara Vickery, Mac Hunter, Aram Calhoun, and Ron Joseph this morning. Our trip took us from Lubec, Maine through Head Harbor Passage, NB and to the Old Sow whirlpool.  The best bird was an adult Sabine's gull that we found at the Old Sow in both Eastport, Maine and Deer Island, New Brunswick.  It was difficult to stay on the Sabine's because it was feeding with a few thousand whirling Bonaparte's gulls in the tide rips.   Along the way we also saw a year-old little gull, a sooty shearwater, 60-70 razorbills, 6-7 minke whales, and lots of harbor porpoise.  It was a fantastic trip.

Photos of the Sabine's Gull can be seen here:

https://flic.kr/p/KV9mi7

https://flic.kr/p/KV9kZw

Cheers,

Chris Bartlett

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