Birding on Lake Champlain

A perfect day for lake birding aboard UVM's research vessel, Melosira! We're in the middle of fall migration, and we're all hoping to see birds that use Lake Champlain as a corridor when they head south for the winter.

Once we got out onto the lake, Allan Strong was in charge of "chumming": tossing small fish in the wake of the boat to attract gulls in the hope that their excited milling around might attract flying fish thieves (aka jaegers).

Jaegers breed on tundra, north of the Arctic Circle. They get a lot of their food by dive-bombing and harassing gulls into dropping freshly-caught fish.



The birders on board were an enthusiastic and jolly bunch so the trip started with laughter and conversation.

Liz

Cat and Clem

Julie

Gail

Don

But there was also a lot of intense scanning - of the water, the sky and the surrounding land.

Liz

Ted

Allan

Michele

Stacy

Ian and Mark

Brenda

Kent

Ali

We saw several species in large numbers: pigeons inside the Burlington breakwater, Double-crested Cormorants, and gulls (Ring-billed, Herring and Great Black-backed). 

photo by Julie Filiberti

photo by Julie Filiberti

Other species appeared one at a time: a Black-crowned Night-Heron, a Great Blue Heron, a Belted Kingfisher, a Common Loon.

Finally - a jaeger!!! 

But which kind? The size suggested Long-tailed, the smallest of the three jaegers - but that's also the species that usually migrates way out to sea and is the least likely to be seen inland. 

Books were consulted. Specific field marks were discussed at length. 

Photos were compared.

Kent and Mick

The conclusion? The bird was definitely a juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger (that hasn't yet grown the characteristic very long middle tail feathers).

photo by Julie Filiberti

photo by Julie Filiberti

Later, we lucked out and saw a second jaeger, this one probably a Pomerine. The identification won't be definite until several photos are studied. 

Boat birding is very different from many other kinds. You can talk and laugh and hoot and cheer, with no fear of scaring away the birds. There are often long periods when absolutely nothing happens - time to enjoy the sun sparkles on the water, the wind in your face, and the friendly chatter all around you - and then there will be a brief explosion of excitement.

Jan, Julie, Roger, Cat

Roger

Maeve

A great postscript to the day, from Liz Lackey: Big thanks to Allan for organizing and orchestrating; to all for helping with the ids; and to Captain Steve for putting the Melosira through her paces without tossing us overboard.

A second PS, added three days after the outing: The mystery bird was identified from photos as a Parasitic Jaeger.

The whole group (minus Captain Steve and crew mate Brad). 

The whole group with Bernie taking the photo and Brad joining us.