Seabirding: Friday May 21, 2021

Friday, May 21, 2021

Friday May 21, 2021 - Brian Patteson

It seems that we’ve had more northeasterly wind than usual this month, and today was no exception. The forecast for offshore waters was at 10 to 20 knots, but the actual conditions were a solid 20 knots of wind. It’s nothing we haven’t dealt with many times before, so we took our time and started a bit inshore of where we ran to yesterday. There was a good showing of birds on the shelf, but we didn’t find our Black-capped Petrels until we got out past 100 fathoms- over 25 miles out.

Shearwaters were more numerous than they had been yesterday, and we got good looks at five species! We also had a few Pomarine Jaegers working the shearwaters over from time to time. I was a bit worried that we weren’t going to see a skua today, but the inshore tack produced a nice South Polar Skua.

We also had better looks at Leach’s Storm-Petrel than what we managed yesterday, and a couple of these were in the shelf waters! Overall it was an excellent day with birds pretty much from start to finish. It was a salty ride, but the beauty of Hatteras is that we can make it out and see these birds in less than ideal conditions (for humans- perfect for seabirds) because the deep water and the Gulf Stream is so close. Tomorrow looks like it should be a bit easier for humans, but will it be as good for birds? I would like to thank everyone for coming out today, and our deck crew Kate Sutherland and Jacob Farmer for helping me run a tight ship.