Saturday July 6, 2019 - Storms and Seabirds - by Kate Sutherland

Sunrise was spectacular Saturday morning,

and while we ran through about 30 minutes of heavy rain on our way to the shelf break, we were hoping that would be all we saw for the day!  Not so, unfortunately, we had a number of squalls to deal with offshore as well.  But the seabirds were out there and they were hungry, so showing our Gulf Stream birds to a group that was seeing them for the first time was a treat regardless of the weather!  Sooty Terns and Audubon's Shearwaters were found just over the shelf break, feeding around some Sargassum.  And in the 0830 period we added Black-capped Petrel, Cory's type and Great Shearwaters, Wilson's, Leach's, and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels!  Not a bad start to the day.  We had at least three Great Shearwaters following us,

feeding on the chum right behind the boat while we were out there and it was nice to show our participants the difference between these shearwaters and the more energetic and acrobatic Black-capped Petrels!

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were also attentive to the slick and by the end of the day just about everyone aboard could pick one out as it flew by or fed behind us with the Wilson's.  The Leach's Storm-Petrels were a nice treat and we had a couple that spent some time behind the boat, so everyone could observe not only how they differed from the smaller, shorter-winged Wilson's, but also from the Band-rumps.
Just after 1230 when I stepped into the wheelhouse for a minute, a shout went up from the stern: "BOOBY!" I glanced out the window and, sure enough, a Masked Booby was checking out the boat before it flew directly away from us!  Chris Haney kept his eyes on this bird and saw another one join it in the distance!  As he watched, at least one sat down on the water - the location was reported to Brian and we headed in that direction, hoping to relocate them.  A few minutes later, I spotted them sitting on the water to our port and we were able to approach the pair of them.

Most Masked Boobies we see here are subadult individuals, so it was nice to see an adult, but two adults??  That is a new sighting for us!  As we pulled away from the boobies it began to rain again.  Visibility became limited and we were back in some thunderstorms, so about 20 past 1:00 we picked up our chum and began to motor for the inlet.  The rain lasted until just beyond the shelf break where we saw a few more Sooty Terns and another Audubon's.  Everyone was relaxed and chatting on the starboard side, out of the spray, and suddenly there was a tropicbird off the starboard bow!!  This was the first tropicbird of the year for us, and it was quite close at first, before it began flying away and gaining altitude.  Close enough to see that it was a subadult Red-billed Tropicbird and for all of us to get a quick view!

What a day!  I always associate squall lines with wind addicts like gadfly petrels, but instead we found boobies and a tropicbird!  You just never know what you'll find out in the Gulf Stream...
A huge thank you to Dr. Chris Haney for bringing a group from the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia, he was teaching a course called Marine Birds and Mammals of the Southeastern US that culminated in a trip offshore!  So while conditions were not the best for cetacean spotting, the seabirds were just spectacular!  Our next trips are July 26 and 27th and we have space open on both!  All photos today are by Kate Sutherland.

Species List for July 6, 2019
Black-capped Petrel - 22 to 24
Cory's Shearwater - 6
Scopoli's Shearwater - 1
Cory's type - 6 to 7
Great Shearwater - 13
Audubon's Shearwater - 22
Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 65
Leach's Storm-Petrel - 3 to 4
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel - 17 to 21
Red-billed Tropicbird - 1 imm
Masked Booby - 2 ad
Sooty Tern - 5
Sooty/Bridled Tern - 1

Some of our intrepid crew as we approached the first line of storms in the morning!

Another record shot of the Red-billed Tropicbird

And a few more photos of the Masked Boobies!  Incredible!

Black-capped Petrels came in well over the course of the day!  Here is an intermediate individual (top) and dark-faced below.

We had a number of Cory's type shearwaters that had intermediate amounts of white in their underprimaries, though some of these looked like they could have been Scopoli's.  Here is a typical Atlantic Cory's (top) and a record shot of the Scopoli's we saw (below).

The storm-petrels were super cooperative for photographing!  Here is a Wilson's I captured as it pattered on the water, the yellow webbing of the feet is visible just under the surface in the top image.

A different individual Wilson's in flight

The ventral view of a Leach's, its forked tail is obvious at this angle!

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels were around us just about all day!  The most we had at once with us was five individuals.

The Sooty Terns were a treat to see as well, hopefully they will be around for the rest of the summer!

June 28 & 29, 2019 - Gadflies and Mesoplodons - by Kate Sutherland

This Friday and Saturday set turned out to be excellent for seabirds in spite of quite calm conditions and excellent for cetaceans because of the calm conditions!  Light to little wind and the hot, blue water of the Gulf Stream close to the shelf break made it feel like late July out there.  The water, though, was full of life with flyingfishes and scattered Sargassum all the way out to the deep.  A handful of large shearwaters were present on our way to the shelf break each morning, then we picked up all of the usual species offshore in our chum or sitting on the water: Black-capped Petrel, Cory's, Scopoli's, Great, and Audubon's Shearwater, plus Wilson's and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels!  Friday we also found Sooty Terns feeding over some mahi (Atlantic dolphinfish) and an adult Bridled Tern perched on some flotsam (photo by Kate Sutherland),

while Saturday's trip found Leach's Storm-Petrel and a second summer Long-tailed Jaeger - pretty nice list of our regular suspects for the two day set!

Friday's highlight came just after 0900 when Brian spotted a flock of Black-capped Petrels on the water ahead of us.  Leader Ed Corey, up in the bow pulpit, spotted a dark gadfly on the edge of the flock...  And as they flushed, a dark morph Trindade Petrel picked up from the water and flew right towards the boat!  It came in low, flew right down the starboard side, and away, no amount of chum would bring it back, but we had an excellent view (photo Kate Sutherland).

Saturday's highlight also came in the morning, but in the 1000 hour.  A beaked whale popped up right off the port bow!  As we searched for it to resurface, we saw at least four come up ahead of the boat!  Mesoplodon europaeus, commonly known as Gervais' Beaked Whale, is a species that we see regularly on our pelagic trips from Hatteras, but one that is not well known.  They are small, toothed whales typically found in deeper waters, and they dive for long periods of time, feeding at depth on squid and other deep water species.  We were lucky to catch this group as they surfaced and they were around the boat for at least 30 minutes before they sounded again.  The clarity of the water made it possible to see them well under the surface and for the first time, we had them come in under the bow when we were moving and "ride" the bow wave!  They were very curious about us, coming close and turning to look at us, swimming under the pulpit and checking out the stern (photo Brian Patteson).

It was the best encounter we have ever had with this species!  I want to make it clear that we were not chasing down or harassing these animals in any way, they came to us as we motored around and also sat and drifted.  In the time we spent with this pod, we moved about 1.5 miles over the bottom in the swift, Gulf Stream current, and the water temperature was about 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit.  There was at least one male in the group and his teeth were easy to see under water as were the fresh scratches on his back, presumably made by another male of the same species.  The other three individuals did not have visible teeth, making them females or young males.  It seemed that there were at least two adult females present, with one individual that looked larger than the others.  Their behavior was also interesting, they were turning over to show their bellies and sometimes swimming upside down or on their side at the surface (photo by Brian Patteson).

Perhaps one of the females was in estrus and this was why the male was present with this group?  Typically when we encounter groups of these animals they are all female or young individuals.  Who knows?  Little is known about the behavior of this species, so each chance we have to observe them is incredibly special.  As we watched the pod, a large container ship was approaching...a reminder of the intense noise pollution these whales face even out in the deep blue.

We have added a trip to the summer schedule next weekend, Saturday July 6, and the next scheduled trips will run at the end of the month: July 26 & 27, space is open on all three in addition to our August trips.  Join us!  Gulf Stream Trip Schedule

Thank you to Ed Corey for helping Brian and I lead these trips and contributing photos, and thank to also to David Miller for organizing and bringing a group with us on Friday's trip!

Species List June 28 / 29
Trindade Petrel - 1 / 0
Black-capped Petrel - 20 / 21
Cory's Shearwater - 5 / 5
Scopoli's Shearwater - 6 to 7 / 3
Cory's type - 26 / 29
Great Shearwater - 40 to 42 / 34
Audubon's Shearwater - 18 / 15
Wilson's Storm-Petrel - 45 to 50 / 60 to 65
Leach's Storm-Petrel - 0 / 6
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel - 10 to 12 / 22 to 25
Sooty Tern - 6 / 0
Bridled Tern - 1 / 0
Long-tailed Jaeger - 0 / 1

Risso's Dolphin - 0 / 12
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin - 8 to 9 / 0
Bottlenose Dolphin (offshore) - 40 to 45 / 0
Bottlenose Dolphin (coastal) - 0 / 30
Gervais' Beaked Whale - 0 / 4

Dorsal view of the Trindade Petrel (Kate Sutherland)

Saturday we found some flocks with Black-cappeds and storm-petrels on the water, the stormies here are all Wilson's (Kate Sutherland)

& it was cool to watch them take off!  (Kate Sutherland)

We had a few that made nice passes by the stern to check out the chum as well!  Here is an intermediate individual above and a dark-faced individual below (Kate Sutherland)

Both Cory's (Ed Corey) and Scopoli's Shearwaters (Ed Corey, top, Kate Sutherland bottom) were seen well on each trip, though we had more Scopoli's on Friday!

Great Shearwaters followed us, diving and feeding in the chum on both trips! (Kate Sutherland, Ed Corey)

While we didn't see many Audubon's, we did have a few that sat on the water for us to approach, everyone had good views! (Ed Corey)

Wilson's were not around in large numbers, but we did attract a few to the chum each day! (Kate Sutherland)

Saturday we had a handful of Leach's (Ed Corey)

Band-rumped Storm-Petrels are beginning to show here in larger numbers, as is expected in the summer months!  (Kate Sutherland, bottom photo by Ed Corey)

The Risso's Dolphins were a treat, there were some young individuals in this pod!  We haven't seen this species in a couple of years.  Top photo by Ed Corey showing the scarring on and adult, blunt head shape seen in the middle photo by Kate Sutherland, and the diagnostic dorsal fin shape is seen well in the bottom photo by Kate Sutherland.  Also called Gray Grampus

Atlantic Spotted Dolphins put on quite a show inshore of the shelf break on Friday morning!! (Kate Sutherland)

And because we just cannot resist photos of these Mesoplodon europaeus...here is a small photo gallery:

top photo showing the erupted teeth of the one male individual, bottom and individual without teeth showing - likely a female, though young males do not show these teeth until they are mature (photos by Ed Corey).

The following photos are all by Brian Patteson.  Showing how close they came to us!  Pictured is Murray Scott of Australia who is birding with John Weigel for a few weeks here in the US.  Incredible to watch these whales for so long!

Here you can see the scaring of the male individual - which look to be marks from a shark!  Not another male.

A nice view of three surfacing

A female with the male swimming below

Gorgeous head on view

And a view, tail end, of one of the females on her back, showing her tail flukes (Kate Sutherland).  While it is not easy to see in this image, there is another whale below her.

And the flyingfishes...well, there were a lot of them out there over these two days!  Here are a couple of images (Kate Sutherland)