Sea Watch 2 - Seeing Pelagic Birds from Shore

A Conversation with Rick Heil

Rick's remarkable sighting report from Andrews Point, December 30, was featured in the last posting. Here he tells us about his approach to shoreline birding.

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A promontory like Cape Ann that sticks out far into the ocean gets you closer to the pelagic birds that normally spend their lives far offshore. Sometimes you can see them from land, even during nice weather. It depends on the food that they're being attracted to that area, and also, of course, weather. Storms with strong easterly winds tend to push all these birds in from the fishing banks.

But I've had great days there when the weather is not unusual. Nice days.

You look for birds blown in from say Jeffrey's Ledge or Stellwagon Bank, all the way up the Gulf of Maine. They'll parade south offshore, like off Plum Island, off the coast of Maine. When they hit Cape Ann, because it juts out, they're forced to curl out around it. What they're doing once they're around the Cape, who knows. Going into Cape Cod Bay, maybe.

During major events like hurricanes all kinds of things can get blown far inland. These events are good for birders, but not so good for birds. Most of the birds survive these events. They are strong fliers. Or they just stop and rest. They'll find a sheltered spot in a cove or something, and ride it out. Sometimes on second or third days of nor'easters I've seen birds completely exhausted, just sitting on the water. At times like that, there's often heavy predation by especially Great black-backed gulls. I've seen them take Leach's storm petrels, dovekies, razorbills, all kinds of things. They swallow them whole. The victim tries to avoid them. It dives, or flies. A gull will hover, waiting for it to pop back up. Then it pounces right on it.

Peregrine falcons often take advantage of these storms too. I've see peregrines go offshore, fly around, hover, and pick off Wilson's Storm-Petrels. Storm-petrels are not here at this time of year. Wilson's Storm-Petrel might be seen any day during the summer, early summer especially. Leach's Storm-Petrels are mostly to occur in the fall.

Kittiwakes are fairly regular, close to shore. You can see them pretty consistently from Cape Ann, depending on the abundance of food in the area. Sometimes they'll even enter the mouths bays and river, like Newburyport and Gloucester Harbors. During a good blow they're very close by, just off the rocks. Others are a mile offshore. I try to count them from all these zones.

Besides skill, it's a matter of great optics. Superb optics. I can tell a Corey's from a Greater Shearwater probably at 2 to 3 miles. Holding the scope steady is very important. That's one of the main reasons why I do it from my car. I wedge my tripod in between my seat and my door, so it's rock solid. Then the wind is not really affecting me. Otherwise I have trouble seeing, because the wind is vibrating the scope and pushing me.

The only problem I have is when it's not easterly enough, and it's raining, I'm getting rain in the face and rain on the telescope lens. I know I'm missing things, because I'm constantly wiping myself. Also I wear glasses, so they're getting wet. Those are difficult conditions. I've always wanted to create something like a super lens hood. I tried one time and the wind blew it off.

I've sat there for ten hours, many times. I've done probably more than a thousand sea watches over the years since 1974. It's interesting from a scientific point of view, because things have changed over the years. Some species have declined, some species have increased dramatically. I still get surprises, even after forty-five years. Something that's unexpected, or numbers that are unexpected. Something that's out of season and unusual. Or a real vagrant, like an albatross, or a Black-capped petrel.

The distribution of seabirds really has more to do with food availability than anything else. In 2002 we had a huge incursion of juvenile herring into the southern Gulf of Maine. Tuna, dolphins, everything was going after them. We had a huge, huge seabird count that year. On September 28th I had 35,000 Greater shearwaters from Andrews Point. Later in October I had 839 Northern Fulmar one day, which was the high count that year. On October 12 I had 104 Puffins go by.

You can see these birds with a good scope, or if you want to sit out there during a nor'easter. The same birds that go by Andrews go by Halibut Point too. No difference at all.

Thanks, Rick!