Now that another weird, weeklong nor’easter has finally left us, it’s time to sort out what this stubborn storm brought us in terms of birds. But first, I don’t remember these kinds of storms being a thing in the past, the kind that park themselves offshore and get comfortable for days and days. Nor’easters are supposed to blow for one day, load the bay up with seabirds, then move on, leaving northwest winds the following morning. At that point people line up at First Encounter Beach in Eastham to see the storm waifs piled up on the west-facing beach while they look for the exit back to the open ocean.
The one positive of this never-ending storm, at least for us birders, was the never-ending seabird show. With strong winds appearing days before the actual storm, the guests began to arrive early in the form of a few Leach’s Storm-Petrels way back last Tuesday, a full four days before the storm. They showed up, as expected, at Sandy Neck beach in Barnstable – this north facing beach in the western half of the bay is famous for catching the storm birds as they come in with the initial northeast winds.
By the next day, dozens of these fluffy, adorable little ocean wanderers were passing stalwart bayside sea birding spots like Chapin and Corporation Beaches in Dennis. I managed to see a few on Thursday when I was uh, between errands, if anyone from work asks. At less than 2 ounces, it’s no wonder they get blown in, but in reality these birds are tougher than all of us. They nest in crevices on northern islands, including in a rock wall on Penikese Island in Buzzard’s Bay, in which they raise a single, morbidly obese dust-bunny of a chick, then head out to sea, visiting exotic ports of call like West Africa and Trinidad during winter.
By the weekend, when the actual storm arrived, birders were stunned to suddenly see hundreds off Sandwich and well up inside the canal, often within arm’s reach. Other hoped for storm birds now joined the show – sleek Long-tailed Jaegers fresh from a summer hunting lemmings in the Arctic. A few Northern Fulmars passed beaches, looking part gull and part shearwater, seldom seen this side of George’s Bank. The occasional bulky South Polar skua, as exotic and uncommon here as the name implies, raised pulse rates of birders lucky enough to spot them. Those who made the seemingly foolish trip out to Race Point in Provincetown in the teeth of the gale were rewarded with hundreds of fulmars and shearwaters, plus dozens of jaegers of all three species, in what would be a rare seabird show even from a boat well offshore.
It wasn’t until yesterday, a week into the gale, that the winds finally swung northwest, and it was time to head to First Encounter. It was there that birders first encountered large numbers of Northern Gannets, the largest seabird we regularly see, each one weighing as much as 60 storm-petrels. They noted 3500 gannets, which translates into 210,000 storm-petrel equivalents. Sorry – you probably weren’t expecting math. Two Sabine’s Gulls also passed, a small, uncommonly elegant Arctic gull rarely seen from shore in the east – most move along the Pacific coast, on the way from places like Siberia to winter off places like Peru. So we birders always appreciate when they stop by the Cape, often with the help of a storm.
Speaking of the storm, I think it’s safe to say it’s finally gone. I think. But I’m not sure – I feel like this is the kind of storm that, like a persistent salesman, would still be standing on the doorstep long after you thought it was gone. Better check the back door for any northeast winds trying to sneak back in.
