Friday June 1, 2012

Today we enjoyed fairly gentle seas before the wind picked up in the afternoon, with a few rain squalls. After yesterday's great day we figured today would be quieter, but there were better numbers (and views) of Cory's (and Scopoli's, image below showing effect of more extensive white underwing-tip) and Audubon's shearwaters, a few Black-capped Petrels, an obliging Band-rumped Storm-Petrel among the Wilson's in the slick, and a couple of nice surprises - a Bridled Tern that flew around the boat in mid-morning to give great views, and a then a South Polar Skua that did likewise in the afternoon.  (Thanks to Steve for writing the blog post, and sorry for the delay in posting...spotty internet service until this morning...)

Black-capped Petrel   7-8

Cory's Shearwater   41

Sooty Shearwater   1

Audubon's Shearwater   25-30

Wilson's Storm-Petrel   205-215

Leach's Storm-Petrel   2

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 1-2

Bridled Tern   1

South Polar Skua   1

Pomarine Jaeger   1

Parasitic Jaeger   1

Black-capped Petrel (Nate Dias)

Cory's (Scopoli's) Shearwater

Some of our loyal Wilson's Storm-Petrels...

(Nate Dias)

Bridled Tern images

 South Polar Skua