Manasquan Inlet 7/19--Wilson's Storm-Petrel

For reasons too uninteresting to relate, I was in Point Pleasant Beach this morning and while I had no interest in paying $11 to get onto the beach, I did have a very strong interest in seeing Wilson's Storm-Petrels, which have been reported off the jetty sporadically this last month. Seeing them again on my eBird "Needs" alert, I drove over there and compromised with myself. I paid 5 bucks for parking but I figured if I was going to see them I could see them just as well from the boardwalk at the back end of the jetty as I could by going on the beach and then clambering up to end of the jetty. In any event, they were going to be small in the scope and a 100 yards or so wouldn't make much difference. 

Years ago, when Shari & I made an expedition to Machias Seal Island for the life-changing experience of seeing thousands of puffins, guillemots, and terns all nesting on one small dot in the Bay of Fundy, we saw Wilson's Storm-Petrels from the lobster boat taking us out there. The word "petrel" is interesting as it is derives from French and is a diminutive for "Petre," Peter, who walked upon the water and that is how I vividly remember them, small sea-birds skipping along the tops of the waves, seemingly walking on the bay. 

So, it was pretty easy to eliminate from consideration the diving terns as well as the big clunky gulls flying around out in the ocean and when I saw two relatively tiny birds which, if I had been looking on land I might have thought were swallows, hopping along the surface, I knew I had my petrels. Seeing the white rump on one of them clinched the ID. I knew it was a state and county bird, but it wasn't until I got back to the car that I realized I'd also notched a country bird, as Machias Seal Island is in Canadian waters despite what the USA says. 

As long as I was in the neighborhood as I never am during the summer, I figured I might as well take a look at Lake of the Lilies, a great winter spot but not birded much in the summer from what I can tell. Continuing the "Winter Ducks in July" theme, there among the 60 or so pond pigs were 3 Ruddy Ducks. Too far out for me tell whether drakes or hens or both, but the coincidence of summering ducks continues. 

Stiff tails