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 :)

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...