Friday August 12, 2016 Bird of the Day... by Kate Sutherland

Since we were weathered out last Saturday, it was nice to get back offshore today - the morning dawned with more wind than was forecast making all of us very optimistic as we headed offshore!  (sunrise by Kate Sutherland)

We slowed down about 30 minutes inshore of the shelf break since there was a fair sign of birds and we didn't want to miss anything charging past the edge of the Gulf Stream.  The shearwaters and storm-petrels we saw in there were mostly distant save for a Pomarine Jaeger that flew up the slick, past the boat, and then kept on going.  Black-capped Petrels began showing just over the break (photo by Lucas Bobay),

a little shallower than we sometimes find them, but as the day progressed, we realized that most of the birds today were in that swath of water - not out in the deep (we know because we checked!).  I was very pleased to see that the Black-cappeds were hungry, even with a fairly bright moon out there, and some of them followed us for over an hour dropping down and feeding in the slick!!  We passed a couple of flocks sitting on the water and were able to recruit a few to the slick.  Bird of the Day?  Easily Black-capped Petrel for me!  Wilson's Storm-Petrels, while a bit sparse and distant to begin the day, soon were flying right up to the stern and for a few people, these little superheroes from the bottom of the world were the Bird of the Day!  Cory's & Great Shearwaters also gave us some stellar views in flight and on the water - with Black-cappeds - not a comparison that we see every day (photo by Kate Sutherland).

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels finally made an appearance and also gave us some close views along with the usual study more distant in the slick.  One of these came to feed right next to the boat (photo by Kate Sutherland),

prompting a long time participant to remark that it was the best he had ever seen a Band-rumped - easily the Bird of the Day for others aboard!  Late morning found us in the neighborhood of the canyon dwelling Gervais' Beaked Whales - and sure enough, we encountered a small pod of females and possibly young individuals!(photo by Lucas Bobay)

Sometimes a mammal is the Bird of the Day - we had some people aboard today for whom Mesoplodon europaeus was the Bird of the Day!  These denizens of the deep were very cooperative surfacing multiple times close by!  (photo by Kate Sutherland)

One thing that was noticeably absent out there today was the sargassum.  We passed some small patches of it, but nothing like what we usually find here in the summer.  So with that, we were also missing the species that are associated with this type of floating brown algae, the Audubon's Shearwaters and Bridled Terns!  We saw only three Audubon's offshore of the shelf break today - pretty disappointing for an August pelagic trip from Hatteras!  And without some perches for the Bridled Tern...well, my hopes were not very high for an encounter.  Then, on the way in we found a float with...yes!!  A Bridled Tern!  And around it, some sargassum and Audubon's Shearwaters!!  We took a few minutes to approach and photograph this individual (photo by Lucas Bobay)

that for many aboard, was the Bird of the Day!  Who knows what it will be tomorrow - a tropicbird?  Perhaps a booby?  Maybe even a mega like Black-bellied Storm-Petrel...either way, we'll be there and keep you posted!

Thanks to everyone who joined us today and a big thank you to our leaders, Jeff Lemons, Ed Corey, and Lucas Bobay who did an excellent job helping everyone get on the birds!  Thanks also to Lucas for letting me use some of his photos here.

Trip List August 12, 2016
Black-capped Petrel  42
Cory's Shearwater  40-41
Great Shearwater  5
Audubon's Shearwater  9
Manx/Audubon's sp  1
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  60
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  11
Bridled Tern  1
Pomarine Jaeger  1

Least Tern  1 (offshore)
Black Tern 2 (just inside of Hatteras Inlet)
shorebird sp.  6

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin  5-6
Gervais' Beaked Whale  4-5

A really fresh looking Black-capped Petrel (Kate Sutherland)

 Black-capped Petrel & Cory's Shearwater taking off together (Kate Sutherland)

Great Shearwater (Lucas Bobay)

 One of the Audubon's Shearwaters nearshore (Kate Sutherland)

Band-rumped Storm Petrels (left three) Wilson's Storm-Petrel & Black-capped Petrel, it was nice to see these birds together on the water and then taking off!  (Kate Sutherland)

 Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (Kate Sutherland)

A couple more images of the Bridled Tern (Kate Sutherland)

& one more Gervais' Beaked Whale photo - here you can see the "tiger" stripes that are typically seen on the female individuals.  There is also a scar behind the dorsal fin on this individual, the scar is dark vs light or white which is characteristic of this species as well.  (Kate Sutherland)

Friday August 5, 2016 by Kate Sutherland

Light southeast winds and a little bit of swell from overnight greeted us as we traversed the sandbar at Hatteras Inlet, oh, and another gorgeous sunrise (photo by Kate Sutherland)!

As has been the case on our trips so far this summer, we did not see many birds on our way to the shelf break, but once we slowed down and began chumming we had incredibly close Audubon's Shearwaters (photo by Peter Flood) - they were mostly this year's birds -

and nice views of some Cory's & Greats a little more distant.  Our first Black-capped Petrel made an appearance before we even had a good look at a Wilson's Storm-Petrel, and the day was off to an excellent start!  It was just calm enough for birds to be sitting around on the water and for us to spot them with ease...but there was also just enough breeze and cloud cover that the day was not too hot.  We encountered flocks of shearwaters and Black-cappeds on the water (photo of Black-cappeds taking off by Peter Flood),

mostly in the morning on our way to the deep.  Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were very obliging and our first individual flew in to the back of the slick right around 1000 working its way up towards the boat for a quick view.  The next couple of individuals stuck around much longer (photo by Peter Flood)

and by the end of the day we had two to four Band-rumpeds with us at all times, even as we approached the shelf break!  It seems the shearwaters are back and we had excellent numbers of Cory's Shearwaters plus at least three individuals that looked like the nominate type, also known as Scopoli's.  These birds stayed with us feeding in the slick alongside Great Shearwaters (photo by Peter Flood)

and Black-capped Petrels who all were following us with our ever present Wilson's Storm-Petrels for much of the day.  Our surprise visitor flew in just after 1230 though, a very curious South Polar Skua!  (photo Peter Flood)

This seemingly enormous bird came right in and hovered over the stern of the boat, checking us out as we all craned to see it overhead!  It made a few more passes before flying away down the slick.  The Gulf Stream was variable in appearance with some dirtier looking water inshore, then clean, cerulean water offshore - with scattered sargassum.  While we thought it might be the perfect day for a tropicbird, none appeared, and the conditions were not favorable for any tropical terns.  Overall it was a perfect summer trip with excellent views of everything we saw over the course of the day, and good numbers of all species!  Thank you to everyone who joined us out there today and also thanks to Peter Flood for helping us lead the trip and for contributing photos for the post today!!

Trip List August 5, 2016
Black-capped Petrel  39-43
Cory's Shearwater  62
Great Shearwater  11
Audubon's Shearwater  23
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  100-125
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  9-13
South Polar Skua  1

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin  20

All photos below courtesy of Peter Flood
We had one young Black-capped Petrel come in to the boat!  Here are a couple of images of this gorgeous and sharp looking bird!

Another Great Shearwater image

And it would be difficult to resist more photos of the young Audubon's Shearwaters!

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel with a morsel of food

 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins from this morning

 Atlantic Patchwing - we saw many of these over the course of the day

Saturday July 30, 2016 by Kate Sutherland

This morning dawned much calmer than yesterday and as we headed offshore there was ample cloud cover to keep us cool instead of wind (sunrise photo by Kate Sutherland)!

A pod of curious Atlantic Spotted Dolphins came in to the boat to ride the bow wave on our way offshore and we had awesome views of these small, energetic marine mammals!  When we reached the shelf break, we were greeted by shearwaters...unlike yesterday when it took some time to find them.  Right off the bat we had awesome looks at a pair of Audubon's that one of our participants spotted sitting on the water, so we slowed there and headed offshore (photo of one of these Audubon's in flight by Kate Sutherland).

We found Cory's and Audubon's Shearwaters to be quite cooperative on the water and even encountered our first Wilson's Storm-Petrels in a flock taking off in front of the boat (as opposed to in the slick!).  As we reached deeper water, Black-capped Petrels and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels put in an appearance!  A flock of fourteen Black-cappeds, two Audubon's, and three Wilson's on the water sat calmly for us to approach - a rare close encounter with sitting Black-cappeds!  (photo of a couple taking off by Brian Patteson)

Sooty and Bridled Terns were not around like they were yesterday in spite of some nice sargassum (with life!) offshore, but we did have one Sooty Tern that flew right over the boat, so at least everyone aboard had a nice quick view.  Cory's Shearwaters were more plentiful than on yesterday's trip and we had some excellent passes, but we were unable to turn up a Great Shearwater for the second day in a row.  Squalls in the distance kept us cool this afternoon and also brought us some wind;  it was nice for our participants to get to see the birds really showing off their ability to harness it!  Black-cappeds and Band-rumpeds, even the Wilson's, were transformed.  It is amazing the difference a day makes and we were quite pleased to find today to be more of a "summer" trip with the lines of sargassum and flyingfish (photo by Kate Sutherland) to keep us company out in the deep.

Everyone had a chance to see our usual suspects and see them well - another excellent adventure in the Gulf Stream!  Thank you to everyone who joined us out there today - we have space on our trips next weekend, Friday August 5 & Saturday August 6th!

Trip List July 30, 2016
Black-capped Petrel  37-38
Cory's Shearwater  16
Audubon's Shearwater  25
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  75
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  15-19
Sooty Tern  4
Bridled Tern  1
Black Tern  1

Least Sandpiper  1
shorebird sp.  1
Kingfisher  1

Black-capped Petrel by Brian Patteson

We spent some time with the Wilson's Storm-Petrels on a quick drift in the afternoon.  Here you can see the yellow webbing!  (Kate Sutherland)

 Another nice view of their long legs!  (Kate Sutherland)

Atlantic Patchwing (Kate Sutherland)

& finally a photo of our weather buoy (NDBC 41025) which we passed on our way in this afternoon (Kate Sutherland)

Friday July 29, 2016 European Storm-Petrel!! by Brian Patteson

We headed out this morning from Hatteras in a breezy southwest wind, and glad to have it because it has been pretty hot on light wind days, with water temps in the Gulf Stream now up to mid 80s.  I knew from yesterday that the current was going to be ripping on the shelf, so we headed as far south as we could so as not to let it whip us too far up to the east. The current moves in and out, so it’s not always strong in the shelf waters, but today it was. The Gulf Stream is a powerful force of nature and when the current is pushing hard in concert with a brisk southwest wind, it means we need to take some lumps in the morning and work well into it to avoid a slow, tortuous ride home later in the day.  We took our time and the ride down was not too bad. We started chumming at the shelf break and birds were slow to come in. We saw a few Black-capped Petrels starting in about 1000 feet of water.

A few Wilson’s Storm-Petrels started to trickle in and we kept heading offshore. I found a little line of Sargassum about 30 miles out in over 300 feet of water and started to follow it. Working slowly into the wind we began to attract some birds and we added Audubon’s Shearwater and both Bridled and Sooty Terns to the day’s list with crippling views of Audubon’s rooting around in the Sargassum oblivious to the boat.

Around 1030 we were still following to line and Kate spotted a European Storm-Petrel behind the boat. I slowed down and glanced back and got a look, but it disappeared before we could get a photo, as she was showing it to the group. Circling back, we soon relocated it and we saw it make a few brief appearances in the slick over the next 15 minutes.

Needless to say this was not what we were expecting to see today, but having seen several over the years, we are pretty tuned into how they fly and the fact that this one was about two months later than most did not matter. Our latest record before today was June 10 - also this year!  We worked the grassline a little longer and got a quick look at a larger storm-petrel, but not much else.  We headed offshore and soon found a Band-rumped Storm-Petrel that came close by.

About 32 to 33 miles out we found a lot more Sargassum, but not many seabirds. The inshore tack to the shelf break produced a few more terns, Black-caps and a Cory’s Shearwater. The latter has been remarkably scarce here lately. Cory’s is often the most numerous seabird here in July and August and we saw a grand total of four today, which is an all time low for us in summer. Black-capped Petrels, however, put on a great show feeding on our chum all the way in to the shelf break.

Inshore, the wind was a bit less and we had a pretty nice ride back to Hatteras Inlet. I would like to thank Kate Sutherland for leading the trip and all of our participants who were brave enough to leave their climate controlled homes and head to sea with us.  (all photos today by Kate Sutherland)

Trip List July 29, 2016

Black-capped Petrel  18-19

Cory's Shearwater  4

Audubon's Shearwater  7

Wilson's Storm-Petrel  50

European Storm-Petrel  1

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  2

Oceanodroma sp.  2

Sooty Tern  3

Bridled Tern  6

Onychoprion sp.  2
Barn Swallow  1

**A couple more photos of the Euro**  

Unfortunately, they are not perfect as we did not really have much time to capture this little guy - but they are all we need to record the first European Storm-Petrel to be found here in the summer!!

This Black-capped Petrel from the end of the day had an interesting head pattern - not sure if it is just some feathers out of place or if it actually had an odd white feather...

The same Audubon's Shearwater as pictured above

Another view of the Band-rumped Storm-Petrel showing the dorsal & tail, note no feet extending beyond the tail as is seen in Wilson's Storm-Petrel

& a couple of the Bridled Terns we saw today - they were all in tough light...