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PARTICIPANTS NEEDED On Upcoming Trips; Recent Sightings Off Hatteras



Dear Seabirders,

So far this summer, we have run six pelagic trips to the Gulf Stream off
Cape Hatteras: July 7, 8, 28, 29, August 4, and 5.  On these trips, we
found a total of 16 pelagic seabird species with good numbers and
diversity on most of the trips.  We enjoyed good looks at Herald Petrels
on both July 8 and 28.  The trips on August 4 and 5 found many hundreds
of shearwaters with 1847 Cory’s Shearwaters on the 4th, and over a
hundred Greater Shearwaters each day.  We saw Manx Shearwaters on five
of these trips, with six to eight seen on July 8.  Band-rumped
Storm-Petrels were present on all of the trips, with a high of 63 on
August 5.  White-tailed Tropicbirds, which were scarce earlier this
summer, were seen on both trips this past weekend, and South Polar Skuas
were seen on each of these trips as well with a total of four on August
4.  All three species of jaeger were observed on our July 29 trip, and
Long-tailed Jaeger was seen on four of these trips, with a peak of four
individuals on August 4.  We enjoyed a close look at a Sperm Whale on
August 4th, spectacular views of the elusive Cuvier’s Beaked Whale on
July 29, and four young Pilot Whales spy-hopping within view of two
adults on July 28.  Also present over the past weekend were many schools
of Yellowfin Tuna, and we caught three 50+ pounders under a massive
flock of shearwaters on August 4.  The species lists and tallies from
these trips can be found on our website http://www.patteson.com/.

Most of our remaining North Carolina pelagic trips from both Hatteras
and Manteo (Oregon Inlet) still have space available.  That includes
this weekend’s trips from Hatteras on the 12th and 13th.  We actually
NEED more people to sign up so that we can run some of the Manteo trips,
particularly August 18. Other Manteo trips with space are on August 25
and 26, and September 2 and 17.  In recent years these have been the
ONLY trips where we’ve seen White-faced Storm-Petrels (both in 1999 and
2000).  While we have not scheduled any special White-faced trips like
last year, I will be fishing off Oregon Inlet starting on August 13, so
I should know where they are if it turns out to be a good season for
them.  If conditions look promising for seeing them, and there are
enough people on the trips who are interested, we’ll go looking for
White-faced Storm-Petrel on these trips.  In past years our trips in
August and September have also yielded a number of other rarities
including Herald, Fea’s, and Bermuda Petrels, Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel,
White-tailed and Red-billed Tropicbirds, Masked Booby, South Polar Skua,
and Sabine’s Gull.  The "regular" birds include Black-c,apped Petrel,
Cory’s, Greater, and Audubon’s Shearwaters, Band-rumped (rare in
September) and Wilson’s Storm-petrel, Red-necked Phalarope, Pomarine and
Long-tailed (mostly in September) Jaegers, and Bridled and Sooty Terns.

For Virginia birders and anyone else interested in a closer departure
point than the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we also have a trip from
Virginia Beach on Sunday, September 16. While this is not a true "Gulf
Stream" trip, it should find many of the regular warm water pelagic
seabirds seen on most of our NC trips with the exception of
Black-capped  Petrel, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, and Sooty Tern, and it
does offer a fair chance for White-faced Storm-Petrel. It is a somewhat
longer ride to the shelf edge off Virginia than off  Cape Hatteras, but
many of our past September trips there have found large numbers of birds
and some excellent rarities.

DETAILS about all of our pelagic trips, including costs, departure
times, driving directions, and suggestions about what to bring and how
to prepare, can be found at our web site- http://www.patteson.com/,
where we have also added several new images to our extensive
collection.  Our Image Gallery, which is comprised mainly of scans from
photos taken on our trips offers a good way to study the birds before
heading offshore with us.

In closing, I would like to thank everyone who has been out with us so
far this summer and especially our leaders, spotters, and counters-
Butch Pearce, Kate Sutherland, Jamie Cameron, George Armistead, Diane
Andre, Marshall Iliff, and Richard Crossley.  Thanks also to the crew of
the Miss Hatteras-  Spurgeon, Natalie, Ronald, Blake, and "Diamond
Dave".All of these folks worked hard to make our trips safe, productive,
and enjoyable.  I hope that some of you can join us in the upcoming
weeks. Please call me on the telephone (rather than e-mail) at (252)
986-1363 if you have questions which require special attention or a
complicated answer.

Brian Patteson
Hatteras,NC
Brian@Patteson.com