At about 5 o'clock this afternoon Scott Barnes, Jonathan Wasse (a visiting birder from the U.K.) and myself saw a juvenile Jaeger in the west pool at Brigantine NWR. I spotted the bird as it flew over the salt marsh on the north dike, crossed the dike and landed in the west pool. It flew further out towards the cross dike and eventually over to the south side of the west pool. We chased the bird around to the observation tower by turtle cove where it eventually got up and flew past us at eye level, setting down out in the bay towards Atlantic City.

We noticed earlier that day that some birders from the Bronx Bird club had reported a dark-morph juvenile Parasitic Jaeger over the weekend in the log book. Given our views of the bird and the experience of our companion from the U.K., we thought that the bird might have been a juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger. Some of the reasons why were two central tail feathers that projected out fairly far and were blunt-tipped; the small bill tipped with black and with a pale, bluish-gray base; an overall brownish-gray coloration with no rusty fringes in the plumage (the scalloped upperparts had whitish edgings); a dark secondary bar that contrasted with the rest of the upperwing; a uniform gray-brown breast; black and white barring on the uppertail coverts and two white primary shafts.

Unfortunately we weren't able to photograph the bird but apparently it has been there for at least two days. The bird never harassed any other species but rather daintily picked at insects on the water's surface, almost like a phalarope. Hopefully it will stay a little longer and perhaps some other birders can weigh in on its identification.

Also present at Brig today were Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Wilson's Phalarope, many White-rumps and Black Tern.