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Alcids!



All,

John Dole and I met Salinda Daley and Nate Bacheler at Fort Macon yesterday to see the murre (thanks Veronica Pantelidis for narrowing our initial search). We spent about 1.5 hours in the vicinity of the ocean-most jetty, and the bird constantly dove and chased fish around it, often within feet of where we were perched watching it and often in water less than a foot deep. I got a couple great pictures as well as many beautiful shots of surf where the bird just was. We also saw at least 2 razorbills (2 lifers in one day!) and watched dolphins breaching within a hundred yards or so of the jetty. Nate and I were severely distracted by the false albacore busting bait (probably the same little anchovies the murre was so interested in) literally on the rocks of the jetty- fortunately, Nate had fishing rods along! He landed a nice 5 pounder; I had to break mine off when it threatened to strip all the line off the reel (it was Nate's lure, anyhow...).

After lunch we went to the triple S and saw a nice selection of seabirds including all three scoters and two possible old squaws. John and I had to leave about 2:30; Nate wrote this morning to say that he and Salinda had gone back to the jetty and saw the dovekie (and, with other friends, caught some more false albacore...) later in the afternoon. I reckon I'll have to go back!

Some times it is a good thing to take a day off.

Take care,

Clyde Sorenson
Clayton and Raleigh, NC
clyde_sorenson@ncsu.edu