May 22, 2021 - Pipeline brings us a Wedgie - Kate Sutherland

Not as much wind today, light from the north as we headed offshore, Brian and I were hoping there'd be something to see out there...not an issue!  We were busy on the shelf with a gorgeous Long-tailed Jaeger, a number of Manx Shearwaters, and our first South Polar Skua of the day.  We reached the shelf break and birds were a little slow to pick up the slick, but when they did - we had them!!  Up to six Pomarine Jaegers, four Long-tailed Jaegers, and three South Polar Skuas behind us with Great and Sooty Shearwaters, occasional Cory's, Manx and Audubon's making appearances, and at least 170 Wilson's Storm-Petrels at the peak - certainly some life offshore today.

We found a current edge in 3-400 fathoms in 77 degree water that we were following around 1000, it was running NE / SW and on the offshore side there was about 3 knots of current.  We were joking that this was the pipeline bringing us all the jaegers and skuas!  I was on the top deck and we were working to the west with the sun on the stern when I saw a different looking shearwater, but it was in the glare.  I called it down to Brian and then a skua came in, chasing it down the slick!  Fortunately he was able to circle back and the bird came sailing by the port side, and as my mind was still flipping through the index cards of seabird images up there...Brian yelled out "WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATER!!!!" (photos Brian Patteson) 

And just like that, before I could get there, the image was added to my in-person collection!  I have never seen a Wedge-tailed, but do have Bob Flood's shearwater guide so have watched some videos and  imagined the possibility!  Since the bird stayed with us for almost ten minutes, everyone had incredible, point blank views of the mega for the Atlantic and thousands of images were captured.

Since today is only day three of the Blitz, this is short...but I might revisit it later in the year!  Thanks so much to everyone who joined us today, and to all of those who gave us some really great seabird karma ;) Thank you to Ed Corey and Jacob Farmer who helped Brian and I lead the trip.  

*and thank you to Ned Brinkley, who was certainly there with us today!!!!!  This one's for you, Ned!

Species List for May 22, 2021

**Wedge-tailed Shearwater** - 1

Black-capped Petrel - 7

Cory's Shearwater (Atlantic) - 32

Great Shearwater - 9

Sooty Shearwater - 79

Manx Shearwater - 13

Audubon's Shearwater - 23

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 250 to 300

Red-necked Phalarope - 16

South Polar Skua - 4 to 5

Pomarine Jaeger - 9

Long-tailed Jaeger - 5

Arctic Tern - 2

Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore population) - 20+

Portuguese Man of War - 1

Wedge-tailed Shearwater - Kate Sutherland 

& Ed Corey

South Polar Skua - in flight by Ed Corey, on the water with Sooties and Wilson's by Kate Sutherland

Pomarine Jaeger with a Long-tailed Jaeger that was chasing it - Kate Sutherland

Long-tailed Jaegers - Brian Patteson top, Kate Sutherland bottom

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.

*all photos today by Kate Sutherland

Species List for May 21, 2021

Black-capped Petrel - 14 to 16

Cory's Shearwater (Atlantic) - 130 to 140

Cory's type Shearwater - 40

Great Shearwater - 17 to 20

Sooty Shearwater - 58 to 68

Manx Shearwater - 7

Audubon's Shearwater - 6

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 285-335

Leach's Storm-Petrel - 4

Red-necked Phalarope - 3

South Polar Skua - 1

Pomarine Jaeger - 8

Long-tailed Jaeger - 1

Arctic Tern - 8

Common Tern - 1

Common/Arctic Tern - 14

Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore population) - 5 to 6

Hammerhead shark (likely Scalloped) - 1

A nice sea composition with a Black-capped Petrel

Atlantic Cory's Shearwater - we didn't find any Scopoli's out there today

Atlantic Cory's Shearwater feeding in one of the flocks we encountered at the end of the day

Wilson's Storm-Petrel showing the yellow webbing on their feet!

A record shot of one of the Leach's Storm-Petrels we saw today

One of the Cory's / Pomarine chases we saw today!

Our young Pomarine Jaeger on the water

Thursday May 20, 2021 - Spring is Here! - Kate Sutherland

 Winds were light from the north this morning when we reached the ocean and we had smooth running to the shelf break.  Not many birds around for that leg of our journey though we did have a handful of Red-necked Phalaropes and a Manx Shearwater.  When we slowed down, there wasn't much to see right away but a bird over a charter boat ahead looked promising...  Within a few minutes we had South Polar Skuas, a Pomarine Jaeger, and a Long-tailed Jaeger around us!

Wilson's began to gather in the slick, and the day just improved from there.  Just before 1030 we were watching Sooty Shearwaters feed in the slick, one was darting around and we thought we saw a Trindade Petrel back there...Brian turned the boat around and sure enough, there was a light morph individual right in the slick! 

This bird was super cooperative and made a number of close passes by the boat.  Yes, everyone saw it well!  During the 1130 period participant Daniel Irons spotted a flock of terns feeding with some shearwaters in the distance - it turned out to be a flock of Arctic Terns that showed well near the boat.  They returned when I put out a fresh chum block just after noon and had a Roseate Tern with them - wow!  Our first Great Shearwater of the season turned up there as well, and we had another before the day was out.  Overall a nice start to the Blitz - looks like a bit more wind tomorrow so we'll see what we can find!

Thanks to everyone who joined us today and a big thank you to Jacob Farmer for helping us lead this trip!  Happy Birthday Jacob!!  Roseate Tern :)

*all photos today by Kate Sutherland

Species List for May 20, 2021

Trindade Petrel - 1 light morph

Black-capped Petrel - 18 to 20

Cory's Shearwater (Atlantic) - 48

Scopoli's Shearwater - 1

Great Shearwater - 2

Sooty Shearwater - 22 to 26

Manx Shearwater - 2

Audubon's Shearwater - 12

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 300+

Leach's Storm-Petrel - 1

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel - 1

South Polar Skua - 4

Pomarine Jaeger - 8 to 9

Long-tailed Jaeger - 1

Arctic Tern - 11

Roseate Tern - 1

Baltimore Oriole - 1

Barn Swallow - 1

Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore population) - 15+

Trindade Petrel

Light form Black-capped Petrel with almost no black around the eye!

A more typical Black-capped Petrel

Sooty Shearwaters were very attentive in the slick

Wilson's Storm-Petrel in the slick

South Polar Skua on the water

One of our Pomarine Jaegers

Young Arctic Tern

Some of the offshore Bottlenose Dolphins we saw surfing the waves!

May 14 & 15, 2021 - Birding Adventures - Kate Sutherland

Wind and waves combined to give us the best kind of early spring birding adventure on our recent trips!  Friday we had northeasterly winds and Saturday more northerly winds, but both days certainly had enough breeze to keep the birds flying. Friday morning there were some Sooty Shearwaters outside of the inlet and we found a nice feeding group of Atlantic Cory's Shearwaters inshore of the shelf break, they also had some Wilson's Storm-Petrels and even a couple of Black-cappeds right there. A flock of white terns went by in the harsh light that looked good for Arctic Terns, but we didn't have a chance to see them well enough to be certain. We made it to the shelf break just before 0830 and started to chum, just an hour later we already had a nice following! Excellent views of Black-capped Petrels and they really put on a show chasing a dark morph Pomarine Jaeger that followed us for a couple of hours (photo Kate Sutherland).

Wilson's Storm-Petrels were incredibly cooperative coming to the chum and flying right by the stern of the boat for everyone to see and study. This helped for when we had Leach's Storm-Petrel near the boat later in the day. Another light morph Pomarine Jaeger followed us for a bit and we also had our first Long-tailed Jaeger of the year on Friday - with a nice, long tail - what a treat! (photo Kate Sutherland)

Just after 1100 a dark Trindade Petrel came screaming by the boat with the wind! We got the word out and while it was a brief visit, everyone aboard was able to see the bird well. Less than two hours later another, light morph Trindade Petrel visited the slick but did not make a very close pass, nor did it turn and give us another chance, regardless a number of participants laid eyes on that bird as well! These gadfly petrels tend to be around when we have some easterly winds, so we were hoping we might find one out there (photo Kate Sutherland).

Saturday morning we didn't find as much life inshore of the shelf break and the seas were a bit larger than forecast, but the birds were responsive to the chum once we got out there and we had an awesome following for most of the day! Our most notable guest in the slick was a Manx Shearwater that stayed with us for a couple of hours diving behind the boat and making some really nice passes for us (photo Kate Sutherland).

We didn't see many Audubon's over the course of the two days for a nice comparison, but we did have a couple so that participants could see the differences between the two small black and white shearwaters. Black-capped Petrels and Wilson's Storm-Petrels were again our main followers in the slick and we had nice views of Leach's Storm-Petrel and Atlantic Cory's Shearwaters. No jaegers joined us in the slick on Saturday, but we did see the Black-cappeds gang up on a Pom in the distance behind us. Overall a great set of trips! A big thank you to Tennessee Ornithological Society for making these trips possible, we had scheduled a set for them in 2020 but the pandemic waylaid those plans! We're glad that most folks were able to join us for a set this year, and we had a few others sign up once we put the schedule out! Thank you to Chris Sloan and Andrew Rapp for helping us lead this trip and for contributing photos. A very special thank you to our guest leader this weekend, Hadoram Shirihai, who was able to get four days offshore with us during his visit to the US. The Black-capped Petrels put on quite a show for him!

Offshore Species List May 14 / 15

Trindade Petrel - 2 / 0

Black-capped Petrel - 48 to 50 / 63 to 63

Cory's Shearwater - 19 / 10 to 12

Sooty Shearwater - 7 / 7

Manx Shearwater - 1 / 2 to 3

Audubon's Shearwater - 5 / 6

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 300 to 350 / 260 to 300

Leach's Storm-Petrel - 3 / 3

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel - 1 / 0

Red-necked Phalarope - 10 / 2

Pomarine Jaeger - 5 / 1

Long-tailed Jaeger - 1 / 0

Common Tern - 20 / 0

Northern Gannet - 0 / 2

Barn Swallow - 1 / 0

Another view of the first, dark morph Trindade Petrel (Kate Sutherland)

A dark form Black-capped Petrel (Kate Sutherland)

One tending more toward intermediate (Chris Sloan)

One of the Cory's Shearwaters we saw - all of them looked to be Atlantic Cory's like the one pictured here.  These birds do not show any white in the under primaries.  (Kate Sutherland)

Sooty Shearwaters are just starting to show up!  (Chris Sloan)

While Audubon's Shearwaters were not easy to see with the seas we had on Friday and Saturday, we did have very obliging Manx Shearwaters on both trips! (Kate Sutherland) Friday top, Saturday bottom

Wilson's Storm Petrels were also incredibly obliging with the chum! (Chris Sloan)

A couple of close-ups (Kate Sutherland)

We had at least one Leach's Storm Petrel that came in well to the chum on Saturday's trip seen above the Wilson's here. (Kate Sutherland)

While we had other Pomarine Jaegers that visited us on Friday, this dark morph individual was most obliging and the Black-cappeds helped keep it close to the boat!  (top photo by Chris Sloan, others by Kate Sutherland)