Monday 3 June 2024 - Spring Blitz Day 13

The final day was a bit breezy from the west and southwest...not windy, but more breeze than we had yesterday. As we circled to check out a Band-rumped Storm-Petrel feeding in the slick a Manx Shearwater zipped in to check out the slick too!! It flew by quite close and everyone had great views and we were able to compare it with the smaller more commonly seen Audubon's Shearwaters. Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers also paid us nice visits. Our Black-capped Petrels were around, though we didn't see as many as we have been seeing this spring, and we had great views of Band-rumped and Leach's Storm-Petrels in the slick with the smaller Wilson's. Check out our trip list and report here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/248531

And here are a few images from our trip today by me, Kate Sutherland.

Gorgeous Manx Shearwater

Parasitic Jaeger, one of two individuals we saw over the course of the day

Scopoli's Shearwater - we had at least seven today

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels - one molting, Grant's type, and one that is not molting and definitely not a juvenile...so one of those we call "little Band-rumpeds"

Great Shearwater taking the bait! We have been pulling these rigged squid (no hooks of course, and we feed them squid and fish, so not too much teasing...) this spring just waiting for the Greats to arrive - they are tenacious shearwaters! You can only imagine what goes on with all of the fishing boats and baited hooks around this time of year...

One of the Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins we had out there as well

Sunday 2 June 2024 - Spring Blitz Day 12

Well, it was a great day out there with a quick glimpse of a Bermuda Petrel out there this afternoon after a smashing success with storm-petrels and shearwaters plus our always gorgeous Black-capped Petrels in the slick and pretty much all around! Check our our public report and species list here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/248020

Day 12 in a row is catching up to me so here are a few images from the day, minus the Cahow (Bermuda Petrel) since I was deploying a chum block at the time it came by... -Kate Sutherland

Black-capped Petrel - light form

Black-cappeds on the water

Scopoli's Shearwater, we haven't seen many of these this year, but today had nice views

Atlantic Cory's Shearwater

Great Shearwater in the slick

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel (Grant's type)

Leach's were out there in good numbers today

A Wilson's right after a quick dive for some chum!

Saturday 1 June 2024 - Spring Blitz Day 11

And as Brian would say these are just the conditions we have been waiting for! Today was just one of those days that was filled to the brim with incredible experiences...winds were still from the north but not as strong as the past couple of days and the habitat was there. We found flocks of feeding shearwaters offshore, we even had Atlantic Cory's chasing flyingfish on the shelf this morning! It was a nice day to be out there. Just before 0930 a light morph Trindade Petrel flew in to see us for a short moment - it seemed to be moving with one of the feeding flocks we saw out there offshore. Leach's Storm-Petrels were around in good numbers and they came close to the boat for excellent views. We were sweating it with the Band-rumpeds...but they showed up on the inshore tack and everyone got to see them well also!

A Gervais' Beaked Whale breached right next to us while we were out there and we got to observe this one and another on the surface for almost ten minutes - definitely not something that happens regularly with these deep diving cetaceans. As we moved back on to the shelf Daniel hooked a Sailfish that he brought to the boat for some incredibly close views and then a release! 

Check out the list and eBird report here:

https://ebird.org/tripreport/247498

And a few images by Kate Sutherland 🙂

The Trindade Petrel!

Gervais' Beaked Whale!!! Wow!

The Sailfish as it was released by participant Pete Janzen - thanks Pete!!