Saturday January 26, 2019 - by Brian Patteson

January 26, 2019

We got out on our first regular winter trip of the season with a full boat of eager participants. We were again blessed with good weather, but the water had warmed up a few degrees as a result of southerly flow in recent days. Instead of water temperatures in the mid to high 40s, we had low to mid 50s. The water inshore looked about the same as last week, but there were not as many birds- especially Razorbills. 

I thought it might be worth checking out the edge of the Gulf Stream in hopes of finding some Red Phalaropes and maybe a kittiwake, but our foray offshore was pretty much a bust. We made it out a couple of miles past the shelf break and found water just over 70 degrees, but no birdlife except for what followed along with us.  Our trusty flock included a first winter Iceland Gull, which ended up spending most of the day in our wake (photo by Kyle Kittelberger).

We did see some marine life as we got into the warmer water: a pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins came in and rode our bow wave, and we saw several Hammerhead Sharks just inshore of the current edge. There was strong current where we turned around over 20 miles southeast of the Cape.

Having struck out on the south side of the Cape and offshore, I jogged back inshore toward Avon. Bird activity picked up again in the cooler water there. We had a quick look at a single Red Phalarope a couple of miles inshore of a ragged temperature break, and we finally started getting some better looks at Razorbills, which were both flying by and scattered around sitting on the sea (photo by Brian Patteson).

We also started to see a few Manx Shearwaters well inshore, and we ended up with seven for the day. We did not see any last weekend, so it was nice to find them on this trip. There were good numbers of gannets on the north side, and some were feeding. We still had a good following of gulls, and shortly before 1330, they attracted the attention of a Great Skua, which came charging in and made an attack only to soon lose interest and drift away. It seems like that’s how we see them on bright sunny days. I don’t think they waste much time flying around, and if they aren’t close, it’s hard to figure out how far away they have gone before they land on the water. Anyhow, it was one shot and it was gone: a lifer for some and a better view desired for others.

There was a lot of life all the way to Diamond Shoals- hundreds of gannets, large numbers of Bottlenose Dolphins, and good numbers of Bonaparte’s Gulls and Razorbills feeding. It thinned out when we crossed the shoals and did not pick up again until we got close to Hatteras Inlet. A Little Gull quickly crossed out bow on this leg of the trip, but it did not slow down enough for most people to see it. This is a species that we actually see with some frequency on these trips, but unless they are feeding they can be tough to get on.

I would like to thank everyone who joined us on this trip. It was a great showing and people came a long way to go with us. I would also like to thank Kate Sutherland for all her hard work on the deck as usual, and also our guest leaders, Kyle Kittelberger and Nick Newberry. I’m not sure what next weekend will bring, but possibly colder water again, so maybe more auks. There are currently good numbers of puffins in the shelf waters off the Virginia Capes and maybe a few will get down here in the days and weeks to come.

Target Species List January 26, 2019

Common Loon  4

Manx Shearwater  7

Northern Gannet  1125

Red Phalarope  1

Little Gull  1 adult

Bonaparte's Gull  300

Iceland Gull (kumlieni) 1 first winter

Forster's Tern  8

Great Skua  1

Razorbill  150

Bottlenose Dolphin (coastal)  88

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin  15

Loggerhead Turtle  1

Hammerhead sp.  10

Some additional photos from the trip!

We saw all age classes of gannets, first winter bird (Kyle Kittelberger) with a second winter individual below (Nick Newberry)

Some Bonaparte's Gulls with a Razorbill on the water (Kate Sutherland)

A couple more photos of the Iceland Gull (Kate Sutherland)

Razorbill in flight with a sport boat in the background (Kate Sutherland)

We saw at least 200 Lesser Black-backed Gulls over the course of the day!  Here are a couple images of adults (Nick Newberry top, Kyle Kittelberger below)

We also had some young Brown Pelicans that followed us offshore, but most of the adults were closer to the beach (Nick Newberry)

Friday January 18, 2019 Carolina Bird Club Winter Pelagic - by Brian Patteson

We usually do a winter boat trip for the Carolina Bird Club when they have their winter meeting in Nags Head, which has been every two or three years, but we couldn’t do it in 2017 because we were installing new engines in the boat, and in 2015, we had a trip planned but we got weathered out. As such we were very keen to run this trip, and as luck would have it the weather turned out to be beautiful (sunrise by Kate Sutherland). 

We also had an incursion of cold water south of Cape Hatteras, the likes of which is uncommon in mid January. This meant we did not have to start out north of the Cape, which is sometimes the case. A high tide in the morning also meant we were able to bypass the regular channel and slip out the east side of Hatteras Inlet, saving us about 20 minutes.

We found good numbers of Bonaparte’s Gulls and Razorbills not far outside the inlet, and between 7:30 and 8:30 AM we counted over 400 Razorbills! Razorbills have been here in force since late December, which is a bit earlier than usual. Cape Hatteras has been a wintering site for thousands of Razorbills for at least 25 years now, and this winter is no exception (photo of a young Razorbill by Kyle Kittelberger).

The water inshore was cold- in the mid to high 40s- but it was ugly looking. Nevertheless, it was teaming with life and we also found good numbers of gannets and a huge concentration of over 200 Bottlenose Dolphin feeding heavily (photo by Kate Sutherland). 

We steamed offshore looking for better water clarity, but did not find it until we got about 20 miles out. There we found a temperature break and water up to 60 degrees, but it was not a sharp change. There were quite a few Bonaparte’s Gulls there, but not the phalaropes, Dovekies, or puffins we had hoped to find. We did see a few Ocean Sunfish, including one that was cell phone close, and we also found a couple of Loggerhead Turtles. We followed the change out to the east into 50 fathoms, but there was nothing much to see there, so we headed northward. Working back into the cold water, we began to see more Razorbills again, and we stopped to look at a distant breaching Humpback Whale and a reported Razorbill on the water. The Razorbill turned out to be a Common Murre and most of the people aboard added a new species to their North Carolina life list (photo by Ed Corey). 

Continuing northward an immature Black-legged Kittiwake decided to join our flock of feeding birds and spent a long time with us, occasionally feeding on the chum. I had hoped for more kittiwakes, after a big showing on the Cape Hatteras Christmas Bird Count, but those birds must have moved on. Fortunately it only takes one, like the Great Shearwater, that joined us earlier in the morning and followed us for many miles. Unfortunately, that turned out be the only tubenose of the day. Usually we see Manx Shearwater and frequently Northern Fulmar but not on this trip. I expect an onshore wind might have sent those species our way, but instead we had light westerlies and a flock of Brown Pelicans that followed us over 20 miles out (photo by Ed Corey)!

Fair weather is good for landlubbers though and we had a pleasant trip and a boat full of happy people. We have several more trips to run and I expect we will see some more species as we go along. Last winter we saw Great Skuas on all of our winter boat trips, so I guess we were overdue to miss it on this one. They can be tough when it’s calm because they are less likely to be airborne, and they are always a low-density winter visitor here. I would like to thank everyone who came along to make this trip possible and also Christine Stoughton-Root of the Carolina Bird Club for helping us with the booking and promotion. Our experienced team of guides worked like a well-oiled machine: Kate Sutherland, Kyle Kittelberger, Ed Corey, and Jeff Lemons did an excellent job as usual.

Species List January 18, 2019

Common Murre  1

Razorbill  1509

Black-legged Kittiwake  1 immature

Bonaparte's Gull  1272

Laughing Gull  3

Ring-billed Gull  3

Herring Gull  185

Great Black-backed Gull  135

Lesser Black-backed Gull  32

Forster's Tern  23

Red-throated Loon  8

Common Loon  4

Great Shearwater  1

Northern Gannet  3860

Humpback Whale  1

Bottlenose Dolphin  305

Loggerhead Turtle  3

Ocean Sunfish (Mola)  6

A few more photos!  

Another image of the Common Murre!  (Ed Corey)

A couple of adult Razorbills on the water (Kate Sutherland) and one of the first cooperative birds we had in the morning (Ed Corey)

A couple photos of the Black-legged Kittiwake (Kyle Kittelberger)

We had a handful of Bonaparte's Gulls that still had varying degrees of black on the head like this individual (Kate Sutherland)

This Great Shearwater stayed with us, feeding in the chum with the gulls, for awhile! (Ed Corey)

The gannets were around in good numbers almost all day!  In the afternoon we got to watch them raining down over a pod of feeding Bottlenose Dolphins, all in view of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse!  (Kate Sutherland)

We were treated to all age classes of gannets!  It seemed like there were more first winter birds that we typically see, though this first trip is a bit earlier than our usual winter trips so who knows?  (First winter bird by Kate Sutherland - top / adult by Kyle Kittelberger - bottom)

A few of the gulls that showed well in the chum (all photos by Ed Corey)!  Top Great Black-backed Gull, middle Lesser Black-backed Gull, and bottom Laughing Gull

A closer image of some of the Bottlenose Dolphin dorsal fins with mesoparasitic copepods (likely of the genus Penella) attached (Ed Corey)

And finally, a photo of one of the Loggerhead Turtles we saw!  (Kyle Kittelberger)

Friday October 19, 2018 - by Kate Sutherland

Friday was a calm day tucked between two windy days...and while we would typically prefer some nice stiff winds, it turned out to be a nice day for both seabirds and humans!  I don't even think we had any spray on the boat all day, plus we had some incredible feeding flocks.  The ride out to the shelf break was quiet, but just inshore of the break we found our first shearwaters feeding, Cory's types with Audubon's.  As we were watching the shearwaters an Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) leaped out of the water right next to us!  Just over the break we had another encounter with our charismatic megafauna, this time with a Leatherback!  It surfaced a few times giving us all an incredible look at the back of the head and the pink spot that is thought to allow sunlight into the pineal gland, adjusting their circadian rhythms and triggering movements to different feeding grounds based on changes in daylight.  (photo by Kate Sutherland)

We also found some shearwater flocks just over the shelf break and had our first Black-capped Petrels fly by the boat less than 30 minutes later!
The Gulf Stream current and the really hot water was too far offshore for us to reach, but the water did warm up as we headed in that direction!  There were birds around all day and we had a few Wilson's Storm-Petrels that came in to check out the slick; it was nice to see them since they have been a bit scarce this fall!  We finally had some jaegers out there, the first to approach the boat was a juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger; it came in and flew right over us before heading off! (photo by Ed Corey)

Shortly after that we had a dark Pomarine Jaeger join us in the slick, it was very cooperative for photos and stuck with us for at least 30 minutes.  As we closed in on 1,000 fathoms (about 6,000 feet) someone shouted "WHALE"!!  A Sperm Whale was surfacing just off the starboard side!  We were able to turn a little to get it in some better light and we watched it surface a number of times, its bushy blow angling to the left, until it dove, giving us an incredible view of the tail stock and flukes of this toothed whale! (photo by Kate Sutherland)

This was the first sighting for us in 2018, lucky on our last trip of the year!
Our inshore tack was no less productive than our trip offshore and we added a species to the October trip lists for the year with a Bridled Tern!  While it did not come very close, the identification was clear as it flew across the bow.  As we approached the shelf break there were many flocks of shearwaters on the horizon so we were able to move from flock to flock checking for anything different!  We had excellent views of Atlantic Cory's with a few Scopoli's, Great Shearwaters, and Audubon's all feeding on some skipjack tuna and their prey that were busting on the surface! (photo by Kyle Kittelberger)

While we were with the shearwater flocks we had another three Pomarine Jaegers fly by, one was even pursued by a Black-capped Petrel!  It was such a treat to get offshore this fall, hopefully these trips will help to entice others to join us next fall!
Thanks to everyone who joined us out there and thank you to Kyle Kittelberger and Ed Corey for helping Brian and I lead the trip and for contributing photos for the blog post!  A big thank you too to Brad Sale for sharing some of his Sperm Whale photos with us (see below)!

Species List for October 19, 2018
Black-capped Petrel  48-54
Atlantic Cory's  200
Scopoli's Shearwater  57
Cory's type  402
Great Shearwater  17
Audubon's Shearwater  142
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  5
Bridled Tern  1
Long-tailed Jaeger  1
Pomarine Jaeger  4
jaeger sp (Pom or Parasitic)  1

Great Blue Heron  3
American Kestrel  1
American Pipit  1
shorebird sp.  4 (possibly phalaropes, but not seen well enough for positive identification)

Sperm Whale  1
Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore type)  25+
Leatherback Turtle  2
Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)  1-2

Black-capped Petrels did not disappoint!  (photos by Ed Corey top, Kate Sutherland below)

The number of Cory's we saw was impressive!  We had both Scopoli's (top) and Atlantic Cory's (below) (photos by Kate Sutherland)

Audubon's Shearwaters also put in a nice showing!  They were very cooperative in the feeding flocks (photo by Kyle Kittelberger)

A few more jaeger images - the juvenile Long-tailed (above) and the dark Pomarine Jaeger that followed us for a bit (below).  (both photos by Kyle Kittelberger)

One of the Black-capped Petrels chased a Pomarine Jaeger we had later around one of the feeding flocks!  Not the sharpest image, but always interesting to see!  (Kate Sutherland)

A couple more images of the Sperm Whale - what an experience!  You can see the blow that is at an angle since the blow hole of a Sperm Whale is on the left side of its head, pointing in that direction (photo by Ed Corey).  And below, another image of the tail as it dove (photo by Brad Sale).

Another nice image of the Leatherback turtle (by Ed Corey).

Saturday October 13, 2018 - by Kate Sutherland

Tropical Storm Michael brought some soundside flooding to the northern sections of Hatteras Island on Thursday night, but the winds had subsided and our channel to the ocean was still intact for our trip out on Saturday!  The winds were westerly in the morning and this gave us a steady procession of warblers for most of the day with at least six species identified offshore.  We were not sure how this would shape up for seabirding, but we need not have worried because we still encountered some nice groups of feeding shearwaters and the Black-capped Petrels were out there in force!  Brian had checked the sea surface temperature map before we left the dock and the hot water was to the south of us, heading offshore to the east.  This prompted us take a more southerly route in the morning from the inlet, but we found the nice, blue water of the Gulf Stream and had nice numbers of Audubon's Shearwaters before we even reached the shelf break! (photo of two Audubon's by Kate Sutherland)

Black-capped Petrels were in their element with the increasing winds throughout the day and a few times my scans turned up 45 to 50 individuals stretched back in the chum slick!  They were attentive to the chum like last weekend, and we had many incredible passes as these dynamic flyers came to feed behind the boat!  A young Herring Gull flew up the slick and for the first time I saw some Black-cappeds harassing this species, they did not bother a young Great Black-backed Gull that came in a bit later. (photo of Herring Gull, Cory's, and Black-capped Petrels behind the boat by Kyle Kittelberger)

There was also some activity at one point up ahead of the boat and a couple of Black-cappeds were chasing one another around, and though the reason was never apparent to us, the moniker "gadfly" made so much sense!  It was a very bizarre display.  Other individuals were cruising up high, at times there were up to ten sailing in the clouds before they would dive back down to sea level and begin a more typical, arcing flight.  They stole the show again this weekend, and while the light was at times harsh, the photo ops were seemingly endless (Kyle Kittelberger).

Heading back toward the shelf break just after noontime, our large shearwaters finally turned up!  We had a handful of Cory's in the morning, but were glad to finally encounter some feeding flocks that allowed everyone to have much closer views of both types of Cory's and some Great Shearwaters...all the while Black-capped Petrels were keeping up with us in the slick!  While we had a nice flight of Audubon's in the morning, there were not many in with these afternoon groups.  A couple of Wilson's Storm-Petrels came in to visit the chum slick and came close enough for some nice looks!  This time of year they can be hit or miss, so it was nice to see them.
Just over the shelf break, Brian spotted a huge Leatherback Turtle that stayed on the surface right next to the boat, taking a few breaths before sounding (Kyle Kittelberger).

This was the best view of a Leatherback we have ever had, and the churning water was impressive as its powerful flippers readied it to dive!  Dr. Fred Alsop of East Tennessee State University had his Coastal Studies class with us on Saturday, so this was the first sea turtle many of them had ever seen!  It was another incredible fall day out there!  Thanks to everyone who joined us for the trip, and a big thank you to Dr. Alsop for joining us with his class!  Thank you also to Kyle Kittelberger who helped Brian and I lead the trip and contributed photos for this post!

Species List for October 13, 2018
Black-capped Petrel  150-162
Atlantic Cory's  at least 4
Scopoli's Shearwater  at least 10
Cory's type  140-170
Great Shearwater  12-13
Audubon's Shearwater  76
Wilson's Storm-Petrel  2-3
Red-necked Phalarope  2
Herring Gull  1-2
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Common Tern  2

White-rumped Sandpiper  1
Wilson's Snipe  1
Tennessee Warbler  3
Cape May Warbler  9
Northern Parula  1
Chestnut-sided Warbler  1
Bay-breasted Warbler  2
Black-throated Blue Warbler  4
warbler sp.  39

Leatherback Turtle  2
Bottlenose Dolphins (offshore type)  4

Yes, a few more Black-capped Petrel photos, top two by Kate Sutherland, and you can see we had some in the green water in the bottom photo by Kyle Kittelberger!

This bird looked to be an Atlantic Cory's (Kate Sutherland)

We only saw two Red-necked Phalaropes all day, but it was a little choppy for spotting them on the water!  (Kate Sutherland)

Kyle also captured this image of some of the many warblers we had offshore!  (from L to R: Northern Parula (1st year), Cape May Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler (male), and another Cape May Warbler)

Another image of the Leatherback showing how it almost seemed to make a dent in the water before sounding!  (Kate Sutherland)

Finally, a few images from our sargassum dip with the ETSU students!  Top to bottom: both species of Sargassum - fluitans (L) natans (top R), a large male sargassum swimming crab (Portunus sayi), two photos in a row of a smaller, female swimming crab - dorsal and ventral (you can see she had eggs!), and finally a small pipefish!  (all photos by Kate Sutherland)