Dear Friends: 42 of us (3 crew, a few scientists, and mostly birders) had a great 6-hour cruise in LIS between Norwalk and Stratford CT on a beautiful sunny March 9th. We did find the large flock of gulls we were hoping for (highlights: the flock of 3,000 Ring-billed Gulls, 200 Herring Gulls, 4 Iceland Gulls, 2 Bonaparte's Gulls, etc), about two miles off Long Beach, swimming in a river of zillions of plankton which were visible as closely packed dots in the water, and probably covered square miles of LIS (a rather large "plankton bloom") ! Gulls, brant and scaup were nibbling on those plankton or something with them. We took samples with plankton nets, and did underwater photography. Preliminary microscopic looks at the samples showed floating barnacles (1mm), copepods, diatoms and other plankton. And the underwater videography revealed additional life forms, which we are now trying to identify. All of which will be reported at this site over the next days and weeks : https://sites.google.com/view/lisgullsplanktontrip/home Tom Robben On Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 4:16 PM Thomas Robben <robben99@gmail.com> wrote: > Dear Friends, > > The Hartford Audubon Society is running a unique 40-mile once-only > "mini-pelagic" bird-fish-plankton trip in LIS Long Island Sound on saturday > March 9th. > If you might be interested, all the details can be found at this website... > > https://sites.google.com/view/lisgullsplanktontrip/home > > This is a trip for you, > IF you like going into LIS waters which are usually not accessed by > birders, with 35 other expert birders and top marine scientists, on a new > $2.7million 63-foot QUIET stable hybrid-electric luxurious catamaran > research vessel from the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. We are aiming for > this trip to get lots of great birds (Little Gull? skua???) and to > determine what those thousands of gulls are feeding on offshore. We intend > to find these large flocks, cruise into these flocks slowly, get very close > to these birds, and learn more about what they are feasting on, using > binoculars, cameras, plankton nets, underwater video, onboard microscope > displays, etc. > > One way or another, this will be a memorable one-of-a-kind cruise in LIS. > > To register please: > 1) immediately email to : robben99@gmail.com . > 2) Please pay $80 by check by February 9th. > > Full DETAILS at this website above, including a recent Jan.27 video at > Long Beach, showing the gull flocks starting to build up to their massive > numbers in March . > > Please contact me SOON, since we believe this ship will fill up its quota > of 35 very rapidly , in a few days . > > Best regards, > Tom Robben > > >

Kudos to Tom Robben, Hartford Audubon Society,CT Audubon Society,and the CT Ornithological Association(COA) for sponsoring and organizing this trip. The weather cooperated and so did the birds! I hope this was the first of many future trips. Thanks for all the info and commentaries during the trip from Patrick Comins, Frank Mantlik,Larry Flynn,Nick Bonomo and the visiting out of state marine scientists on board. Tina Green Westport Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 11, 2019, at 7:03 PM, Thomas Robben via CTBirds <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote: > > Dear Friends: 42 of us (3 crew, a few scientists, and mostly birders) had > a great 6-hour cruise in LIS between Norwalk and Stratford CT on a > beautiful sunny March 9th. We did find the large flock of gulls we were > hoping for (highlights: the flock of 3,000 Ring-billed Gulls, 200 Herring > Gulls, 4 Iceland Gulls, 2 Bonaparte's Gulls, etc), about two miles off Long > Beach, swimming in a river of zillions of plankton which were visible as > closely packed dots in the water, and probably covered square miles of LIS > (a rather large "plankton bloom") ! Gulls, brant and scaup were nibbling > on those plankton or something with them. We took samples with plankton > nets, and did underwater photography. Preliminary microscopic looks at the > samples showed floating barnacles (1mm), copepods, diatoms and other > plankton. And the underwater videography revealed additional life forms, > which we are now trying to identify. All of which will be reported at this > site over the next days and weeks : > https://sites.google.com/view/lisgullsplanktontrip/home > > Tom Robben > > > >> >> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org