December 19th 2006. Loblolly Cove, Rockport, Cape Ann, MA. Dovekie (Little Auk ) Alle alle.(2) Since Saturday daily reports of Dovekies on the Massachusetts Coast have been hitting the local listserve, so I could hardly resist the opportunity to go and have a look for myself. This turned out to be a much more difficult exercise than I imagined and my first attempts at Plum Island, where birds had been reported at Lots 1, 3 and 7 the previous day, all drew blanks. A weak cold front producing north-westerly winds and choppy seas made for tricky viewing there and I headed south to Cape Ann, again another site with multiple reports from the previous day. It proved to be hard work with no birds visible at Pebble Beach in Rockport, where yesterday there had been five! Here I bumped into Noreen Mole and Tom Bagley who’d come all the way from Berkshires to search for Dovekies. We joined forces and in the next cove, Loblolly Cove in fact, we got lucky and found a distant Dovekie drifting slowly south towards Thacher Island. Walking out onto a rocky headland we were able to get just a little bit closer and I grabbed some marginal quality images through my scope as the bird continued to drift south. The actual views were much better! Shortly afterwards, Noreen and Tom headed for home and I went onto Granite Pier in Rockport finding another Dovekie flying around in the bay as soon as I arrived. Images taken using Canon Powershot A540 through Swarovski HD Telescope. |
  Nice size comparison with a male Red-breasted Merganser in this, and the shot above.       |