On August 9-13 the Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology had an out-of-state field trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. A total of 35 participants ventured down to NC for several days of land birding followed by two days of pelagic trips out of Hatteras, NC. Part 1 of this trip report series covered some of the land birding, this post covers the two amazing days we had on our pelagic trips on the Stormy Petrel II with Brian Patteson.
5:30am and on the boat in the Hatteras Marina. (Photo by Andy McGann)
On Monday our group met Brian, Kate Sutherland, Bob Fogg, and John Puschock at the dock and a short time later headed out the the Gulf Stream. On the way out we saw several Cory’s and Audubon’s Shearwaters to kick off our pelagic birding. Activity was good, with numbers in the morning already better than the regular trips Brian had run on the three days prior to our two trips.
Sunrise on our way out the the Gulf Stream (Photo by Andy McGann)
Cory’s Shearwater off Hatteras, NC (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
We arrived out at the Gulf Stream a bit after 8am and quickly began seeing Black-capped Petrels along with many Cory’s and Audubon’s Shearwaters (see our recent post on Black-capped Petrels here). Some of the birds came in quite close and offered excellent looks. Kate started to lay a chum slick behind the boat and we were soon joined by many Wilson’s Storm-Petrels.
“Black-faced” Black-capped Petrel and Wilson’s Storm-petrel (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
The day continued to get even better with 3 to 4 Trindade Petrels at the boat in an hour! One of the birds came in hot, flying directly at us, only to adjust its course at the last second, flapping uncharacteristically in order to avoid colliding with the boat. Andy was able to capture the moment and the excitement in a quick video clip, forthcoming. Another one coursed back and forth several times right in front of us. Quite amazing looks!
Herald ‘Trindade’ Petrel (dark type) – Our first Herald of the two days. (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
Herald ‘Trindade’ Petrel (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
Herald ‘Trindade Petrel’ coming head on, right at us, FAST! (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
Throughout the day we continued to see large numbers of Black-capped Petrels and Wilson’s Storm-Petrels. There were a couple of rather cooperative Band-rumped Storm-Petrels at the stern of the boat, which provided excellent comparisons to the more common Wilson’s. Other shearwaters present in decent numbers for most of the day were Cory’s, Great, and Audubon’s.
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel passing close to the boat. (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
A particularly close Audubon’s Shearwater (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
The highlights of the afternoon were an immature Long-tailed Jaeger and the tropical terns along a Sargassum seaweed line, which is typically a feature of the western boundary of the Gulf Stream. We had distant looks at a few terns before getting great looks at a Sooty and then later a Bridled, which both came right past the boat! For more on the terns and jaegers, please see our separate post on them here. A few Red-necked Phalaropes were also seen, usually foraging near little clumps of Sargassum.
Red-necked Phalarope (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
One of the exciting aspects of pelagic journeys far offshore, is that you can have bizarre and memorable encounters with land birds and coastal birds that are well outside their comfort zones. We had such an encounter with an apparently lost Great Black-backed Gull. Someone observed that it had been following a commercial shipping vessel, until it spotted us and flew over to join us. It stayed with us for well over an hour, and seemed to make the small storm-petrels a bit uneasy.
On Day 2 of the pelagics we had much heavier seas and needed to work a bit harder for some species. However, with the stronger winds, the numbers of Black-capped Petrels observed were much higher– simply amazing. Seeing so many Black-caps gave us a great opportunity to observe their impressive plumage variation. We had a few surprises like this Sooty Shearwater, which is a pretty rare bird for August in the Gulf Stream!
Sooty Shearwater coming in from the front of the boat! (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
Sooty Shearwater passing the boat (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
Sooty Shearwater (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
Although things were a bit slower the second day we were lucky enough to also get an intermediate type Trindade Petrel. The bird passed very close to the boat and gave everyone very nice looks!
Herald ‘Trindade” Petrel (intermediate type) passing close to the boat on our second day out. (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
Herald ‘Trindade” Petrel (intermediate type) making one last close pass near the boat. (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
Although we saw only one Great Shearwater on day 2 we got some excellent looks at it, along with many Black-capped Petrels and Wilson’s Storm-Petrels that were hanging out near the boat.
Great Shearwater, ~25 miles ESE Hatteras, NC (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel just off the side of the boat (Photo by Mike Lanzone)
Of course, to get all the the pelagic participants from Pennsylvania on Trindade Petrels was quite awesome! It was a memorable adventure and although some did get seasick, after the trip they mostly raved about the lifers they saw, not how sick they were! Here are a few photos of us birding on the boat.
Mike Lanzone, Bob Fogg, and John Puschock scan the ocean. (Photo by Andy McGann)
Kate Sutherland (one of the guides), Dan Ombalski, Mike Epler, and Roger Higbee keeping an eye on the slick. (Photo by Andy McGann)
Part of the PSO group looking at a Great Shearwater and some Black-capped Petrels off the side of the boat. (Photo by Andy McGann)
Mike Lanzone scanning with a pair of Leica 8×56 Geovids. AWESOME range-finding binoculars; stay tuned for Mike’s review of these. (Photo by Andy McGann)
Andy and Alex watching as we caught a Wahoo on the way out to the gulf stream the first day. We later ate it for dinner! (Photo by Mike Lanozne)
Throughout the course of the two days, we managed to get some excellent looks at every species encountered, as well as seeing all the expected species plus some added bonuses! Here are some additional images of the birds seen on the trips….
Our trip lists for both days, complied by Kate Sutherland. You can read her blog summary of the days here.
Monday August 12, 2013
Trindade Petrel 3-4
Black-capped Petrel 56-57
Cory’s Shearwater 46
Great Shearwater 4
Audubon’s Shearwater 27
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel 85-100
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 2-3
Red-necked Phalarope 2
Sooty Tern 2
Bridled Tern 1
Onychoprion sp. 3
Black Tern 15
Long-tailed Jaeger 1
shorebird sp. 5
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Calidris sp. 1
Barn Swallow 17
swallow sp. 3
Tuesday August 13, 2013
Trindade Petrel 1
Black-capped Petrel 126
Cory’s Shearwater 34
Great Shearwater 1
Sooty Shearwater 1
Audubon’s Shearwater 17
Wilson’s Storm-Petrel 70
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 1
Black Tern 1
Ruddy Turnstone 2
shorebird sp. 1
Barn Swallow 2
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin 5-6
Bottlenose Dolphin 15
A few Wilson’s Storm-Petrels foraging near the boat. (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)