Summer Blitz ~ 22-28 August 2023 by Kate Sutherland

Almost ten years have passed since we had the pleasure of running some trips "up the beach" in the summertime. Our winter trips regularly leave from Wanchese and head out of Oregon Inlet now with Hatteras Inlet as our secondary departure location, or weather port. As I mentioned in a previous post the water to the north can be quite different to what we have offshore from Hatteras in August! Our planned "blitz" was to run from 22 August daily through the 31st - ten trips. We already knew looking at the long range forecast that it might not happen, but we were determined to do what we could. 

The first trip on the 22nd confirmed that we made the right decision with birds on the shelf, including a super cooperative group of Red-necked Phalaropes (Kate Sutherland),

Cory's, Scopoli's, and Great Shearwaters plus some Black Terns and Wilson's Storm-Petrels! This shelf life continued for most of the trips we had. There is so much more flexibility up here at this time of year with cooler water typically inshore and the hot fast water offshore - we found nice temperature breaks on most of the trips we ran. Some days we had very swift current offshore and other days not too much. So we ran the first trip on the 22nd and had to cancel the trip on the 23rd due to forecasted high winds...but then we were able to get back out there on the 24th daily through the 28th! Thanks to Hurricane Franklin's swell and then Tropical Storm Idalia's forecasted path we ended up canceling the last three trips. But six out of ten? We'll take it! So much happened on these trips it is hard to even think of how to summarize them, but hopefully some highlights will do. 

Interestingly we had Fea's type Petrels on the first and last trips (photo from first trip, Kate Sutherland).

These birds are actually part of the Fea's Petrel complex which includes the Deserta's Petrel and Cape Verde Petrel - cryptic species that can be impossible to differentiate at sea unless you have some clues like molt or bill size. Our birds were not molting and that would fit with adult Deserta's Petrels which molt between December and May, adult Cape Verde Petrels should be showing wing molt now. But throw younger birds into the mix and it makes the waters a little muddier. So two Fea's Petrels, likely Deserta's Petrels, we will leave it at that! The individual on the 22nd came in well while the one on the 28th was spotted with a flock of Black-capped Petrels and then took off. It did make a closer approach than it had been originally, so that was good, and everyone was able to have a nice view of this Pterodroma petrel - the "winged runner!"

Three of our trips found Trindade Petrels. These birds have been around this year and when they're around we tend to see them! I myself had seen at least a couple at work searching for beaked whales this summer (last summer I saw more Fea's type petrels). So I was really hoping it would be a good run for them up there! And was it ever!! On the 24th, our first day back after missing a day, we tallied SIX of these attractive gadfly petrels 😮. Typically we see dark morph Trindade Petrels but we found three light morphs on that day (second of the three pictured here, Kate Sutherland),

truly a memorable trip! The following day we had a dark morph fly right to the boat on the shelf, just before we reached the break and before we had even dispensed any chum (Chris Sloan)!

This was definitely a good year for these gorgeous gadflies.

On the 27th we had an incredible showing of shearwaters, a day without much Gulf Stream current running offshore. This variability in the Gulf Stream can really influence what we see offshore, and we had a couple of days when the current was slack that were quite productive out there. Shearwater flocks were easy to find with Sooty Terns circling high above them, in fact we tallied almost 100 of these dark backed terns over the course of the day on the 27th. This is the time of year that juveniles are here with their parents, and there is nothing quite like scanning a shearwater flock while hearing them calling overhead! (Adult and juvenile by Kate Sutherland)

We also had a few of Bridled Terns over the set and all but one trip found at least one attractive juvenile (Kate Sutherland) with a parent.

Back to our first flock on the 27th, we had seen a skua on the shelf heading offshore, so we were hopeful we might find one out there...and luck was with us! We found not one but TWO South Polar Skuas with a feeding flock of mostly Cory's and Scopoli's Shearwaters just past the shelf break (Amanda Guercio).

There was also an adult Masked Booby sitting with the flock! And the following day? We found just a couple hundred shearwaters and hardly any Sooty Terns - that is the difference a day (and the current) can make here and another reason why we encourage participants to take more than one trip to this dynamic place.

Black-capped Petrels gave us a nice show east of Oregon Inlet and we had strong numbers on each trip with just one trip on the 26th finding a low of 20 to 21 individuals (Amanda Guercio).

Both light and dark forms were out there also which was pretty cool to see in the summertime. Storm-petrels were present in varying numbers and we were able to turn up Band-rumped Storm-Petrel on all but two trips which is pretty good for late August! Wilson's varied from 12 to almost 300 individuals over the six trip set, but we had them on every trip.

We also saw Pomarine, Parasitic, and Long-tailed Jaegers which was a treat and had ample time to study Cory's, Scopoli's and Great Shearwaters. Audubon's were a bit scarce, and though they were seen on every trip, it was a challenge to get good looks at these small black and white shearwaters. A couple that we saw close to the boat were busy eating and had Planehead Filefish in their bills - so cool to see! (Kate Sutherland)

Audubon's are Sargassum specialists so we often find them associated with this floating, brown algae offshore which is home to a number of species that are food not only for them but also many different fishes living below the surface.

Non-avian species were quite obliging as well and we had some incredible encounters with the Goosebeak Whales (Ziphius cavirostris) who live offshore up here on three of the trips. Our Hatteras trips more regularly encounter the smaller Gervais' Beaked Whales (Mesoplodon europaeus), who are also deep divers, but little is known about them while the Goosebeaks, also known as Cuvier's Beaked Whales, are quite well studied in a number of places globally. My work in the summer months is focused on these deepest diving mammals east of Oregon Inlet and my coworker Danielle Waples at Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort already matched one of the whales we saw with one photographed four years ago! (Kate Sutherland) Yes, this female swam right up to and under the Stormy Petrel II!!

The catalog is extensive for the population up here so not only did we get to see some cool creatures, our photos and observations will contribute to sightings in this area. In addition we saw some Pilot Whales (presumably Short-finned), Atlantic Spotted and Bottlenose Dolphins (both coastal and offshore types). Leatherback Turtles were seen on all but one of the six trips, and we even saw a handful of Loggerhead Turtles.

I would be remiss if I didn't add a note about how nice it was to have Daniel Irons with us for all of these trips. He has been working on the Stormy Petrel II this summer and is a skilled fisherman, so each time we could hook a fish around a gorgeous piece of bamboo, float, or Sargassum he effortlessly caught as many as we wanted, teaching anyone willing how to bail Mahi mahi (aka Dolphin or Dolphinfish). On our August 24 trip a Sailfish came in to the "tropicbird teaser" (a squid chain we had out without a hook) and he was able to slip it a bait and hook it! (Kirk Zufelt)

Once it got to the boat we released it as is the protocol here with billfish. But we did kill a few fish to take home and to share with our leaders and participants, the easiest and cleanest fishing ever in the history of our pelagic trips 💙

Overall a really great set that we hope to offer on an annual basis moving forward. Thank you so much to everyone who took a chance and trusted us that these would be worth joining, even without (gasp!!!) eBird lists to look over! And thank you to our tireless crew on the boat - Captain Brian Patteson and Daniel Irons - and our volunteer leaders - Chris Sloan, Lev Frid, Sage Church, Jeff Effinger, and Amanda Guercio - we couldn't have done it without you!! Thank you to Chris, Daniel, Amanda, and Kirk Zufelt also for sharing some of their images here.

Since it is a lot to type out and still make sense of I put the lists into a spreadsheet which can be viewed below.

~Kate Sutherland

A couple more images of the Fea's Petrel from 22 August by Chris Sloan

24 August we had up to six Trindade Petrels, three light morph and three dark morph. Bird #1 was a dark individual that came in well to the slick (top K. Sutherland, bottom C. Sloan):

Bird #2 was a light morph that came in for a few circuits around the slick then peeled out. I only had some marginal shots since I was busy with the chum for this one (K. Sutherland)

Bird #3 was a more distant dark morph - photos looked like it was a different individual than #1 but it was not super close so it was tough to see some of the finer details (K. Sutherland)

Bird #4, another light morph, is pictured above in the text and showing primary molt. #5 is a bird that I didn't see, but was seen by a couple of our leaders - another dark morph in the slick with bird #5; this bird coming to the slick would have been different from #3 that flew away from us, due to the direction. Bird #6 was another light morph with a really cool facial pattern and obviously different from #4! Three images of this one (K. Sutherland)

Black-capped Petrels were definitely up there east of Oregon Inlet with a couple of trips tallying over 100 individuals! It was nice to find flocks sitting around on the water and our Fea's Petrel on the 28th flew in to sit on the water with a nice flock of Black-caps! We saw both light and dark forms in varying stages of molt as would be expected. 

Light form individual above, dark ones below (K. Sutherland)

The Masked Booby from our trip on 27 August! What a treat to find this adult bird in with our shearwater flock. It was funny how difficult it was for people to see at first because we were just so overwhelmed with seabirds! (K. Sutherland)

Shearwaters were, as you might imagine, a highlight for this set! We had really incredible views of both Atlantic Cory's and Scopoli's Shearwaters on every trip and here you can see both in one frame, Atlantic Cory's front and Scopoli's back right! (K. Sutherland)

Chris Sloan captured this awesome dive image of Cory's/Scopoli's

And for those of you not up to speed on this identification Atlantic Cory's are large, hefty looking birds with large bills that do not have any white in their under primaries (while studies have shown some with a little white in those feathers, we typically will use none as our criteria unless a bird shows the larger structure of a Cory's!). Interestingly here offshore from North Carolina the Atlantic Cory's we see tend to be slighter than those seen offshore from New England! Perhaps different populations head to different areas along the East Coast. (K. Sutherland)

Scopoli's are slighter and more delicate looking than Atlantic Cory's and often you can pick them out by their more dynamic flight style, slender body / wings with quicker wing-beats. At this time we use the amount of white in the underside of p10 to determine this species, but that is just because our knowledge is still sparse about the possible variation. It is likely there are Scopoli's we see with no white in their under primaries, they exist in the Mediterranean, but until we have more information for at sea separation, we will stick to these basic criteria. There are other hints for Scopoli's - bill is more slender and head more rounded, they have less dark markings in the underwing coverts, the upper tail can be lighter - maybe now that I am finished with university I can take the time to pour over thousands of images of these birds and figure it out! 🙂 (K. Sutherland)

I was surprised we didn't see more Great Shearwaters, I imagine most of them have moved north, but we did have a couple of trips with solid numbers! Everyone had a chance to at least get comfortable with the Cory's type / Great identification at sea. Greats are smaller than Atlantic Cory's but can be similar in size to or larger than Scopoli's. They are super attractive with a dark cap and dark bill plus some dark feathering in the underwing and a nice dark patch on the belly - all quite different from the Cory's types!

(K. Sutherland)

Audubon's Shearwaters were quite a challenge on this set. I'm not sure if it is because we are farther north up here and most are hanging south of Cape Hatteras or if they are just not around as much this summer. We did on most days find a lot of Sargassum with a lot of life which usually would be the perfect place to encounter these small black and white shearwaters since they often feed on creatures that live associated with this floating, brown algae, as mentioned above! (top image C. Sloan, bottom with Planehead Filefish K. Sutherland)

Wilson's Storm-Petrels as I mentioned were around in low and fairly high numbers depending on the conditions! Most of the trips had excellent views of them in the slick as they fed on chum and fish oil. Their long legs that can be seen dropping down to the surface as they forage over the sea are good to help identify them. These long legs with their short, paddle-shaped wings and small bills make them pretty easy to ID as they flutter around the boat. (K. Sutherland)

Band-rumpeds were a bit scarce, but we expect that as we move into late August. Chris Sloan captured this nice image of one that came by and I was able to get a shot of some on the water with a Wilson's! See if you can figure out who is who!

Finally I wanted to share a couple of Long-tailed Jaeger images from the trips! We had some really cooperative individuals on 24 August! (top C. Sloan, bottom K. Sutherland)

I know it is a lot to go through, but we had some spectacular trips and it was six of them! Here are a few more images of the Goosebeaks, or Cuvier's Beaked Whales, we saw. Hopefully we will have some updates on more matches over the next few months. If you are interested in possibly seeing these super cool and fascinating whales think about booking with us from Oregon Inlet next year, if you are interested in the possibility of seeing Gervais' Beaked Whales think about booking a trip from Hatteras Inlet! Never a guarantee, but this is one of the best places to have a chance to see these denizens of the deep!

In this image you can see the pale scars that show well on these whales. The males have teeth that erupt from the lower jaw that they use when competing with one another to wound the other. These scar patterns along with dorsal fin shape and other patterning can help us identify individuals. (B. Patteson)

Females and younger whales do not typically show much scaring so they can be a bit more difficult to get a unique ID on, but some, like the one pictured in the blog text above, have unique wounds on or shapes to their dorsal fins that help! Coloration can also be unique in these animals. This image below looked like a mother / young pair or at least an adult with a younger individual to the left! (K. Sutherland)

This Goosebeak not only has some unique scaring on the dorsal fin but also looks like it had some other interaction that caused a cut on the base of the tail (peduncle). We saw at least one other animal with a similar wound in the groups we encountered on these trips. (K. Sutherland)

Pilot Whales (presumably Short-finned) were a highlight on half of the trips! They can typically be found in good numbers up here east of Oregon Inlet in the summertime. Here is a great capture by Daniel Irons!

And one showing the broad based dorsal fin characteristic of Pilot Whales (K. Sutherland)

Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins were also super cooperative on a few of the trips! (K. Sutherland)

It was really cool to find some bamboo out there with some fish hanging underneath and Gooseneck Barnacles attached (Lepas sp.)! (K. Sutherland)

Of course we saw a number of flyingfishes as well, more of the black-winged species than we find offshore from Hatteras, though I didn't capture any images of those! Instead here is one of our bog standard Atlantic Patchwings! (K. Sutherland)

19 August 2023 by Kate Sutherland

Our trip Friday 18 August had to be cancelled due to high seas and winds forecast offshore, so we were excited to finally get back out there on the 19th after a couple of weeks! (Sunrise with happy seabirders by Kate Sutherland)

Seas were calm, with just a bit of swell from the south, and winds were light from the west as we headed offshore in the morning. Reports from other boats that had made it offshore earlier than us indicated there was not much Gulf Stream current, just over a knot, and there was a lot of life on the shelf and just offshore a bit north of where we typically go. Usually strong Gulf Stream current will dictate that we head to the south just so we don't get too far north as we move slowly offshore, over the shelf break and into the deep. This flexibility allowed us to pick up some nice feeding activity on the shelf with some small tuna chasing flying fish attended by some Sooty (top) and Black Terns (bottom, Kate Sutherland)!

We also had a super cooperative small pod of young Atlantic Spotted Dolphins on the shelf in the morning.

As we moved over the shelf break and into deeper water we began to find groups of shearwaters, mostly Cory's / Scopoli's, feeding on flyingfishes pushed to the surface by small Blackfin and Skipjack Tuna! (Kate Sutherland)

These feeding flocks were attended by tropical terns and in the first hour we had both Sooty and Bridled Terns in view plus a number of the smaller Black Terns. Juvenile Sooty Terns are striking with mostly dark brown plumage (pictured in photo gallery below) and seeing them circling and calling with their parents was a treat! Later in the morning we found a juvenile Bridled Tern as well. A large pod of offshore Bottlenose Dolphins came to check us out in that first hour as well, these were the first we've seen so far this summer.

Moving offshore we left a lot of the activity closer to the shelf but wanted to see if we could find more Black-capped Petrels and Band-rumpeds. We did see some Black-cappeds but they were not very interested in the slick, most moving by at a distance, and luck was with us that we found at least one Band-rumped Storm-Petrel! It flew by on the starboard side by itself giving everyone a brief, but satisfactory view. We had the same bird or another follow in the slick for a short period of time but our attempts to get one to come close and feed on the chum were unsuccessful. The westerly wind overnight had pushed a lot of shorebirds offshore and in addition to those we saw one young Brown-headed Cowbird, a Great Blue Heron, and even an American Bittern was spotted by leader Daniel Irons from the top deck! The latter two were way offshore where the water was over 7,500 feet deep. 

We did have great views of both Cory's and Scopoli's Shearwaters and Wilson's Storm-Petrels also were cooperative (Kate Sutherland),

Great Shearwaters were out there but we certainly didn't turn up as many as we saw a couple weeks ago and we didn't find any Audubon's Shearwaters at all. Audubon's are typically associated with the floating brown algae in the genus Sargassum which was also absent, so that likely explains our inability to turn one up!

Numerous flyingfishes were seen as well (Kate Sutherland),

and we even had one Sailfish leap clear out of the water a few times right next to the boat! So while diversity may have been on the low side, we certainly had excellent numbers of birds and got to experience a lot of life out there in the Deep Blue!

Thanks so much to everyone who joined us out there and thank you also to Ed Corey and Daniel Irons for helping Brian and me lead the trip. We are taking the boat up to Wanchese now to begin our set of trips from Oregon Inlet! Looking forward to seeing a lot of you up there and also really excited to explore the waters up there on dedicated seabirding trips in the summer for the first time in about ten years! I won't have time to do proper blog posts each day since it is a bit of a drive, but we'll keep you posted on our FaceBook page and with some eBird trip reports. ~Kate Sutherland

Species List for 19 August 2023

Black-capped Petrel - 22

Scopoli's Shearwater - 8

Atlantic Cory's Shearwater - 15

Cory's / Scopoli's - 305 to 310

Great Shearwater - 12 to 15

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 34

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel - 1 to 2

Sooty Tern - 66 to 71 including 7 or 8 juveniles

Bridled Tern - 9 including 1 juvenile

Sooty / Bridled Tern - 2

Black Tern - 30

Common Tern - 18

Royal Tern - 10

Tern species - 1

Sanderling - 1

Least Sandpiper - 1

peep sp - 5

large shorebird sp - 6 to 7

small shorebird sp - 25

Great Blue Heron - 1

American Bittern - 1

Brown-headed Cowbird - 1

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin - 5

Offshore Bottlenose Dolphin - 40 to 50

Sailfish - 1 seen

We did have some Scopoli's Shearwaters on the water a couple of times which was super helpful in showing them to participants! Here is one of those instances (Kate Sutherland)

The young Sooty Terns are incredibly striking! (Kate Sutherland)

And they are easy to tell apart from the young Bridled Terns! (Kate Sutherland)

This Bridled Tern found some type of katydid out there in the deep! Already learning to take advantage of any opportunity... (Kate Sutherland)

You can compare this Bridled Tern pictured below to the Sooty Tern in the text above - note the whiter head and grayer back in addition to the whiter under primary feathers in the Bridled Tern (Kate Sutherland)

It was really cool to see the big, offshore Bottlenose Dolphins! Some of them have really diagnostic dorsal fins like this one that could be used to identify it as an individual. Cetacean researchers regularly use images like this to build catalogs of different animals that they see. (Kate Sutherland)

This wouldn't be complete without a couple more flyingfish images! In the lower one you can see how they use their caudal fin, or tail, to hit the water and give them lift! (Kate Sutherland)

On our way back in we saw this interesting looking vessel. It is a supply ship for offshore tugboats or other work vessels, it left Key West, FL on 7 August. It was originally used by the U.S. Navy as you might imagine from the gray hull with white numbering. (Kate Sutherland)

Seabird Spectacle 4 & 5 August 2023 by Kate Sutherland

August 4 and 5th mark the beginning of our summer schedule which only has four departures from Hatteras Inlet. Fortunately the weather was cooperative and we got out there both days to find that this summer things are looking good for seabirds here in Hatteras! On the shelf Friday as we headed offshore we picked up Pomarine Jaeger, Cory's / Scopoli's, Great, and Audubon's Shearwaters in addition to catching a King Mackerel and a Wahoo. Black-capped Petrels and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were just over the shelf break in the deeper water offshore. During the 09:00 period Brian spotted a Masked Booby in the distance, but there was no luck getting closer for a better look. Then things really started to happen! A light morph Trindade Petrel flew in to investigate the slick and just after that Brian spotted a White-faced Storm-Petrel ahead of the boat, close on the bow! (Daniel Irons)

It turns out this same individual stayed with the boat, following back in the slick for almost three hours, thank goodness for photos! In addition to these excellent sightings there are finally good numbers of Audubon's Shearwaters beginning to show up here offshore. (Daniel Irons)

A nice mixture of birds of the year and adults are around! Just after noontime another Trindade Petrel was spotted, this one a dark morph, and a couple of Pomarine Jaegers visited the boat. How could this day ever be topped?

Well, Saturday we didn't have much on the shelf but there were flocks upon flocks of shearwaters just over the break as we moved into the deeper water offshore. (Kate Sutherland)

We didn't even start really chumming until after 10:00 because we were just moving from flock to flock that would appear as Blackfin Tuna and other species pushed baitfish to the surface! One flock had mostly Scopoli's Shearwaters, including one that was super bleached (Kate Sutherland),

another a lot of Atlantic Cory's, while another had about equal numbers of Great and Cory's type shearwaters. All had small numbers of Audubon's associated with them which were likely undercounted as they zip around so close to the water and can really blend in! Sooty Terns were associated with a few of these flocks, it's nice to see them finally showing well here offshore. (Brian Patteson)

There were not many storm-petrels or Black-cappeds associated with these feeding groups, however, and we decided to keep moving offshore to the deep. Out there we finally found some nice blue, Gulf Stream water with a few more Black-capped Petrels, but it was a bit slow - only a few Wilson's in the slick and just the occasional shearwater moving by. Just after we began our inshore tack I spotted a blow in the distance behind us with a small beehive (feeding flock) that looked like a Sperm Whale! We don't see them very often, so always a treat, but it was far...Brian circled back and we headed that way just as we saw one dive and show its tail flukes - a deep dive. But then another was blowing right there! So we made it in time to observe one on the surface, showing us that left angled, bushy blow that is diagnostic of the species, before it dove! (Kate Sutherland)

It seems this little back track put us in the right place at the right time because just a little over 30 minutes later Daniel Irons shouted from the top deck "White-faced Storm-Petrel in front of the boat!!!!" Wow! Two days in a row we were treated to these little pogo-stick stormies! This one was a different individual from Friday's and stayed with us for some incredible views, everyone who had not been on Friday's trip (myself included!) was hoping we would find one on Saturday, and what a reward. (Kate Sutherland)

When this little beauty showed up it was like a switch was flipped! All of the sudden we had Band-rumpeds and Wilson's right there as well, with shearwaters and Black-caps coming in also to feed in the slick. As we moved back onto the shelf a South Polar Skua was spotted in a flock of shearwaters - yes!! (Daniel Irons)

Overall a very very successful first set of the summer!

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us out there, making these trips a go, and huge thanks to Daniel Irons and Jeffrey Effinger for helping as leaders for both! Brian also did a great job without me on Friday (I was offshore on a research cruise), and I was super excited to make it back in time to contribute on Saturday! 

Next trips are from Hatteras on the 18 & 19 of August - there is space on the 18th but the19th is FULL. After that we take the boat up to Wanchese, NC to run ten trips from Oregon Inlet! Space is still available on all of these.

Species List for 4 / 5 August 2023

Trindade Petrel - 2 (light & dark morph) / 0

Black-capped Petrel - 47 / 19

Scopoli's Shearwater - 6 / 309

Atlantic Cory's Shearwater - 4 / 371

Cory's / Scopoli's - 92 / 496

Great Shearwater - 16 / 605

Audubon's Shearwater - 27 / 133

Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 40 / 44

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel - 23 / 10

Leach's / Band-rumped - 0 / 1

White-faced Storm-Petrel - 1 / 1

Sooty Tern - 2 / 23

Bridled Tern - 0 / 2

Masked Booby - 1 / 0

Pomarine Jaeger - 3 / 1

South Polar Skua - 0 / 1

White tern species - 0 / 2

Sanderling - 0 / 5

Sperm Whale - 0 / 2

Scalloped / Carolina Hammerhead - 1 / 0

Wahoo - 2 / 1 caught

King Mackerel - 1 / 0 caught

A few more images from the set! 

White-faced Stormie anyone?? What a treat to have them on back to back trips! (Daniel Irons top, two below Kate Sutherland)

Black-capped Petrels were around and we had both light and dark faced birds, here is a light form above and a more intermediate looking individual below. (Kate Sutherland)

Audubon's were also pretty cooperative! (Kate Sutherland)

And Great Shearwaters were as well! (Brian Patteson)

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were super cooperative over the two day set (Daniel Irons top, two below Kate Sutherland)

The skua was super exciting to see - participant Lucas Wilson spotted it in a flock of shearwaters! (Kate Sutherland)

And the Sperm Whale that was still on the surface - wow! The dorsal surface and also markings on the animal can help identify an individual for people studying them! (Kate Sutherland)