9/17. Stratford Pt. Linda & I came to look for feeding gulls or terns in the nice afternoon light, in hopes of finding a Jaeger. A delightful afternoon, weather wise. Lots of gulls, no Jaeger, but a big surprise! We had bumped into Nick Acosta upon arriving at the east bluff about 4:30. He’d been looking through the gulls as well. He mentioned that NBC news had reported sightings of a Humpback Whale recently off Bridgeport. So after, 5:25pm, while we were on the bench scanning with binos through the gulls, I spotted a whale spout, promptly followed by a HUMPBACK WHALE surfacing!!! A yelled Whale! Linda missed it. It was slightly to the right of the green buoy. Despite continued scanning, we never saw it again. Also seen were 600 Laughing Gulls, 2 Forster’s Terns, 3 unidentified Sterna Terns, and an adult Bald Eagle chasing an Osprey that was carrying a fish. Note: the gate is closed on weekends. Frank & Linda Mantlik Stratford Sent from my iPhone

Frank and Linda, What a beautiful day it was yesterday. And also one for the record keepers. Mike discovered dolphins from Hammo and now you report a humpback whale off of Stratford Point. Wow.. Hope you experts will give us more explanations for why they are suddenly in OUR Waters. Carolyn On Sat, Sep 17, 2022 at 7:55 PM Frank Mantlik via CTBirds < ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote: > 9/17. Stratford Pt. > > Linda & I came to look for feeding gulls or terns in the nice afternoon > light, in hopes of finding a Jaeger. A delightful afternoon, weather wise. > Lots of gulls, no Jaeger, but a big surprise! We had bumped into Nick > Acosta upon arriving at the east bluff about 4:30. He’d been looking > through the gulls as well. He mentioned that NBC news had reported > sightings of a Humpback Whale recently off Bridgeport. So after, 5:25pm, > while we were on the bench scanning with binos through the gulls, I spotted > a whale spout, promptly followed by a HUMPBACK WHALE surfacing!!! A yelled > Whale! Linda missed it. It was slightly to the right of the green buoy. > Despite continued scanning, we never saw it again. > > Also seen were 600 Laughing Gulls, 2 Forster’s Terns, 3 unidentified > Sterna Terns, and an adult Bald Eagle chasing an Osprey that was carrying a > fish. > > Note: the gate is closed on weekends. > > Frank & Linda Mantlik > > Stratford > > Sent from my iPhone > > CTBirds, a service of Connecticut Ornithological Association - Bringing > birders together statewide. Please support COA: > https://www.ctbirding.org/join-us/ > CTBirds is for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For > list rules and subscription information visit: > https://www.ctbirding.org/birds-birding/ct-birds-email-list/