Seabirding: Bring on the Spring! May 5, 6, 7 2023 by Kate Sutherland

We had an excellent beginning to the spring season on this long weekend. Westerly winds preceding this set may have contributed to one of the highlights of the trips - Black Terns were offshore in huge numbers, with over 80 tallied on Friday's trip (5 May)!! That afternoon a number were feeding on a nice condition with some other terns, including a Roseate! We had some in the morning, then a handful offshore, but most were concentrated on this edge in the afternoon. (Black Tern perched on a dead duck in Sargassum, K. Sutherland)

Red and Red-necked Phalaropes were also seen well on both Friday and Saturday, mostly concentrated on current edges and in the Sargassum (Red-necked top, Red bottom K. Sutherland)

Pomarine Jaegers were with us on all three trips and we were lucky to have a quick visit by two Parasitic Jaegers on Sunday! Black-capped Petrels were super cooperative on all three trips especially on our drift Saturday. (K. Sutherland)

Audubon's Shearwaters were tough to come by on the first couple of trips but by Sunday, with some southerly winds, we finally had better views with a few even joining us in the slick. On Saturday we had our first Band-rumped Storm-Petrel of the year, usually we don't start to see them until later in the month, but this non molting individual came in well for us in the slick! (record shot, K. Sutherland)

Sunday we had two molting individuals, presumed Grant's type Band-rumpeds. The first Cory's type Shearwater also showed up on Sunday, it was likely an Atlantic (borealis) bird but there was a bit of white in the underprimaries. Non-avian highlights were some offshore Bottlenose Dolphins on Friday and Saturday. Saturday we had brief views of a White and Blue Marlin as well! Then we saw our unique Gulf Stream cetacean the Gervais' Beaked Whales on Sunday - the group had a younger individual with it and was not as obliging as usual swimming away from us and spending more time below the surface. Overall a great start to the spring!

Thank you to Steve Backus for helping Brian and I lead the trips and thank you to everyone who joined us to make these early May explorations possible! All photos by Kate Sutherland.

Species List 5 / 6 / 7 May 2023

Red-necked Phalarope 44 / 11 / 0

Red Phalarope 2 / 1 / 0

Red/Red-necked 15 / 15 / 0

Pomarine Jaeger 3 / 3 / 1

Parasitic Jaeger 0 / 0 / 3

jaeger sp 0 / 1 / 0

Laughing Gull 0 / 1 / 0

Least Tern 3 / 0 / 0

Black Tern 80 / 3 / 0

Roseate Tern 1 / 0 / 0

Common Tern 26 / 11 / 2

Sterna sp 20 to 25 / 2 / 0

Common Loon 18 / 13 / 3

Wilson's Storm-Petrel 49 to 52 / 147 to 157 / 135 to 140

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 0 / 1 / 2

Black-capped Petrel 40 to 42 / 56 to 56 / 45 to 50

Cory's/Scopoli's Shearwater 0 / 0 / 1 to 2

Audubon's Shearwater 5 / 4 / 16

Manx / Audubon's 0 / 0 / 1

Ruddy Turnstone 6 / 0 / 0

Red Knot 10 / 0 / 0

Short-billed Dowitcher 0 / 5 / 0

Short/Long-billed Dowitcher 22 / 29 / 0

Greater Yellowlegs 0 / 2 / 0

shorebird sp 0 / 12 / 0

Barn Swallow 1 / 0 / 1

Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin 20 / 13 to 15 / 0

Gervais' Beaked Whale 0 / 0 / 5

Loggerhead Turtle 0 / 1 / 0

Blue Marlin 0 / 1 / 0

White Marlin 0 / 1 / 0

Black-capped Petrels (K. Sutherland) - we had a number of white-faced individuals

And also some nice dark ones! (K. Sutherland)

As many of you know if you have been following us or joining us offshore for awhile...Black-caps dislike skuas and jaegers and also will buzz dark birds in the slick. Here is one passing closely by one of the Poms we had following us on Sunday's trip!