Seawatch - Long Island, New York, USA

I seawatched twice today - early morning (6:00-7:30 am) and late evening
(6:40-8:05pm) from Amagansett near the eastern tip of Long Island (40.9694�,-72.1238�).The wind had turned to the SW-SSW overnight and slowly picked up in force during the day, so that the sea was quite disturbed by the evening watch with a blustery 18-20 mph wind. In the morning, a big congregation of gulls, cormorants and terns were feeding on bait fish off Indian Wells Beach and attracted a SOOTY SHEARWATER. Otherwise, passage was light, consisting mostly of loons and gannets. In the evening, the highlights were three MANX SHEARWATERS moving east. All three very close to the beach (250-300 yards)giving fantastic views, as well as some very distant SOOTY SHEARWATERS also moving east. By far the most abundant birds were Common Terns, a steady steam mostly working west against the wind. Quite a few Roseate Terns were mixed in. Laughing Gulls were numerous on both watches, with a good number being subadults.

** Morning Seawatch (6:00-7:30 am) **
SOOTY SHEARWATER - 1 (initial moving west but joined feeding frenzy)
Surf Scoter - 2
Black Scoter - 3
Red-throated Loon - 1
Common Loon - 39
Northern Gannet - 35
Double-crested Cormorant - 16
Laughing Gull - 36
Herring Gull - 50
Great Black-backed Gull - 19
Ring-billed Gull - 20
ROSEATE TERN - 25
Common Tern - 500 ++
Least Tern - 50+ (nesting on beach in front of seawatch)
Eastern Willet - 1
Short-billed Dowitcher - 2

** Evening Seawatch (18:50-20:10) **
MANX SHEARWATER - 3 (east 19:20, 19:26: 19:40)
SOOTY SHEARWATER - 4 (east 19:14, 20:00 and 20:05)
Black Scoter - 1
loon sp. - 1
Common Loon - 2
Northern Gannet - 75
Double-crested Cormorant - 3
Laughing Gull - 17
Herring Gull - 10
Great Black-backed Gull - 4
Ring-billed Gull - 19
BLACK SKIMMER - 2 (west)
ROSEATE TERN - 35++
Common Tern - 800 +++
Least Tern - 50+ (nesting on beach in front of seawatch)