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PARTICIPANTS NEEDED f/May 19, 20 pelagic trips; space on others



Dear Seabirders,

I would like to thank all of you who have already signed up for trips
this year.

While our trips on May 25, 26, and 27 have been sold out for some time now, 
we still need a few more participants to run our pelagic trips from 
Hatteras, NC on Saturday, May 19 and Sunday May 20. This is one week prior 
to Memorial Day Weekend so there should be no trouble finding accommodations 
and traffic should be light that weekend. While bird numbers might be a tad 
lower than what we'll see a week later, the potential for maximum diversity 
and rarities is just as good. Previous trips during the late May period have 
often produced 12 or more pelagic bird species/ trip, and the list of 
rarities seen during this time period is impressive- Trinidade(Herald) 
Petrel, Fea's Petrel, Bermuda Petrel, both White-tailed and Red-billed 
Tropicbirds, and at least a couple of birds which were possibly Brown Skuas. 
We expect to see Black-capped Petrels on each trip and the following species 
are all a good possibility- Cory's, Greater, Sooty, Manx, and Audubon's 
Shearwaters; Wilson's, Leach's, and Band-rumped Storm-Petrels; Red-necked 
Phalarope, Pomarine, Parasitic, and Long-tailed Jaegers; South Polar Skua, 
and Bridled, Sooty, and Arctic Terns.  

Last year we saw the following 14 species of pelagic seabirds over the
weekend on two trips from Hatteras:

Sat., May 20/ Sun. May 21

Black-capped Petrel- 133/ 203
Trinidade(Herald) Petrel- 1/ 2
Cory's Shearwater- 1/ 10
Greater Shearwater- 2/ 2
Sooty Shearwater- 28/ 90
Manx Shearwaer- 0/ 1
Audubon's Shearwater- 64/ 148
Wilson's Storm-Petrel- 79/ 148
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel- 1/ 2
Red-n. Phalarope- 1/ 3
Pomarine Jaeger- 1/ 2
Bridled Tern- 3/ 0
Sooty Tern- 0/ 19
Arctic Tern- 2/ 0


We also a few spaces left on Memorial Day (Monday) which is May 28; this  
trip is also from Hatteras. The following weekend we have two more trips 
from Hatteras with space- Saturday, June 2 and Sunday June 3. While motel 
rates do increase with Memorial Day, the first weekend of June is not nearly 
as busy or crowded. We also have a couple of spaces left on a trip on 
Friday, June 1 from Manteo on the Country Girl. All of the Hatteras trips 
are on the Miss Hatteras, which is 75 feet long and offers superb viewing 
for seabirding. There are two decks, a large cabin, and an improved PA 
system, which is loud and clear. While the Country Girl isn't as big, she is 
very fast, and this can be helpful during pretty weather when you want to 
get closer to a rare bird. We enjoyed good looks at several rare gadfly 
petrels from BOTH of these boats last year.  

For more information about our trips, please visit our Website-
http://www.patteson.com/
There you can find all that you need to know about these trips
there, including driving directions, recommendations for lodging, what
to bring along, birdlists from previous trips, and lots of other useful
information. There is also an extensive gallery of images from previous
trips that you will probably find more useful than the available
published photos of these birds in preparing for your day(s) at sea.

I hope that many of you will join us offshore this spring and summer,
and please pass this message along to anyone you know
who might be interested in these trips.

Thanks,

Brian Patteson
Hatteras, NC
Brian@Patteson.com
(252) 986-1363