Shearwaters Show Up! 4 June 2026 by Kate Sutherland

It's been a few days since we've made it offshore...the wind has shifted and we had to take a few of days off as a low pressure system moved offshore. Winds and seas were quite high on May 31, June 2, and June 3 and we headed offshore today with winds blowing from the north, but a sea that was overall a bit more organized! It was exciting to see that the Great Shearwaters are here and we had more than we've seen all season in the slick right after slowing down.

They are always so nice to watch quarreling and feeding on the chum! We tried a bit of a drift first thing in the morning and had some luck seeing Leach's and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels, though they didn't stick as well as the Wilson's and the shearwaters (we had a number of Greats and one Sooty putting on a show as they fed on some home made chum).

The Gulf Stream current wasn't super strong, thankfully, since what we had was just enough for us to maneuver in for the best views without too much spray. As we continued making our way offshore we had great views of Scopoli's and Cory's Shearwaters in the slick with the Greats. Right around noontime leader Daniel Irons spotted a feeding flock and we worked our way over to it...as we did so he said he could see what looked to be a dark Trindade Petrel in the group, feeding and chasing shearwaters!

We pulled up to the flock and sure enough there was one working the group and feeding!! It only made one close pass by us on the boat when we first arrived, coming in from the glare as they do, but we were able to observe it with this shearwater flock for almost thirty minutes!!! Wow! We have never had the opportunity to see this type of display - the shearwaters were feeding over what looked like some small tuna species and flyingfishes were airing it out everywhere. It was a beautiful place to be for a bit and everyone enjoyed having time to observe not only the Trindade Petrel, but a Manx Shearwater who was in with the flock, some Sargasso Shearwaters and compare a Sooty Shearwater to the more compact and dynamic Trindade Petrel! There was a ship passing by the flock and flying ahead of the bow? A Brown Booby!!

What a day, we thought as we begin the inshore tack!! The habitat is finally here after a few years of fairly subdued spring trips...it feels like things are back to normal for a bit.

Right after leaving the flock we began our inshore tack with the sun behind us over the slick. As we donned our sunglasses and began our watch a small gadfly petrel zipped in from the left side of the slick, checked us out for a second, then banked away - it was a Bermuda Petrel!! And we thought the day was over!!

The winds were right for it to smell the chum so we put out a little extra in hopes it would make another pass - and it did!!! Unfortunately it was right when to Air Force jets buzzed us and no one could hear us shouting or the loud speakers...but I think everyone saw it! 

Our list can be found here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/534692

Thanks to everyone who joined us offshore! Next single day trip of the season is Saturday 6 June then we have a two out of three day set.

Leaders today were: Brian Patteson, Kate Sutherland, Daniel Irons, Sage Church, and Scott Peterson

Black-capped Petrels - today I didn't see any dark form birds, just light ones...though we saw only about ten individuals all day

Cory's Shearwater

Scopoli's Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

Leach's

And finally some Wilson's feeding on Daniel's chum creation :)

Spring Blitz Day 11 - 30 May 2026 by Kate Sutherland

And the Hatteras Gulf Stream delivered again!! We had an amazing day out there and we didn't really expect it with the wind blowing from the west southwest, but we were out there and it happened! In one hour this morning we had five other gadfly petrels of two species in addition to our usual Black-capped Petrels! I said it was mind blowing ;) You can read about it in our eBird trip report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/532289 but I can also give you a quick rundown in this post!

In less than an hour we had three Desertas Petrels and two Trindade Petrels come to visit the Stormy Petrel II with our Black-cappeds! Then we had another Desertas Petrel join us just before noon. As we headed back inshore with weather coming we had our first Roseate Tern offshore of the spring and also our first Brown Booby as well! The latter spent at least thirty minutes chasing and eating flyingfishes near the boat! Our trip on the 31st was cancelled due to weather...but that's okay because this was the trip to end the Blitz on!!

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us for this epic eleven day run! And thank you so much to our leaders...today we had Brian Patteson, Daniel Irons, Todd McGrath, Chris Sloan and John Tsortos. Now fingers crossed for the rest of our Spring Seabirding Trips! - Kate

A few Desertas Petrel captures from today

The Trindade Petrels

What looked to be a juvie light form Black-capped Petrel feeding in the slick

The Brown Booby on the shelf

And a Wilson's Storm-Petrel with a wave

Spring Blitz Day 10 - 29 May 2026 by Kate Sutherland

How lucky we have been so far this Blitz Season!! Not only have we been able to run all of our trips without weather issues, but we've had something notable each day...until today, at least for eBird standards. But we would argue that the first summer Portlandica Arctic Tern and the South Polar Skua we found out in the deep were both notable! Definitely not species we see daily and not ones that we always see well. Both were super cooperative especially the Arctic Tern who stayed with us in the slick for almost four hours!! May 29th is a special day for me since it was my Dad's birthday and is also my niece's birthday - we almost always see something cool. So for me today it was the Arctic Tern that I got to feed for hours - and we also watched it picking food from the plentiful Sargassum around us all afternoon. It was certainly the most photographed individual for me from the Blitz this year and was just a really cool bird to study for so long. A few images are included here with some others from our day out there. North northeast winds are always interesting and make for pretty exciting conditions in the Gulf Stream - that was certainly true today :)

Our eBird trip report can be found here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/531306 and a big thank you to everyone who joined us out there today for our adventure! Leaders today were Brian Patteson, Daniel Irons, Jesse Anderson and John Tsortos. - Kate

Yes...the Arctic Tern! (Hazel's Birthday Bird this year ;) )

The South Polar Skua

Some Black-capped Petrels sitting on the water that we were able to approach

A Scopoli's Shearwater that came in to visit the slick

Leach's Storm-Petrel

Spring Blitz Day 9 - 28 May 2026 by Kate Sutherland

Another day another rarity! I keep thinking every morning that we might not see anything other than our usual suspects - who are all definitely worth seeing! - but you know what I mean! Today in addition to the Desertas Petrel we had super cooperative Black-cappeds and Band-rumpeds. Two species that are super reliable on a southwester! We also got to watch (and feel!) a front come through while we were on the shelf this afternoon. It was overall a really great day out there - but again I'm a bit tired so will just include this link here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/530805 post some pictures for you to enjoy and go to bed!

Thanks to everyone who joined us out there and thank you so much to our leaders - Brian Patteson, Daniel Irons, Jesse Anderson, and John Tsortos! - Kate

First up - yes!! It's the Desertas Petrel!

Then some dark form Black-capped Petrels

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels

Portuguese Man of War

The Mahi mahi (Atlantic Dolphinfish) we caught around the Sargassum

And the frontal boundary that moved over us around 14:15

And the Stormy Petrel II this morning on the way to Hatteras Inlet :)