Island Beach SP 1/6--Dovekie

It's been alcidpalooza lately along the coast and today I finally got a chance to try for the more elusive of the two species in the big push--Dovekie. It was an extremely frustrating search, not helped by the texts I was getting from my buddy Steve who was driving the beach and telling me locations of Dovekies he had seen, proving the Third Law of Birding--Wherever you are, you should be somewhere else. (I think he had 18 for the day).

Photo © Steve Weiss

I saw a long line of Razorbills when I first started scanning at Bathing Beach 1, and much more satisfying looks at a trio of birds at A23, the start of the long march down to the jetty. But I couldn't find any Dovekies. Eventually, Steve caught up with me and showed me a deceased Dovekie he picked up out of the surf. They are so tiny, probably no bigger than a Mourning Dove. It made me feel slightly better that I wasn't able to find such a diminutive bird in such a big ocean. Steve had been finding quite a few about a mile north of where I met him, so I drove up there and started walking the beach from A15 up to a little north of A13. I found more Razorbills, but still no Dovekies. 

An interesting trick that both Scott & Steve told me was to look for a flock of Bonaparte's Gull hovering over the water--chances are they've spotted a Razorbill and are waiting for it to surface with food in order to steal a meal. A few times I saw this behavior and at least twice I was able to spot a Razorbill surrounded by Bonies. I don't know if this works for Dovekies too, but I was hoping. 

Finally, a little north of A13, having put in over 4 miles of beach walking, I gave up and turned around. I not only gave up, I gave up in disgust, so naturally, a few minutes later, when I put down my scope, I finally found a little alcid with a short beak, unlike the honker on a Razorbill. Thus, the Second Law of Birding had been proved: You won't see the bird until you truly give up. 

This marks only the second time I've seen Dovekie, and both times have been at Island Beach. The first time, a couple of years ago when there was another alcid incursion like this one, I was literally jumping up and down, so happy to get a life bird I never thought I'd see from land. Today, I was just happy to end the embarrassing ordeal with one little bird.