Usual Suspects 30 May 2023

 While we didn't turn up anything rare like yesterday - we did have some excellent views of the birds we encountered! Great Shearwaters are just starting to show up and we're starting to see more Scopoli's in with the Atlantic Cory's. But the stars today were a couple of Pomarine Jaegers and the Band-rumped and Leach's Stormies! You can find the trip report with totals linked below - as before remember to click the photos tab at the top to see some images I took today!

https://ebird.org/tripreport/135179

We thank Steve Howell for helping us lead the trip today and for contributing images and captions here below...

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel - Worn first-cycle bird starting molt of head and back; note faded upperwing coverts, worn tail creating a slight fork. At this season, plumage wear and molt stage indicate a summer-breeding population, most likely Madeiran Storm-Petrel.

Same individual - K. Sutherland

Leach’s Storm-Petrel trying to walk on water (note much shorter legs than Wilson’s, which is in a separate family, Southern Storm-Petrels, characterized by long legs, among other things). Worn first-cycle bird; note faded upperwing coverts and flight feathers, with tail tips worn off to create squared tail tip. 

Wilson’s goes for a walk in the Gulf Stream; a fresh juvenile that fledged only 2 months ago in the Antarctic!

White-faced Black-cap with our two Pomarine Jaegers! (K. Sutherland)

And a record shot of the Scopoli's Shearwater we had today! (K. Sutherland)

Gadflies & Tropicbirds! 29 May 2023

 It was so nice to finally get back offshore after five days on land due to weather! Here is our trip report from today's trip - enjoy!

https://ebird.org/tripreport/134908 

The Trindade Petrel came right to the boat just as we slowed down over the shelf, I was getting a chum block ready to go over, but Peter Flood captured this gorgeous image!

Then, just over an hour later I heard a tropicbird overhead and looked up to see two dropping in! We had a spectacular show by these two individuals, calling and flying in synchrony for us for a few minutes. They swooped within just ten feet of our participants on the top deck - what a treat! (Kate Sutherland)

Just before noon Steve Howell spotted a Fea's Petrel on the starboard side and while it didn't give us a close pass, it did fly by close enough for everyone to have an excellent look! Photo by Peter Flood

On the shelf in the afternoon we had a nice flock of Cory's with a Great and Sooty Shearwater feeding over some fish - here I captured some with a Mahi mahi. It was a treat to see these birds feeding along a nice color change.

We also had some flyingfishes today, but not as many as I would have expected with the hot Gulf Stream water we were in today. Thanks everyone for joining us and thank you to Steve Howell and Peter Flood for helping Brian and me lead the trip!

Seabirding the High Seas - 23 May 2023

 Our eBird Trip report can be found here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/133350

You should be able to click on the "photos" tab at the top to see the collected images from the day. It was an epic day out there with strong Gulf Stream current and strong winds!! Truly a Seabirding Adventure! Here are a few images I captured today, thanks to everyone who joined us out there - you all earned your merit as seaworthy seabirders (yes, even if you were sick!!). ~Kate Sutherland

Long-tailed Jaeger was new for the spring! We had at least three adult individuals

               

Audubon's were actually super cooperative given the breezy conditions

We had some non molting Band-rumped Storm-Petrels

And a couple of molting individuals

We had some nice light Black-caps

And some darker individuals...

They were not happy about the jaegers...

Sooty Shearwater and the texture of the sea

Wilson's Storm-Petrel

Leach's also showing off some sea texture....

Leach's Storm-Petrel showing all of the identification characteristics

And just one more wave shot because I love pictures of waves and water, as you know if you follow this blog regularly!

Trindade Petrel & Masked Booby! 22 May 2023

 Our eBird trip report can be found here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/132854

Just note that it does not include the Scopoli's Shearwater we saw today or the Cory's / Scopoli's that were noted - there were 9 or 10 of those and a total of about 56 Atlantic Cory's. Big seas and some good wind brought us an awesome day full of seabirds! Here are a few images that I captured today - Kate Sutherland

First, our Trindade Petrel! A couple of images from the first pass

We had some Black-caps in nice light as well...

And some chasing jaegers - top Pomarine bottom Parasitic

The Masked Booby was super cooperative, but we could tell it just wanted to be left alone so we didn't get too close!

The Beginning 21 May 2023

This spring we're going to just post a link to the trip report from eBird so everyone can see our totals and images then we will post a report after the Blitz is over. It is just taking a bit too much time to do everything in the evenings so this is my solution! Enjoy a few of my pictures below the link! -Kate Sutherland

https://ebird.org/tripreport/132445

Black-capped Petrels were sitting around in the morning then really flying once the wind picked up! I had never seen anything like this bottom image out there before - pretty dynamic! 

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel with some ocean texture... And showing the narrow rump band plus the square tail and long wings! We only saw three of these today.