Chasing Alcids

When we woke up this morning our plan was to visit Barnegat Lighthouse State Park. But an erroneous reading of a rare bird alert had us heading a bit further north. Someone, I won't mention any of Patty's names, thought there was a Thick-billed Murre to chase.

Spoiler alert: there wasn't. There were also reports of Razorbills in the same area. When we got to the site we found neither.

There were plenty of Common Loons.

By my count there were at least twenty.

But no Murre and no Razorbills. So we went looking for other things in the area. And when it was time to head home Patty suggested we swing by the inlet to try one more time for they Razorbills.

So we did. And the first bird we spotted was a Razorbill.

Here's a crop of the same image.

And the Murre? It's somewhere off the coast of Massachusetts. And no, I will not be chasing it.