July 26 & 27, 2019 - Summer Northeasterlies - by Kate Sutherland

Brian has said many times, northeasterly winds during July and August can bring incredible diversity here offshore of Hatteras.  The weather leading up to this pair of trips at the end of July had us progressively more excited as Friday approached.  The wind shifted to the north Wednesday, and it blew all day Thursday - really blew - so hard that we were a little worried there might be too much wind to make Friday happen.  But checking the Diamond Shoals Buoy at 0400 that morning, we were relieved to see that the peak wind speeds had fallen enough for us to say "oh yeah, we can make it!"  Game on!  And what a couple of days they were!  Epic.  Fifteen pelagic species over two days.  End of July.

Friday was a stormy-petrel kind of a day.  Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were super cooperative in the chum and we had a steady stream all day, both the Grant's type and some of the "little band-rumps."  Just after 0900 leader Ned Brinkley spotted a White-faced Storm-Petrel in the slick! (photo Kate Sutherland)

Usually these birds are fleeting visitors for us down here, but this bird was hungry so we stopped and put out more food, which enticed it to stay around for over 20 minutes!  Later in the morning, when we were out in deeper, warmer water, we were just picking up from a drift with the chum when Brian spotted a Fea's Petrel coming in hot on the starboard side!  It flew down the side of the boat, bow to stern, closest bird, then shot away behind us...giving a few parting arcs before moving out of view!  Some days this is how it happens, other days these birds will come back to some fresh chum and spend more time...but for those participants who were in the right place at the right time, the view was stellar!  Shearwaters were not out in huge numbers, but we saw the expected species - Cory's, Scopoli's, Great, and Audubon's - and our Black-capped Petrels put on quite a show all day!  (photo by Brian Patteson) 

Saturday the wind was not blowing quite as hard, so the run offshore was a bit smoother than Friday's.  Near the shelf break we found water that was blended and greenish, there were few birds to be seen.  Finally we reached an area with some activity and our slick began to attract a few birds, soon they were popping up all around us in the breeze!  Sooty Terns were around and we had a number come in to visit the boat, making incredibly close passes! (photo Kate Sutherland)

Shearwaters came in nicely to the slick and we had Cory's, Scopoli's, Great, and Audubon's all feeding behind us with the Wilson's!  At times, even the Black-cappeds were feeding with them!  (photo Kate Sutherland)

Thanks to the calmer conditions we were able to make it out farther than Friday, and we found a nice current edge lined with Sargassum out in the deeper water.  Out past this, Brian spotted a dark tern up ahead, there were some Sooty Terns around, but this one looked more noddy-like.  We did our best to get everyone on it and snapped a few photos, it was indeed a noddy!  It seemed to be heading back toward the edge we had previously crossed, so we headed back that way.  Just after noontime the bird of the day flew in, the shout came from the wheelhouse "Get on this petrel!!  Right here!  10 o'clock!  Right behind the Cory's...it's a BERMUDA PETREL!!"  Organized chaos followed as the bird came in to check out our slick, flying by close, then away, then back for a couple more passes.  WOW! (photos by Brian Patteson)

Incredible views, best since our May 25, 2015 bird!  The fresh plumage at this time of year indicates an individual that just fledged a month or two ago.  Not even a few minutes later, Brian again shouted, this time it was "White-faced Storm-Petrel!!"  Sure enough, another one of these incredibly dynamic stormies came hopping across the slick.  We had quality time with this one as well, then it revisited the boat over an hour later! (photo by Kate Sutherland)

Leach's Storm-Petrels were seen on each trip, though the birds on Saturday were a bit more cooperative.  A young Long-tailed Jaeger came in on Saturday as well to harass our storm-petrels in the slick.  It was in turn harassed by a Black-capped Petrel!  A Red-necked Phalarope made a quick fly-by on Saturday as well.  It was an incredible set of trips - truly epic.

Thank you to Ned Brinkley for helping Brian & I lead these trips, and thanks to everyone who joined us for this set!  Those who came for both trips really had an amazing experience and were rewarded for sticking with it for two bumpy days out there!  The days that are tough for humans are almost always excellent for seabirds, we proved that again!  Our next trips are August 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, 25 - join us!

Species List for July 26 / 27
Fea's Petrel  1 / 0
Bermuda Petrel  0 / 1
Black-capped Petrel  44 / 94
Cory's (type) Shearwater  20 / 30
Scopoli's Shearwater  2 / 2
Great Shearwater  9-11 / 20 -22
Audubon's Shearwater  2 / 8
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  90-105 / 100-110
White-faced Storm-Petrel  1 / 1
Leach's Storm-Petrel  1 / 4
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel  28-32 / 9-10
Red-necked Phalarope  0 / 1
Brown Noddy  0 / 1
Sooty Tern  0 / 17
Long-tailed Jaeger  0 / 1

A few more Cahow photos, what a bird!  (Kate Sutherland)

Black-capped Petrels really put on a show for us in the slick both days! (Brian Patteson)

They were feeding on the chum with the Great Shearwaters, allowing a nice study of these two species together!  (Kate Sutherland)

Any day you get to see a Black-capped Petrel is a good day!  The tags deployed at the beginning of the spring are still tracking birds - check the map out here: https://www.atlanticseabirds.org/bcpe-2019  (Kate Sutherland)

On Friday the shearwaters kept their distance, but Saturday we were able to get some better views of the Scopoli's (Kate Sutherland)

and we had Great Shearwaters right next to the boat plucking pieces of fish from our chum cage! (Brian Patteson)

They were scurrying along the surface to snatch pieces and looked like they were just walking around out there! (Kate Sutherland)

Audubon's were scarce on Friday, but we didn't find any Sargassum to speak of, so having them follow us on Saturday was quite a treat!  Most that we saw were young birds like this one.  (Kate Sutherland)

Wilson's Storm-Petrels came super close to the boat both days!  (Kate Sutherland)

& the White-faced Stormies!!  Top two images are Friday's bird (one with a Band-rumped), the following are from Saturday (one with a Wilson's)! (Kate Sutherland)

As I mentioned in the trip report, the Band-rumped Storm-Petrels on Friday were just incredible!  Though we had really nice passes on both trips!  (Brian Patteson - top, Kate Sutherland - bottom)

It was really cool to see the Band-rumpeds flying with the White-faced Storm-Petrel on Friday!  (Kate Sutherland)

Record shot of the Brown Noddy (Kate Sutherland)

Sooty Terns passing by the boat, all of the individuals we saw were adults.  (Kate Sutherland)

And a photo of the Long-tailed Jaeger (immature).  (Kate Sutherland)