A Day in the Blue Desert - 9 June 2023

If you have been offshore with us in the past, you have heard me likely explaining the habitat in the Gulf Stream offshore from Hatteras! This water is hot and has just pockets of life with mostly a vast expanse of blue water, blue because it is lacking phytoplankton and other creatures to intercept the light as it moves down into the depths. So it is like a desert - a vast, blue desert. Today we felt that as we searched the horizon for birds as we moved out past the shelf break. Like yesterday we kept searching for some concentrations of birds in the morning and ended up in over 7,800 feet of water!! Our patience and watchful eyes paid off and we ended up with a nice collection of birds and some really incredible views of the usual visitors. 

Check out the trip report here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/137910

And remember to click on the photos tab to see images from the day!

Thanks to everyone who joined us and thank you as well to Ed Corey and Jesse Anderson, some of our faithful NC leaders, for helping Brian and me lead the trip today!

Here are a few images I captured today

Not every day you can capture a Band-rumped with a diving Great Shearwater!

A couple more images of one of the molting Band-rumpeds we had out there near the end of the day.

A Black-capped Petrel, likely a darker individual.

Some of the Atlantic Cory's we're seeing have super worn outer primaries! You can see these look very blunt due to the wear.

Our faithful Wilson's dancing for us as they fed in the slick!