After the Storm

Hurricane Irene was supposed to lash us with borderline hurricane-force winds. We did get over 6 inches of rain, but I watched the wind gauge for most of the night and never saw a gust of more than 30 mph. And sometimes the winds were below 10 mph. So that was the good news.

Bad news was that the storm didn't bring me any good birds. I went to Lake Nockamixon in the morning and apparently missed a pair of Sooty Terns by minutes. I spent over five hours waiting for seabirds to show up and all I got were 2 Caspian Terns, 9 Common Terns, 1 Forster's Tern, and 6 Black Terns--none of which are impossible to find in the county normally. Other birders found extraordinary sea birds--such as White-tailed Tropicbirds in NY, MA, and NJ as well as Sooty Tern, Bridled Tern, Band-rumped Storm Petrel, Leach's Storm Petrel, and Wilson's Storm Petrel (see a summary from my eBird buddies here).

But nothing for me. Well, at least my house didn't flood or blow away!