Saturday 27 September 2025 ~ Kate Sutherland

At the dock as we all gathered in anticipation of a day offshore, we had an incredible flight with hundreds of birds vocalizing as they flew over in the dark! The most commonly heard were Green Herons and Bobolinks...you can check out Daniel's list here if interested: MorningFlight Of course this gave us a small idea that we might find some migrants offshore!

There was already some southeasterly swell from the distant set of storms (Humberto and the developing Imelda) when we began our run to the shelf break in the morning. Skies were overcast for the most part and remained that way for most of the day plus we had some light rain. As we approached the shelf break we could see more heavy rain ahead...but Brian did his best to keep us out of the downpours! Regardless, it was one of those days with intermittent rain and challenging light. As we so often say, the seabirds really don't care about the rain and some species like our Pterodroma petrels actually love the edges of rain squalls because they always have some wind! And winged-runners do love the wind! As proof our best Black-capped Petrels for the day were along a rain band... 

And while we didn't find anything unexpected on the seabird front, we did find all of the species we hoped to see out there and saw most of them well. If you can believe it Great Shearwater was our most uncooperative species - we just saw one and it flew by mid-distance. Both Atlantic Cory's and Scopoli's Shearwaters were seen well on the shelf in the morning and Scopoli's showed well offshore, some even joining us in the slick like this one!

Our little Sargasso Shearwaters were in short supply and we didn't have a really nice look at one until close to the end of the trip, but thankfully this individual sat on the water and flew a few times as it foraged and everyone saw it well. 

The last hoped for tubenose species of the day was Wilson's Storm-Petrel...in the morning when we slowed down and began the oil drip they were super challenging to see with just a couple behind the boat and distant. As the day went on, however, we gathered a few more and when we circled back a few times we had some great views! We did also have one distant large storm-petrel that gave a Leach's vibe, but it didn't come close enough for us to see well. 

Bridled Terns were seen well with one on a piece of timber in the morning...yes...it was overcast and raining... 

There were a few out there so participants got to see this one close then study them in flight at a distance and compare them to the Sooty Terns we had pass closely in the afternoon.

Now moving on to the other species we encountered out there! As you might imagine after hearing so many this morning a Bobolink found us offshore and thought about staying with us, but ultimately it flew off to continue its search for a suitable perch in the Gulf Stream. 

As early as 09:00 we had a flock of 24 warblers fly by the boat - mostly American Redstarts with a few Cape May Warblers and one Black and White! As the day went on we had more warbler flocks with at least a few Black-throated Blues plus a couple flocks of American Golden Plovers! Common Terns were out in good numbers as well with almost 50 offshore of the shelf 

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us out there today! And thanks so much to our guest leaders Ed Corey and Sarah Toner for helping everyone get on the birds!

Species List 27 September 2025

American Golden Plover - 32

Laughing Gull - 2

Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2

Sooty Tern - 4

Bridled Tern - 7

Black Tern - 1

Common Tern - 148

Royal Tern - 6

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 74

large storm-petrel species - 1

Black-capped Petrel - 68

Atlantic Cory's Shearwater - 12

Scopoli's Shearwater - 15

Cory's / Scopoli's - 80

Great Shearwater - 1

Sargasso Shearwater - 5

Bobolink - 1

Black and White Warbler - 1

American Redstart - 22

Cape May Warbler - 12

Blackpoll Warbler - 1

Black-throated Blue Warbler - 4

New World Warbler species - 38+

Cetacean species - a possible small whale was seen by leader Sarah Toner

Atlantic Spotted Dolphins - some participants saw a pod on the way back in the afternoon

A few images from the day!

Black-capped Petrels

Dorsal view of Scopoli's Shearwater - you can see how slender the bill is!

Sargassum with rain drops and next up the shearwater we wish was named for this brown algae and not the Sargasso Sea...!

Sargasso Shearwater

Summer Blitz from Oregon Inlet, NC USA - 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 & 30 August 2025 ~Kate Sutherland

Hurricane season which begins each year 1 June and ends 30 November, is always an adventure for us on Hatteras Island! Not just because of the wind and waves associated with passing storms (or landing storms!) but because the island is just a strip of sand with one road to Hatteras Village where we dock the Stormy Petrel II...all the way at the end. This road, NC Highway 12, can be flooded even when we don't have a storm offshore...just part of life here, but some years we choose to run trips "up the beach" in the summer from Oregon Inlet instead of Hatteras Inlet. This year we chose well since NC 12 was closed to traffic until the morning of 24 August from the passage of Hurricane Erin. By the time it reopened we were at Wanchese Marina getting ready for our participants to arrive so we could head offshore! We had to cancel a few trips (19, 20, 22, 23) due to the storm and Brian, Daniel and myself (plus Mowgli the Captain's Cat, see photo below) left Hatteras on the 19th just to be certain we could make it off island!

Thankfully the owner of our rental in Wanchese let us in a day early and didn't charge for the cat! Daniel and I (see below) had time to go to Jennette's Pier in Nags Head for a seawatch as the swell came ashore from Hurricane Erin - it was so nice to see some of our scheduled participants out there and visit with old friends! Unfortunately most seabirds had moved through the day before.

24 August 2025

eBird Trip Report: 24 August 2025

Though there was still some swell on the Oregon Inlet Bar Sunday morning (24 Aug) we made it across and headed to the east! It was so nice to finally be offshore that we almost didn't mind the rain that was with us from 09:00 until about 15:00 😉 Black-capped Petrels were no where to be found out there, but we did have great views of Band-rumped Storm-Petrel!

It was also nice to have great views of Leach's Storm-Petrel! This was the only Leach's we saw for the set, but it showed well. Otherwise we had all of the usual shearwater species (Cory's, Scopoli's, Great) minus Sargasso and solid numbers of Wilson's Storm-Petrels, here is one preening on the water!

As we moved back on the shelf for the trip back to the inlet skies cleared up and we forgot all about the rain as we encountered some Red-necked Phalaropes along with shearwaters plus a cooperative pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins!

25 August 2025

eBird Trip Report: 25 August 2025

We didn't have a trip scheduled for the 25th, but since I was in touch with so many of our participants anyhow canceling four of our trips...it wasn't too challenging to put together a group who wanted to join us if we added this date to the schedule! We had a few who even joined because the trip was open and had space so of course we hoped to find something special...but don't we always hope for that?? The first noticeable difference from yesterday was the lack of rain and lack of wind! There was still an impressive swell out there, however, and the birds were really using that to move! It was great to see Black-capped Petrels plus we finally had close views of the small Sargasso Shearwaters. And while we didn't find that Swinhoe's or Black-bellied Storm-Petrel...or the Streaked Shearwater...it was still a solid day out there! We had great views of both Bridled (pictured below) and Sooty Terns with young and heard them calling...

we also had great views of a young Long-tailed Jaeger in the afternoon, and some nice views of Red-necked Phalaropes as well! 

The unexpected birds of the day were a Brown Booby that did a fly-by and Roseate Tern who joined our slick for a few minutes offshore! During the 09:30 period we had a sighting of some cetaceans in the distance ahead, while I didn't see them, Daniel and some others on board did and thought they were likely Goosebeaked Whales (previously known as Cuvier's Beaked Whales - Ziphius cavirostris)!! 

26 August 2025

eBird Trip Report: 26 August 2025

Part of what made this set of trips a bit challenging was that the Gulf Stream was way offshore from Oregon Inlet - it had made a turn to the east south of us and the hot water wasn't close to us at all up where we were - it was closer to Hatteras! This sea surface temperature shot from the day before this trip gives you an idea where that warm water is in relation to Oregon Inlet (yellow star on SST map):

So we had quite a run each day just to get to the Gulf Stream, it wasn't always right there at the shelf break. And on some of these days, like this one, most of the life was concentrated offshore of the shelf where we had just about 5.5 hours to spend! Black-capped Petrels were present with over 100 tallied over the course of the day and a few nice sized flocks of them on the water!! (Light form individual pictured here)

With one of these flocks was a Bermuda Petrel...a bird that Daniel saw from the top deck as it flushed ahead of us and flew directly away. The word didn't get out quickly enough for people to see it, and the birds flushed well ahead of the boat. It's always frustrating to have something like that happen. I much prefer for everyone to see everything close and well, but sometimes this is just the way it goes offshore!! Great to know it was out there, he said it looked fresh and clean so possibly a juvenile that just recently fledged from one of the burrows in Castle Harbor, Bermuda!

All of the usual suspects were out there but Wilson's were most numerous (about 150) followed by Black-capped Petrels (134, likely conservative count!), and these were followed by Black Tern with almost 120 counted! The Wilson's were super cooperative for us to make up for not finding any larger stormies! 

And the color change we had in the afternoon was absolutely gorgeous! Pictured here is a Cory's type shearwater flying on the blue side of the change.

27 August 2025

eBird Trip Report: 27 August 2025

Another day with another long run down to the south southeast, but we found a temperature break on the shelf and the current edge just offshore of there today! We were again lucky to find adult and juvenile Bridled and Sooty Terns - the former mostly near perches 

and the latter foraging with parents along some of the temperature breaks or conditions out there! 

Black-capped Petrels were the most numerous bird out there today, which is always a treat, and while they were not super close and definitely not very hungry, we had some nice resting flocks and a few made some nice passes, like this light form individual. 

We were lucky to see one Band-rumped Storm-Petrel well, and had a nice following flock of Wilson's Storm-Petrels again today. Shearwaters were around, though not in any large numbers, and as we have noticed in years past Scopoli's seem to be more numerous offshore from Hatteras Inlet than they are from Oregon Inlet. We had just over 30 Cory's type shearwaters today and even fewer Sargassos and Greats, but the encounters we had were quality! 

Red-necked Phalaropes were also super cooperative today with over 45 on our offshore portion of the trip. We often see these in the summer and Red Phalaropes are more commonly seen on our winter trips. Sometimes we can find both in the early spring!!

29 August 2025

eBird Trip Report: 29 August 2025

Days of clouds offshore kept us from being able to view a good sea surface temperature map before we left the dock...so we headed back down towards where we had been going the past couple of trips. And just a note - we had a lay day built into the schedule for the 28th, so we didn't weather out, we just didn't have a trip scheduled that day!
We hit the shelf break just after 09:00 and almost immediately had a Brown Booby fly by!

As we worked offshore we saw another flock ahead and there was a different Brown Booby in that flock that also held some Black-capped Petrels! As we focused on the booby, a small gadfly petrel was spotted up ahead! This bird finally came close to the boat and the should of "Fea's Petrel" went out!!! When I looked back at my record shots I had taken of the Brown Booby, the Fea's Petrel was visible right behind it, up high, in a few of the images!

Just a few seconds later the only birds following this large, dark sulid were Black-cappeds...seeming to escort it from the area as they sometimes do!

Technically Fea's Petrel is the species Pterodroma feae that breeds on the Cape Verde Islands, but only recently has this species been split from the similar Desertas Petrel Pterodroma deserta which also was previously called the Fea's Petrel. Their at sea identification is of course challenging, though many tracking studies show that Desertas Petrels (obviously nesting on the Desertas Islands near Madeira) range here while the Cape Verde Petrels range more close to home and off the coast of Africa. This individual's blocky head and stout bill coupled with the primaries not looking super fresh point towards a Desertas Petrel, which we have not seen yet this year!! So quite an excellent find and it made up for lost time staying with us for about two hours and following for ten miles!

Our other gadfly petrels, the Black-cappeds, were super cooperative today as well with almost 100 tallied and many coming close to the boat to feed on the chum! Here is one with a snack!

30 August 2025

eBird Trip Report: 30 August 2025

Today we went a little north of where we had been heading after looking at the above temperature image and seeing some nice looking water to the east of Oregon Inlet. We had a lot of birds, including Black-capped Petrels on the shelf this morning and just over the break. As we moved a bit offshore, we didn't see much to keep us out there so we went back inshore a bit to find the water that was holding a lot of those Wilson's Storm-Petrels in the morning!

It worked for us to do this back and forth today, going offshore of the shelf, then back on the shelf, back off, and finally back on for the inshore transit. Winds were light so conditions were great for spotting other wildlife as well and we had a huge (over a hundred!) group of Spinner Sharks that we caught up to and moved over, looking down you could see them stacked up below the surface! In addition to these sharks we also saw some hammerheads, either Scalloped or Carolina, and at least seven Mola mola, or Ocean Sunfish!

All of the shearwaters other than Scopoli's and a distant Sooty were quite cooperative and it was an epic day for Wilson's with hundreds around us on the shelf sections today. We caught a nice Wahoo in the morning that was large enough for us to can (!) and then I actually hooked a White Marlin in the afternoon! Total accident, Daniel just handed my the rod and we got the fish on...he reeled it in and we released it by the boat, but not before getting at least a few photos of it clearing the water!

What a beauty! While our list was strong for this trip, it was still nice to have the non-avian fauna and some shorebirds like Pectoral Sandpiper and Greater Yellowlegs, plus an American Redstart who came on the vessel, to spruce up the day! The weather got us for the final day and we had to cancel the trip on 31 August much to our dismay...but it was nice to get home to Hatteras for me and I was able to can that Wahoo!! Here is a silly time lapse video I took of finishing the first part of that task!

There are a number of thank you's for helping us get these trips out and we want to extend a warm welcome and huge kudos to Elias Markee-Ratner's for his first trips as a junior leader! He went above and beyond to help our participants see the birds and learn about what they were seeing out there plus took some spectacular photos. He joined us for the August 24, 25, and 26th trips. Local Andrew Thornton also helped out on a couple of trips and we were super lucky to have Amanda Guercio come down from Canada to help on the 27, 28, 29, and 30th! Captain Brian Patteson as always did a great job getting us out there and finding the perfect place to spend our time offshore. Daniel Irons is a force and was always looking from the top deck to see what was out there and communicate numbers to me in the stern. It is a challenge to run trips away from our home port, but we pulled it off and hope everyone enjoyed the time we had out there 💙 Thanks everyone! ~ Kate Sutherland (all photos in the post are mine)

If you are interested in the entire Blitz Totals, please check out our trip report for the Summer Blitz here: Oregon Inlet Summer 2025

And Summer is HERE! 15 & 16 August 2025 - Kate Sutherland

After having to cancel our trips at the beginning of the month it was really nice to get out there this past weekend on the 15 and 16th! And while we didn't find anything super rare or unexpected we did have excellent views of our usual suspects like Black-capped Petrels, Sargasso Shearwater, and Band-rumped Storm-Petrel. As can be expected in the Gulf Stream, conditions were different from day to day with some unsettled sometimes rainy / squally weather on Friday then nice breezy conditions on Saturday. The Gulf Stream was a bit quirky for these trips, which actually served us well on Saturday since the wind was from the north and northeast! Without much more than a knot or so of current the seas were nice and manageable. Nothing says summer out here like shearwater flocks with Sooty Terns! And on both trips we encountered this feature. Friday a bit more running from flock to flock, then Saturday we had tubenoses in sight from the time we hit the shelf break until we got back there in the afternoon. 

As many of you know, Black-capped Petrel is our Gulf Stream specialty and while we saw them Friday and even had a nice sized flock of them on the water, they were not interested in the chum and didn't approach the boat very closely. Saturday they were a bit more cooperative, perhaps because of the wind? Or perhaps they were just a bit hungrier and thus curious? Who knows? We were just glad to have some nice views of them not only close to the boat, but flying high with their diagnostic Pterodroma flight!

Great Shearwaters were really moving on Saturday and while Friday found close to equal numbers of Cory's type and Greats, Saturday had close to a thousand Greats with just about 300 Cory's type shearwaters. It was a spectacle to watch them streaming by and really nice to compare the flight style of the shearwaters with one another and the Black-cappeds in the distance!

Cory's and Scopoli's were seen well on both trips with nice views in the shearwater flocks. Of course there are still a number of distant birds that have to be left as Cory's / Scopoli's but usually in the summer we can get some closer passes in the shearwater flocks. Pictured below is Scopoli's (top) and Cory's (bottom) from Friday and Saturday respectively.

Sargasso Shearwaters, while we see them in the Gulf Stream regularly, the summer can be a good time to encounter larger numbers and they were super cooperative for such a small shearwater on both of our trips this weekend. They were right in there feeding with the larger shearwaters in most of the flocks we found! Most shearwaters were focused on the flyingfish pushed to the surface by small tuna below! Here is a Sargasso Shearwater with quite a large one and a Sooty Tern with a smaller one. We regularly see at least four or five species of flyingfish on our trips though as many as thirteen have been recorded here over the years.

And while Sooty Terns, both adult and juvenile, were cooperative, the Bridled Terns we saw were not. Both days there were distant Bridled Terns that just didn't come close and always seemed to be traveling in the opposite direction 😑. Wilson's Storm-Petrels were seen well on both trips, though like the Black-cappeds they seemed a bit more interested in the chum on Saturday! 

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels have been a bit scarce this year but we found three on each day of this set. Friday we had one of the smaller Band-rumpeds that we see in the spring sometimes and the others looked like the more typical "Grant's" type Band-rumpeds. 

Of note as well were some Parastic Jaegers offshore on Saturday and we had a flock of Hudsonian Godwits fly by that morning as well! These large shorebirds tend to move over the ocean as they head south in the fall, it's always cool to see them out there! Last year we had some on our trips from Oregon Inlet...so we'll see if we turn any up on our trips there later this month. Overall we had a couple of solid trips even without a rarity and on Saturday a Roseate Tern in a flock with Common and Black Terns on the shelf in the afternoon was just the perfect way to cap off the set!

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us out there and a big thank you to Kevin Metcalf for joining us to help lead the trip on Saturday. Otherwise Brian Patteson, Daniel Irons and myself were aboard leading the trips as usual. All photos today are mine! Thanks for reading, everyone! ~ Kate Sutherland

eBird Trip Reports can be found here:

15 August 2025

16 August 2025

Species List for 15 / 16 August 2025

Semipalmated Plover 1 / 0

Hudsonian Godwit 0 / about 40

Red-necked Phalarope 0 / 82

Sanderling 1 / 0

White-rumped Sandpiper 1 / 0

Semipalmated Sandpiper 11 / 0

peep sp. 0 / 2

shorebird sp. 7 / 0

Parasitic Jaeger 0 / 2

Sooty Tern 75 / 54

Bridled Tern 1 / 2

Least Tern 1 / 1

Black Tern 10 / 127

Common Tern 0 / 68

Roseate Tern 0 / 1

Royal Tern 1 / 2

Wilson's Storm-Petrel 72 / 70 to 73

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 3 / 3

Black-capped Petrel 50 / 51

Atlantic Cory's Shearwater 38 / 36

Scopoli's Shearwater 67 / 52

Cory's / Scopoli's  227 / 208

Great Shearwater 330 / 924

Sooty Shearwater 1 / 0

Sargasso Shearwater 46 / 35

Barn Swallow 1 / 4

swallow sp. 0 / 3

Yellow Warbler 1 / 0

passerine sp. 0 / 2

Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin 0 / 1

Scalloped / Carolina Hammerhead 1 / 0

marlin sp. 1 / 0

Always a great view of a Black-capped Petrel!

Cory's Shearwater with a Great Shearwater flying behind it!

The Great Shearwaters were super cooperative!

As were our Sargasso Shearwaters

It was great to see the feeding flocks of Cory's types and Great Shearwaters!

And the Wilson's Storm-Petrels were so nice to see again after a two month hiatus!

Flyingfish species - not sure which one, but one of the four-winged variety!