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 :)

Spring Blitz Day 8 - 27 May 2026 by Kate Sutherland

Plugging right along this spring!! We have been super lucky with the weather that even on the breezy days we've been able to get across the Hatteras Inlet bar and out to the ocean to see what we can find. Today was no different and even though we had some wind we were able to make really good time getting to the shelf break (the best we've been able to do for a few days!). Seas were big and beautiful out there in the deep and it was awesome to see these birds in their element - they were really flying today. Highlight of course was the Desertas Petrel that came briefly by in the distance, but I didn't get any photos of it since we were all trying to just help people see the bird. It was nice to finally have a couple of Great Shearwaters with us for a bit feeding on the pieces of fish that come from our frozen chum blocks.

If you're interested check out our eBird trip report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/530344 

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us out there and thank you to our leaders - Brian Patteson, Daniel Irons, Jesse Anderson, and Jonathan Irons - everyone worked hard to find what we could! - Kate

As usual, our Black-capped Petrels were showing off a bit!

As were the Wilson's Storm-Petrels!

I don't know that I've ever caught one with its wing shearing the water before...

Spring Blitz Day 7 - 26 May 2026 by Kate Sutherland

Day seven of our Spring Blitz here in Hatteras was another windy day with winds from the south southwest shifting a bit to the southwest over the course of the day. We made it to the shelf break in good time even though running conditions were a bit challenging and it took us awhile to get some birds following in the slick with a Band-rumped Storm-Petrel making some close passes right off the bat! It was only 09:15 when a White-tailed Tropicbird appeared over the bow spotted by leader Ed Corey...at first it seemed like it wasn't going to come in for a close pass, but then it turned and headed right towards us! And yes, it gave us excellent views before disappearing as quickly as it appeared!

Just after this we had great looks at an Arctic Tern and later we also had a more distant Bridled Tern pay us a visit. Overall we had good numbers of Black-capped Petrels and shearwaters continue to increase with more Cory's / Scopoli's out there today and a few more Great Shearwaters starting to show up. Our eBird trip report can be found here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/529894 

Thanks to everyone who joined us out there and thank you to our leaders: Brian Patteson, Daniel Irons, Ed Corey and Sage Church who all worked really hard to make it an awesome day! Here are a few more images from the day and we'll see what we can turn up out there tomorrow...! -Kate

A couple more of the tropicbird

Some Black-capped Petrels

And our loyal Wilson's Stormies

Spring Blitz Day 6 - 25 May 2026 by Kate Sutherland

And again!! What an amazing day out there - and as usual when we see good birds it was a bit choppy.We were on the fence for a few minutes this morning but then we decided to at least go look at the inlet...and we did, and it looked like we would be fine to head offshore - so we did! A bit of a wet ride out but the Stormy Petrel II is wet, so not really all that unusual! We had our first Manx of the Blitz on the shelf and also found a South Polar Skua that was cooperative and came in well to sit on the sea near the boat.

But - as you can imagine the bird of the day wasn't South Polar Skua - it was the European Storm-Petrel!!

Maybe a skua will get a chance to shine soon! Anyhow, we're six days in and I'm getting a bit tired, so  forgive the short post. Check out our trip report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/529335 and you should be able to check out the lists and description of the bird!

Leaders today were: Brian Patteson, Kate Sutherland, Daniel Irons, Sage Church, Ed Corey

Thanks so much to everyone who is joining us for this set - we appreciate you!

South Polar Skua by Ed Corey

A few more of the Euro

And the Pilot Whales (Prob. short-finned) that came to visit us out there - they were surfing in the waves! Photo by Ed Corey