May 26th, 2005, New Hampshire Coast.

This was one of the better days of coastal birding that I’ve experienced in New Hampshire. With news of a ‘wreck’ of phalaropes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts over the previous two days, I left Keene early in the
morning in torrential rain to reach Hampton Beach by 07:00hrs. Much of the very stormy morning was devoted
to seawatching from Ragged Neck. Later I worked some sheltered spots along the coast from Odiorne Point
south to Little Boars Head.

Although the blustery, cold conditions combined with rain made observations difficult at times, the north-eastern winds pushed many passing northbound migrants close to shore to produce a fine day of birding and
some amazing numbers of loons, scoters and phalaropes.

Northern Gannets Morus bassanus pass close to the tip of Ragged Neck on the Rye coast.
Canon Powershot A-95 through Leica 10x42 binoculars.

Red Phalarope Phalaropus fulicaria, one of three birds in the cove just south of Odiorne Point, Rye Coast.
Canon Powershot A-95 through Leica 10x42 binoculars.

Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus with Semi-palmated Sandpiper Calidris pusilla finding refuge in a parking lot puddle at Ragged Neck, Rye.
Canon Powershot A-95 through Swarovski HD telescope.

By mid-afternoon, I’d recorded the following species with the strongest movements occurring before 10:30hrs;

NH Coast (Hampton to Odiorne Point) from 07:00-16:00hrs;
Common Loon - c.450, almost constantly small flocks moved north with several parties resting at sea.
Red-throated Loon - c.25
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel - 1 off Ragged Neck mid-morning, first found by Eric Masterson.
uid Storm-Petrel - 3

Northern Gannet - c.350, more or less constant small groups (3-9 birds) moving north.
Snowy Egret - 4 Rye Salt marshes.
Surf Scoter - 4
Black Scoter - 2
White-winged Scoter - 681 (two large flocks of over 300 birds, plus 6 over Rt 101 at Raymond early am.).

Purple Sandpiper - c.170 ( two large groups, with 110 at Odiorne Point and 60 at Ragged Neck).

Red Phalarope - 24 ( largest party was 8 resting at low tide with Red-necked Phalaropes on Jenness Beach).
Red-necked Phalarope - 155 (including c.72 resting at low tide on Jenness Beach early am.)

Also quite a few other shorebirds including c.110 Black-bellied Plovers. some of which flew north in
small parties and c.80 resting near Little Harbor at high tide.

Bonaparte’s Gull - c.150
Laughing Gull - 6, all adults.

Terns sp - c.1000. constantly moving north offshore, a very few overland at Ragged Neck in the worst conditions. Passage continued for much of the day, when fog and cloud rolled back in the afternoon revealing many distant birds still moving north. The vast majority were too far offshore to be certain of the identity, however, I didn’t get the impression that large numbers of Arctic Terns were involved in the movement, unlike those reported in Massachusetts during the previous two days. The majority of the closer birds proved to be Common Terns.

Identified Terns;
Common Tern - c.80
Arctic Tern - c.25
Roseate Tern - 19
Little Tern - 2, possibly 3.

Parasitic Jaeger - 2 light morph adults, passed close to Ragged Neck at 10:16 hrs. First picked out by
Steve Mirick.

With the focus of the day being the sea, no passerines of interest were noted.