Thursday June 7, 2018- by Steve NG Howell

Overnight the wind switched to northeast, and a mostly cloudy sky with spitting rain greeted today’s crew and passengers of the Stormy Petrel 2 at the dock. The wind freshened through the day and the white-capped seas were very different from the calm of yesterday—as were the birds. A small flock of migrating Short-billed Dowitchers flew over on our commute offshore, and a group of Bottlenose Dolphins came to check us out as we started to slow down for birding.

Then the birds started, slowly at first but steady throughout the day. Black-capped Petrels sailed well in the wind, and we enjoyed good views of both black-faced and white-faced types, likely cryptic species.

      As in recent days, Audubon’s Shearwaters were fairly numerous in the golden Sargassum weedlines, while the north wind proved good for bringing the large shearwaters into the chum—by early afternoon we had a swirling mass of Great, Cory’s, and Scopoli’s Shearwaters (see blog post from 3 days ago) behind the boat, offering excellent comparative views and photo ops. Shortly after noon a distant waterspout appeared, but the stormy clouds dispersed by early morning to leave cloudless skies.

Perhaps the most striking difference from yesterday was the near constant presence of Band-rumped Storm-Petrels among the Wilson’s Storm-Petrels in our slick, with up to 7 Band-rumps behind the boat at times, both molting and fresh-plumaged individuals—versus none at all yesterday! A couple of Leach’s Storm-Petrels also showed well, and a Bridled Tern (surprisingly scarce this spring, so far) made a pass by the boat in early afternoon, adding to the avian variety. Shortly before heading back for shore a group of Pilot Whales charged around exuberantly in the white-capped waves, and the return commute was highlighted by superb views of a couple of Devil Rays (like small Manta Rays), swimming right under the bow! All in all, another great day at sea.

(Thank you to everyone who joined us today and thank you to our leaders: Steve NG Howell, Nate Dias, and Liam Waters.  Brian Sullivan, who organized a group to join us today, kept the eBird list for this trip - a huge thank you to him for that task!  It was an amazing day out there!)

Species List for June 7, 2018
Black-capped Petrel  30
Cory's Shearwater  35 / Scopoli's Shearwater  7
Great Shearwater  21-26
Audubon's Shearwater  57
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  65-85
Leach's Storm-Petrel  2
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  9-13
Bridled Tern  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  11
Pilot Whale (prob Short-finned)  about 20
Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin  about 12
Devil Ray  2

Sargassum Midgets showed well on the commute offshore.

Molting Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, and for comparison...

Fresh Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

The Leach’s Storm-Petrel, with bold pale upperwing bands and forked tail

One of the numerous Audubon’s Shearwaters

Cory’s Shearwater with well-marked white on underwing…

Compared to Scopoli’s Shearwater with poorly marked white on underwing, but a slender bill

A beautiful Great Shearwater image by Nate Dias

One of the Pilot Whales in charging mode.

Wednesday June 6, 2018 - by Steve NG Howell

What a difference a day makes. A fairly still and cloudless dawn under a half-moon greeted us as we headed out of Hatteras Inlet, Day 15 of the spring run.

Low seas and a light breeze made for an easy commute out to the Gulf Stream, where today the water was blended and very different from recent days. The calm conditions and “new” water conspired to produce a hot day on gentle seas, under clear skies and an unrelenting sun. Birds were hard to come by with little breeze to blow the scent of our chum slick, but a steady trickle of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels joined us through the day. This fresh juvenile fledged down in Antarctica in March and flew over 5000 miles to find our chum!

            Most birds we found, however, were sitting on the water, which raises an interesting point rarely appreciated by birders on land. The westerly wind of recent days may have been from the west (not the ideal direction), but at least it was wind, which for seabirds can be considered a habitat. Thus, in addition to tracking moving water masses and their associated food, many species of petrels and albatrosses also track moving wind systems, very different from the rather stationary habitats we are familiar with on land, such as fields and forests. The commonest bird species seen today was Audubon’s Shearwater, with small groups scattered on the water, often associated with the numerous Sargassum patches and at times sitting with the appreciably larger Great Shearwater, as here.

            The Sargassum patches held a good diversity of flyingfish, including many juveniles aka Sargassum Midgets.

One of the day’s highlights came shortly after noon when a Leatherback Turtle was spotted. The animal stayed up long enough to appreciate the pink crown patch, which has been determined to represent a “third eye”—a light sensitive window to the brain that may help the animals with “time management,” as in determining day length and when to migrate! Who knew.

            Despite relatively slow birding, by the end of the day we had seen both white-faced and black-faced Black-capped Petrels, both Cory’s and Scopoli’s Shearwaters (see post from two days ago), and many Audubon’s Shearwaters, although today Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were notably absent. But as somebody once said, “today is typical of today.” And tomorrow? Who knows, but we’ll be out there to see...

(Thanks as usual to our participants!  Also thank you to our leaders Steve NG Howell, Nate Dias, Sage Church, and Liam Waters)

Species List for June 6, 2018

Black-capped Petrel  19

Cory's Shearwater  16-17 / Scopoli's Shearwater  1-2

Great Shearwater  13

Audubon's Shearwater  82

Wilson's Storm-Petrel  40-45

Leatherback Turtle  1

Bottlenose Dolphin (likely coastal stock)  2

A couple of the Black-capped Petrels that passed close by, both black-faced types.

One more Black-capped Petrel image by Nate Dias

Scopoli's Shearwater by Nate Dias

A couple of today’s Great Shearwaters...

And some Audubon’s Shearwaters

A selection of flyingfish from the day...

Atlantic Patchwing

Sargassum Midget

Purple Bandwing

Another Sargassum Midget

Tuesday June 5, 2018 - by Steve NG Howell

Every day is the same, in that it is different from every other day, and the ocean is an ideal place to appreciate this paradoxical fact. Today the wind had switched back to a moderate southwest, making for a bumpy commute out into the deep blue wilderness. Variable clouds and mostly sunny conditions predominated, but the breeze kept it fresh, and our moving slowly along and chumming made for another great day in the Gulf Stream. With patience we enjoyed good views of all species, although at first the birds were high and fairly distant, towering over the white-capped seas, here Black-capped Petrel and Scopoli’s Shearwater.

            Some Band-rumped Storm-Petrels appeared rather early on, including a fresh-plumaged Madeiran type along with the more numerous molting Grant’s types, and these were seen well among the swelling patronage of Wilson’s Storm-Petrels that attended our chum buffet throughout the day. Black-capped Petrels (both white-faced and black-faced types) made numerous close passes in good light, but they rode the wind swiftly and could be challenging to photograph.

Small numbers of Great, Cory’s, Scopoli’s (see yesterday’s blog), and Audubon’s Shearwaters also showed throughout the morning, and by midday we had experienced good views of all the regular Gulf Stream bird species. A single, fresh-plumaged juvenile Sooty Shearwater also made a close pass in the afternoon. Adding to avian delights, various flyingfish entertained throughout our time in the deep blue water, but then dropped off as we crossed back into the green inshore waters.

            Speaking of which, the southwest breeze helped create a stunningly strong break between the offshore blue ‘desert’ waters and the cooler, greener, inshore waters—and unusually far offshore for this time of year, about 26 miles from Hatteras Inlet. The divide was accentuated by a ‘yellow brick road’ of golden Sargassum (or gulfweed), and this oceanic phenomenon was a highlight of the afternoon.

The green water was also less choppy than the blue, given the prevailing currents and winds, making for a fairly rapid transit back to the dock in good time to rest, recuperate, eat, and get ready to do it again tomorrow. Today was consecutive Day 14 of birding trips for Brian and Kate; only 4 more to go to complete the spring blitz.

(Thanks to everyone who joined us offshore & to Steve Howell & Nate Dias for helping us lead the trip today!  Steve gets a big thank you for taking care of the blog for me again today so I could get some sleep as well! -Kate)

Species List for June 5, 2018

Black-capped Petrel  22

Cory's Shearwater  30 / Scopoli's Shearwater  3

Great Shearwater  14

Sooty Shearwater  1

Audubon's Shearwater  28

Wilson's Storm-Petrel  62-82

Leach's Storm-Petrel  2-3

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  7-10

Arctic Tern / Common Tern  1

The main customer at Kate’s chum buffet, Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, a migrant all the way from Antarctica!

A Madeiran-type Band-rumped Storm-Petrel—note the different structure from Wilson’s, such as short legs.

Another close Black-capped Petrel

Another Scopoli’s (aka Mediterranean Cory’s) Shearwater.

One of the fresh juvenile Great Shearwaters.

A Gulf Patchwing powering away with its tail, a strong rudder.

Monday June 4, 2018 - by Steve NG Howell

Following a couple of days when large shearwaters were scarce we made up for it today in spades and then some, plus a few rare birds thrown into the mix, and a change in weather.

            The fresh breeze had shifted overnight to northwest, making for a comfortable commute out to the Gulf Stream, albeit under mostly overcast skies. The day’s first rare bird was a nighthawk not far offshore, seen too briefly for species to be established. Once out in the blue water we slowed down and started to pick up a few birds, but not till the windier areas and choppier water did things really pick up, with storm-petrels, shearwaters, and Black-capped Petrels coming into the chum slick. It was a bit rough, but our slow steady heading made things as good as they could be, and Black-capped Petrels showed well and steadily all morning. Fred was noticeably absent (see yesterday’s blog post), but we saw our first fresh juvenile of the season, a white-faced type (= cryptic species).

Audubon’s Shearwaters were down in numbers, or perhaps just harder to spot in the bigger swells, and among the Wilson’s Storm-Petrels we found a few Band-rumped Storm-Petrels (both molting and fresh individuals) and later in the day at least one Leach’s Storm-Petrel, seen by all (here with a Great Shearwater).

The highlights were still to come: as the morning went on, Great Shearwaters started to visit the chum, along with some Cory’s and Scopoli’s Shearwaters, and numbers built to 20 or so birds wheeling and milling and feeding amid the waves and the scads of storm-petrels. Even Captain Brian came outside to enjoy the show and snap a few images, which tells you how good it was. Indeed, the opportunity to study all three species feeding and flying together over a couple of hours at point-blank range was a rare treat. OK, so the North American authorities don’t (yet) treat Scopoli’s as a full species, but the rest of the world does and, as Allan R. Phillips once said, the birds decide the reproductive isolation, not the people. A dark first-summer Long-tailed Jaeger joined the action for a while, giving great views and heralding the appearance of the sun.

While we were absorbed in the wheeling and bickering shearwater spectacle the next rare bird flew by—a Royal Tern, common onshore perhaps, but rare far offshore. And then a gull appeared—which almost always means a Laughing Gull out here, but not this time. It took a minute or so to get some clear views, but the bird proved to be a second-summer Lesser Black-backed Gull! Expected here in winter (inshore at least), but the first found offshore on our spring trips, thus making it as “common” in spring offshore from Hatteras as Tahiti Petrel. Remember, everything is rare somewhere and at some time!

Around midday the clouds cleared off and things became sunny, which was appreciated after a decidedly cool morning. It was a change to see people seeking the sun instead of hiding in the shade for the past few days! And as we headed back inshore the wind dropped out and the seas flattened to make for a very pleasant end to a really great day. Flyingfish included some Necromancers and the first Rosy-veined Clearwings of the season, along with the more usual suspects.

(Thank you to our participants for joining us today, and thank you to Steve for the photos and blog!  Brian Patteson also contributed a few photos today as well!)

Species List June 4, 2018
Black-capped Petrel  42
Cory's Shearwater  35 / Scopoli's Shearwater  5
Great Shearwater  20-25
Audubon's Shearwater  37
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  170-210
Leach's Storm-Petrel  1
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  6
Lesser Black-backed Gull  1
Royal Tern  1
Long-tailed Jaeger  1
nighthawk sp.  1

Black-capped Petrel (Brian Patteson)

Black-capped Petrel (white-faced)

One of 3-4 Scopoli’s [Cory’s] Shearwaters behind the boat for hours (Brian Patteson).

Fresh juvenile Great Shearwater

The staple chum goers, Great Shearwaters and Wilson’s Storm-Petrels

The occasional Audubon’s Shearwaters showed well.

A molting Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (“Grant’s Storm-Petrel”); the appearance of a tail fork varies greatly with angle of view.

An unusual trio – Black-capped Petrel, Great Shearwater, and Lesser Black-backed Gull - quite possibly the only photograph of these species together!

The first-summer dark Long-tailed Jaeger (Brian Patteson)

Steve captured this nice image of Brian out of his habitat today!  It was chilly and the birds were amazing...we had a few drifts that made for some nice photography.