Here are a couple greats photos of a Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) via our friend, superb birder and expert naturalist Frank Mantlik as seen from Stratford Point a couple of weeks ago. Long Island Sound has been alive with everything from humpback whale sightings to various uncommon or rare fish, turtles and birds. This Parasitic Jaeger looks like an intermediate morph juvenile, and you can see it chasing a juvenile Laughing Gull in one of the photos. We observed this behavior from at least a few individual Parasitic Jaegers over several days during feeding frenzies involving gulls and terns. This was Frank’s first time ever photographing one from shore in Connecticut, and the fourth or fifth sighting of the species he has had in the state in 43 years of birding here. Whether it is improving water quality in Long Island Sound, climate change, or something else (or all!) things are definitely shifting in our waters.
