A mix of sun and clouds this morning. Temperature inching toward freezing. Looked to be a fairly benign sort of day, weather-wise. I spent much of it going through photos from 2010—a chore long overdue—and culling throwaways. Hard to believe I took more than 40,000.

In fact, I’d only gotten through January, culling and labeling, when I looked up to find it was nearing 3 p.m. already. Time for some exercise. Figured Jack and I would head to the breakwater today for a change.

The air felt mild enough, surely above freezing, but I thought it wise to wear my down jacket anyway. Good thing I did: a stout wind had built up and was blowing hard from the west. Plus, it was pretty darn near peak high tide. A sprinkling of vehicles in the breakwater parking lot. A sprinkling of mallards down at the shore.

There was a good chop on the bay side by the time we stepped up onto the granite. Not many obvious birds right away—herring gulls, a few eiders. I saw a guy up ahead with a spotting scope who turned out to by a fellow birder, Jay. He mentioned seeing some purple sandpipers and some mergansers. No sooner had he mentioned the latter than I spotted a single male winging over the breakwater from behind us. And soon after that, I felt compelled to pull on my gloves.

A ring-billed gull flapped buoyantly past us toward shore. Spotted a couple great cormorants in flight and swimming. Also a few loons diving. Long-tailed ducks, as expected. And great black-backs.

We continued out, the wind at our backs. A fair-sized raft of eiders floated not far to windward, and I was snapping some photos when Jay asked if I’d seen the grebe among them. I hadn’t. I looked. Still didn’t see it. A horned grebe, I figured. Oh, well.

At the end, beyond the light, I’d just mentioned we were liable to see guillemots when one popped up not a dozen yards away, but it saw us and dove again immediately. I waited. And waited. It never reappeared—although a loon did, out of nowhere, not far beyond where I’d seen the gilly.

Although I wasn’t looking forward to the return trip into the wind, it seemed to have turned calmer. Nice. That is, until about five minutes later, when it began to gust again, prompting me to pull up my sweatshirt hood. The sun, until then mostly obscured by a bank of clouds above the harbor, poked through, creating a lovely sky. I mentioned that I’d like to see the sandpipers—and only a minute or two later, I spotted one standing on a piece of bay-side riprap a dozen feet or so away. It posed patiently for photos.

Not until I’d returned home and downloaded my pics did I notice the solitary grebe among the eiders I’d photographed—undeniably a red-necked (albeit a bit fuzzy). I supposed that made it OK to put it on my list.

Tonight, after a period of wind, things seemed to have calmed some. I watched the new moon set just before Jupiter.

Sirius is up there just now, chasing Orion.

Rockland Breakwater List
Beginning at 3 p.m., I walked the length of the breakwater.

1. Mallard
2. Herring gull
3. Common eider
4. Red-breasted merganser
5. Ring-billed gull
6. Great cormorant
7. Common loon
8. Great black-backed gull
9. Long-tailed duck
10. Red-necked grebe
11. Black guillemot
12. Purple sandpiper

Elsewhere

13. American crow
14. Black-capped chickadee