ML610376460

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

**Rare, continuing bird off Bayonne; advanced subadult with bright white belly and underwings, but not quite as bright and vibrant as a fully mature bird. Initially sitting completely still and inert, quite inconspicuously, in its usual spot on the metal platform near Robin’s Reef lighthouse. We observed it sitting down on the platform for quite a while, not doing much aside from preening and occasionally shifting. Around 11:50, it stood up and started to stretch its wings, and a few minutes later took off and flew strongly east. Over the next 25 minutes or so it put on an amazing show flying around the bay, hunting. Executed several plunge dives ranging from sharply angled to almost fully vertical, staying submerged for a few minutes before bobbing to the surface and clumsily taking off. Around 12:15 it came back west, circled Robin’s Reef light a few times, and sat back down the outflow platform.

Technical information

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