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Pomarine Jaeger, Edisto Beach, SC




Eschewing the malls and engaging in a untraditional tradition of visiting my
friend Sharon Brown at Edisto Beach on the day after Thanksgiving, I went to
the southern SC coast today.  We usually find excellent birds.  This year
was no different.

While watching a Northern Gannet actively hunting way out through the scope,
I noticed a dark bird enter my field of view. I had decided that this was no
immature Gannet about the time the bird shifted his angle away from the
coastline a bit and I got a glimpse of extended central tail feathers.
After grabbing a few other details, I turned the scope over to Sharon.  She
has seen Parasitic Jaeger; I've seen Long-tailed Jaeger.  We knew what we
didn't have here.  Research confirmed our initial hunch - Pomarine Jaeger.  

Among the other interesting things we noted today were thousands (multiple
large flocks) of Greater Scaup with a few Black Scoter mixed in heading
*north* off the shore.  It seems to me they should have been heading south.

The last interesting thing we learned today was that shorebirds like pimento
cheese.  Along with a small amount of other trash, an open tub of pimento
cheese with about half an inch of pimento cheese still in the bottom was
sitting out on the small flat we were watching and was constantly visited by
species ranging from Herring and Ring-billed Gulls to Willet to Sanderlings.
If you decide to try to duplicate this, just make sure the pimento cheese is
diluted with salt water, as this was.

Donna Slyce Bailey
Winnsboro, SC
e-mail: dsbailey@conterra.com
URL: http://www.conterra.com/dsbailey
     "Where are the Birds?  Migration across South Carolina"