Tuesday May 22, 2012

We were pleased to find little to no wind this morning with just a bit of swell from the tropical depression south of us.  Three new species were seen today, Manx Shearwater, South Polar Skua, and Parasitic Jaeger, plus we finally had good looks at Band-rumped Storm-Petrel!  By 0800 we had already racked up five species of shearwater plus Wilson's Storm-Petrels, Red-necked Phalaropes, Bridled Terns, and Pomarine Jaegers.  There were some nice temperature breaks out there as well and Black-capped Petrels did not disappoint us, making many close passes by the boat.  Great Shearwaters are here in much larger numbers than we saw last spring and we had many with us most of the day in the slick.  This afternoon we found a huge (for this late) flock of Red-necked Phalaropes (70+) that nervously allowed pursuit along a foam line inshore.  Overall we had a busy day out there and the list following will have to suffice since the evening is closing in and tomorrow will be another early morning...

Black-capped Petrel   29
Cory's Shearwater   54
Great Shearwater   35
Sooty Shearwater   18
Manx Shearwater   1
Audubon's Shearwater   12
Wilson's Storm-Petrel   402-412
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel   3-4  (at least 2 molting)
Red-necked Phalarope   87+
Bridled Tern   3
Arctic Tern   1
South Polar Skua   1
Pomarine Jaeger   5
Parasitic Jaeger   1

Bottlenose Dolphin   8-10
Loggerhead Turtle   2

Dark Black-capped Petrel

 White faced Black-capped Petrel

 Atlantic Cory's Shearwater

 Pomarine Jaeger stealing a "treat" from a Great Shearwater!

 Inshore Red-necked Phalaropes on foam line

 Arctic Tern

 South Polar Skua (this individual hung out in our slick making quite a few nice passes!)

 Front that came through while we were cleaning the boat this evening...

Sunday May 20, 2012

Two days of strong north winds prevented us from running the first scheduled spring trip on May 19, but we were pleased with the conditions we encountered yesterday on the 20th!  Typically this wind is excellent for jaegers, Arctic Terns, Leach's Storm-Petrels, and shearwaters...and we were not disappointed.  Sooty Shearwaters were flying by soon after leaving Hatteras Inlet, and we even had a curious Pomarine Jaeger in the first hour.  0737 found us on a nice color change with about a 7 degree temperature break, and while it did not hold the shearwaters we hoped for, we did see some Red-necked Phalaropes and an Arctic Tern.  By just 1030 we had excellent views of Black-capped Petrels, Cory's, Great (!), Sooty, and Audubon's Shearwaters, Red-necked Phalaropes, Bridled & Arctic Terns, Pomarine Jaegers, a striking young dark Long-tailed Jaeger, and a loyal following of Wilson's Storm-Petrels!  A cooperative Leach's Storm-Petrel stayed long enough in the slick for all to see well, and even gave some nice photo ops.  Overall a great and busy day offshore!  We still have space on several of our upcoming trips, check our website http://www.seabirding.com for availability.

Black-capped Petrel   23
Cory's Shearwater   24
Great Shearwater   20-22
Sooty Shearwater   38
Audubon's Shearwater   12
Wilson's Storm-Petrel   420-450
Leach's Storm-Petrel   1
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel   1  (looked like a non molting ind.)
Red-necked Phalarope   32
Bridled Tern   2
Arctic Tern   4
Pomarine Jaeger   11
Long-tailed Jaeger   1

Atlantic Spotted Dolphins   10+
Bottlenose Dolphins   2

(and loads of flying fish!)

sharp looking Black-capped Petrel & Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Adult Great Shearwater - we saw more today than any day last spring!

Sooty Shearwater

 

A couple shots of the Leach's Storm-Petrel

 Pomarine Jaeger

Spring 2011 Photo Gallery - SNGH

As May 19 and the beginning of our 2012 Spring Season nears, we thought it would be a good time to post some photos from last year's Spring Blitz.  Thank you to Steve N. G. Howell for putting together the following photos to share!  We hope to post daily reports again this spring.

Black-capped Petrel & Fea's Petrel

Fea's Petrel; we saw six last spring

Our Gulf Stream specialty, the Black-capped Petrel

ventral view

juvenile Black-capped Petrel, a rare sighting!

Cory's Shearwater;  seen on each trip, but not in the numbers often found later in the summer

Great Shearwaters started showing up in early June

Great Shearwater

Sooty Shearwaters were seen daily on the first few trips

Audubon's Shearwaters did not seem to be as numerous in recent years

A Great Shearwater with some Wilson's Storm-Petrels in the slick

Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Wilson's Storm-Petrels with a Leach's Storm-Petrel

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, not molting

juvenile Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

White-tailed Tropicbirds were seen on 5 spring trips!





A young Red-billed Tropicbird was seen on June 5



Masked Booby (June 1)

This first winter Glaucous Gull was at the dock as we departed on May 21!

Bridled Terns are often common in the summer months, but we did see a handful in the spring.

Roseate Tern that followed us on June 1

Common Tern

Arctic Tern

Black-skimmers are usually seen while motoring out to the inlet...

South Polar Skua;  we had six last spring

South Polar Skua

1st summer Pomarine Jaeger

Gervais Beaked Whale

We encountered cooperative groups of False Killer Whales on May 29 & June 6







Atlantic Spotted Dolphins were seen on 5 of the spring 2011 trips

The extremely photogenic flying fish of the Gulf Stream and its' eddies:





Portuguese Man-of-War

& some Mahi mahi for dinner...