Cape May Pelagic, 12/14/24 Part 2: First of the Season Alcids and Plenty of Kittiwakes

     Last Saturday I was aboard the Cape May Whale and Research Center's 12-hour pelagic trip.  Early on we were seeing some of the usual birds, many or all of which one could see from land.  We had scoters, gulls, gannets and loons.  Then we had a great encounter with a pair of North Atlantic right whales. But a little bit of concern started to creep in to some on board that the whale sighting would be the highlight of a boring bird day.  Besides not seeing a great skua yet again, we did not come across any Atlantic puffins or northern fulmars.  But not long after the whale sighting, we began finding some other birds to make the trip both a good whale day and a good bird day.

We did have two species of alcids, the first of the winter season for most of us.  We had several razorbills and several dovekies.  The tiny dovekies are a winter favorite for many of the birders on board.  Because we spent quite a bit of time enjoying the right whale pair earlier in the day, I don't think we made it out as far as we needed to be in order to have a better chance of seeing puffins and fulmars.  We did have a flock of red phalarope fly past the boat.  Phalaropes are the only shorebirds that are pelagic.  They breed in the Arctic and winter out on the open ocean.
Razorbill resting on water.  © S. Weiss

Dovekie flying away from boat.  © S. Weiss

The most abundant birds we saw on the trip were Bonaparte's gulls and black-legged kittiwakes.  I don't recall if I saw any kittiwakes last winter, so it was good to see them in numbers this time.  There are just a few truly pelagic gulls and kittiwakes are among them.  They are sometimes seen from land, but mostly at sea.  We were not too far from land to be out of range for the Bonaparte's gulls, and the two species flocked together.  We had both adults and juveniles of both birds.  Having the two together gave less experienced birders a chance to compare them and learn their differences.
Left, basic plumage adult black-legged kittiwake.  Right, basic plumage adult Bonaparte's gull.  © S. Weiss

Left, juvenile BL kittiwake.  Right, juvenile Bonaparte's gull.  © S. Weiss
The kittiwake has a much bolder M pattern.  The black border on the trailing edge of the Bonaparte's wings extends down through the secondaries.

In both photos, basic plumage adult BL kittiwake with a basic plumage adult Bonaparte's gull underneath it.  © S. Weiss
Size aside, there are a few field marks to separate the two birds.  The kittiwake has, as its name states, black legs, the Bonaparte does not.  The kittiwake has a yellow bill and the Bonaparte has a black bill.  The latter has a dot or smudge behind the eyes. The kittiwake has a dark collar.  The black on the Bonaparte's wing tips is a border along the trailing edge of the primaries.  The black tips on the kittiwake form a triangle.

Despite the efforts and hopes of some of us on board, we also could not pick out a rare Ross's gull.  The Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center has more 12-hour pelagics scheduled into March.  I hope to make one or two more of those myself.  There will be more opportunities to see puffins, fulmars and murres.  If I am lucky, maybe a great skua or, dare I say, even a Ross's gull might make an appearance.

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