Painting and Birding 'round the Long Island Sound

This Winter there has been a marked increase in the number of Razorbills reported on the Long Island Sound.  I had a distant but extended view of one on January 5th, from Tods Point in Old Greenwich, CT.  I was scanning the horizon with my scope, looking for distant Loons and rafts of Goldeneye and Long-Tailed Ducks, when a small black-and-white bird appeared in my field of view, flying with rapid wingbeats.  Coming toward me, it could have been a duck, but as it neared it also veered northwards, and in side view it was unmistakably an Alcid.  The heavy, blunt bill, two-toned underwing and tapered tail end confirmed it as a Razorbill.  I watched it till it became lost in the distance, then did some quick sketches while the memory was fresh.  The lower drawing was done with warmer fingers a bit later in the car.

Alcids, the group of birds that include Razorbills as well as Murres, Guillemots, and Puffins,  are the "penguins of the north", similarly colored and shaped, and likewise prefering cold marine habitats.  Like Penguins they feed underwater and swim with amazing ability, but have not lost the ability to fly.  I had seen Razorbills, as well as Guillemots and Puffins, in Europe, most notably on the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, flying up to their cliffside roosts.  In North America they inhabit similar steep rocky coasts, mainly in Canada, but come southward in Winter.  Strangely enough, I had seen my first North American Razorbills just a few days ago, swimming and feeding off the beach at Plum Island, Massachussetts.  But to see one here, in my own beloved Long Island Sound, was quite a treat!

I might have thought I was crazy, but I discovered later that another birder had seen two Razorbills that morning in Stamford, one town away.

Addendum:

I was back today to try my luck again, as Stamford had yielded three Razorbills this morning.  Though viewing conditions were beautiful, not a ripple on the sound and every duck, grebe, gull and loon standing out as crisply as a field guide illustration, there was no alcid in sight.  Walking back to the car, I stumbled upon this:

A Great Egret...  not an unusual bird here in summer, but in January?  If I painted this, I'd never get away with it!